I don’t really buy books on Amazon but at Christmas it becomes a bit of a godsend for other random items and I find myself going mad on Amazon.com to get presents for the relatives in the US.
My buying habits are hugely influenced by the reviews.
My buying habits are hugely influenced by the reviews.
When it comes to buying books the reviews are less important to me, I tend to buy books on recommendations from friends more than anything and like I said before I don’t really buy books on Amazon.
I do wonder about other people and their buying habits though.
Based on anecdotal evidence it does seem that the Amazon book reviews are massively encouraging when people are trying to decide on books they want to buy. I imagine especially so when it comes to non-fiction, as there can be multiple titles on single topics.
The point I’m meandering my way too is the practice of faux reviews. It’s something that is easily done and if an individual has enough time and patience they could collect a nice little wealth of reviews. I’ve heard of it done and it has been recommended to me as good online marketing practice. I don't know if it is common online marketing practice and I can't say if it is something others engage in, but it is something I keep in mind when looking at products on Amazon.
As of yet I have never written a faux review.
On a personal level I do not like the practice and it just ‘feels’ wrong to me. As a professional and the head of sales and marketing in a publishing company I can see the merits.
- One good review may encourage a few more people to buy the book and possibly lead to more positive reviews.
- A good review may even increase the search profile of the book and thus lead to a higher click through rate which could raise its search profile further.
- Books that would otherwise have limited profile offline have more of an opportunity to build it online through positive reviews.
- Real reviews would be preferable but sometimes you just need to get the ball rolling with one or two faux reviews.
I still have difficulty with it.
In order to review multiple books one may have to create a few fake accounts – already this feels a bit dodgy. Depending on the sophistication of the software on Amazon you may have to re-route your IP address – this makes things a little more complicated but it is not impossible. Then there is the writing of the review – generally pretending to be someone you are not.
Personally I think the best solution is asking authors to get their families and friends to write reviews – sure they may be bias but the review will be more honest and it will be coming directly from them. Or, if you have read the book and honestly would recommend it review it as your self! Pick a couple every year and include them in the list of other books you want to review.
Amazon reviews are important and extremely helpful – but I’m well and truly in the field of keeping it as honest as possible!
I freely admit I'll be asking people I know to post reviews when my book comes out, however I only want them to if they've read the book and I will want honest statements. Writing my own reviews under a fake name? That's time I can better spend working on my next book.
ReplyDeleteOddly, I tend to find the bad reviews more helpful than the good ones. If the major problems with a book are things that won't bother me, I'm quite likely to give it a try.