(The original version of this article—adapted and augmented here—was published in the IBPA Independent in November 2011)
I attended college at the University of Virginia, one of a relatively small group of schools (including all the military academies) with an honor code, and one of the very few whose code is totally student-administered.
The terms of the code are clear: any student caught lying, cheating or stealing is subject to expulsion. And yes, if you witness such a violation, you’re duty-bound to report it, or be subject to expulsion yourself (admittedly harder to prove). And I can tell you it worked. Sure, at any given point in time, there was likely an Honor Trial going on (again, all student-run), but the dozen or so trials in a given year in a student body of roughly 25,000, proved the system’s fundamental solidity.
Professors would hand out tests, hang around for 5-10 minutes to answer any clarifying questions, and then take off. And no one cheated. When you finished your test (or handed in a term paper), you wrote on the front, “On my honor as a student, I have neither given or received aid on this exam.”
Not so for many friends from my Massachusetts high school who attended one New England state school in particular. There, the cheating was so brazen and rampant that it created a tragic, yet all-too-common dilemma: If you were an honest B student, those doing C & D work were often cheating their way to A’s and B’s. What to do?
This wasn’t simply a theoretical discussion of ethics and morality here. When higher grades meant higher GPA’s meant a higher chance of graduate school admission or a better job, those sticking to their principles ran the risk of losing those races. To realize my academic playing field was truly level was a gift.
But today, as an author, I find myself being able to relate to my honest friends’ dilemmas of many years back. Let me explain…
Between my two active titles, I have roughly 180 Amazon reviews that hover around five stars. Recently, one of my books (“The Well-Fed Writer”) received a one-star review with the title, “Fraudulent Five-Star Reviews!!”
This, uh, “gentleman” had decided I was in fact, guilty of recruiting my friends to manufacture my reviews out of whole cloth. Of course, this conclusion was based on nothing more than, 1) the existence of my 60 five-star reviews, and, 2) the unfortunate fact that fabricating B.S. five-star reviews to help out your friends (while also posting one-star versions on competitive titles) is endemic on Amazon.
Of course, it couldn’t be that I’d actually written a good book. Since so many others are cheating, I must be as well.
So, this is what it’s come to: If you’re one of the authors who invests copious blood, sweat, tears and silver to write and produce award-winning books, and who earns honest praise from readers, you wake up to discover that that genuine praise has been both devalued and rendered suspect by a flood of fakes.
I know. “Quit worrying about one knucklehead’s clearly minority viewpoint.” Point made. And yet, given Amazon’s proclivity to highlight one-star reviews (must be that Pacific-Northwest, latte-swilling, tree-hugging, uber-inclusive, “everyone’s-opinion-has-value” vibe…), a review like that can get a lot of traction. And yes, I did contact Amazon, and ask that it be removed, on the grounds that it wasn’t, in fact, a “review” (i.e., it never discussed the content of the book). No luck.
I promise, I’m not losing sleep over it. But, the whole trend toward made-up five-star reviews is worrisome enough, that none other than The New York Times devoted a story to it last year. The trend’s actually spawned a new writing specialty – writing five-star reviews for money. Pay me $5 and I’ll say whatever you want me to say. Amazing.
And here’s another, more recent piece on the same trend. And it gets better (or worse, depending on your point of view…). This piece from Down Under chronicles the charming trend of authors fabricating glowing reviews for their own books (and in rare cases, getting caught).
At the risk of appearing preciously quaint, this just wasn’t how I was raised. And to all those involved in crafting made-up reviews for your own book, or for books you’ve never read, or asking (or paying) others to do so, I’d say this (and likely waste my breath in the process): This isn’t “smart marketing.” It’s not “being aggressive” or “proactive.” It’s not “adapting to competitive pressures” or being a “creative promoter.” It’s dishonesty. Period. Dress it up any way you want, but bottom line, it’s lying in print.
The good news, according to the article, is that entities like Amazon are taking this seriously, since the currency of a five-star review is becoming devalued by the day. Researchers at Cornell have come up with an algorithm that, in 90% of cases, can distinguish real from fake reviews.
Of course, even if that evolves into software, the B.S. artists are likely to adapt, by emulating the identified qualities of a genuine review while avoiding those of a counterfeit one. And round and round we go (see: spammers/spam filters).
On a side note, it’s interesting to watch the collision of technology and human nature. Before Amazon, and Twitter, and Facebook, or so many others, in a world where most if all book reviews appeared in legitimate publications, it’d be difficult if not impossible for someone to create a fake review.
But enter all these techno-mechanisms that allow one to do just that, and get away with it (only rarely getting caught), and is it any surprise that it’s happening as much as it is? Add to that “ethics creep”—when seemingly EVERYONE’S doing something that’s wrong, yet it actually starts to look less wrong, or even smart, savvy and creative. Aided and abetted by far more tools to be dishonest and stay concealed in the process.
To those who haven’t stooped to this yet, but are considering it (in much the same way as my B-grade friends did way back when, and their contemporaries no doubt still do), just don’t. Focus on making your books as good as they can possibly be, in every way – better than they have to be, in fact (a part of the publishing process, over which, incidentally, you have 100% total control).
Do that, and the praise will be genuine, and will come naturally. But, more importantly, your book will benefit from priceless word-of-mouth advertising, which will build an enduring demand for the title. And that’s something the author of a mediocre book who’s resorted to fraudulent reviews can never hope to enjoy. For when real reviewers really read the real book, and speak the real truth, the gig’s up.
Have you ever been accused of fabricating reviews because most of the honest ones written about your book were of the five-star variety?
Have you ever been asked to write a review for a book you hadn’t read (or weren’t expected to read)?
Have you ever engaged in any of these practices (feel free to answer anonymously!), and if so, how did you justify it?
Why do you feel this is happening so much more now? Is it mainly because people can do it without fear of getting caught?
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