Because I think this issue is so important, I am taking time away from NaNoWriMo to re-post here what I wrote on my Facebook page yesterday. My friends and fellow authors, J.K. Barber, brought to my attention their post about a conversation with publicist Louise Carter; and I wanted to share it far and wide so other authors realize that this kind of stuff is not… well, it’s not Kosher.
In the post (see below) Katie shares screenshots of a conversation she had on Facebook with Carter who approached her to do a “review swap” with another author. When Katie said she’d be unable to read the book in question and politely declined, the publicist indicated that there was no reason Katie needed to read the book at all. She’d just send along a review she had already written and all Katie had to do was post it. Katie told the woman she was reporting her to the other author, who did not know this was how his publicist was getting reviews for him.
Here’s what I wrote on Facebook, followed by the post from the Barbers. Elaboration below.
Yesterday in my self-publishing workshop, we talked about publishing ethics, and this kind of conversation is exactly why I bothered….I actually heard about another publicist encouraging this behavior at a conference recently, too. This kind of garbage breaks trust with readers and gives us ALL a bad name. Write a great book and stand by it. If you work hard promoting and give people a book worth sharing, the genuine reviews WILL come. If someone offers to “get you reviews” for money, make sure that you understand the way they are doing it. Review swaps are not okay if you haven’t actually read the work in question; and neither are phony reviews written by a publicist and distributed like this.
There are many opinions when it comes to ethics and reviews. And there are some gray areas. For example, some people are comfortable reminding/asking their fans to review books they’ve read; some are not. Some people think it’s unethical to solicit reviews in any way from anyone; and that if authors are really being ethical they won’t allow their friends and family to post reviews about their books online. (The question of how you stop friends from reviewing your books is a whole different barrel of monkeys).
Others, myself included, think it’s okay to allow or even ask friends to review your book IF they’ve read it and IF you can reasonably expect their review to be a true reflection of their opinion. What I mean by that is that if your good friend read your book and genuinely loved it, it’s okay for her to get online and say why she loved it. If she wants to say that she’s your friend or she was a beta reader to be absolutely transparent, great. If not, that’s not a big sticking point for me. Realistically I think the first few reviews for any book are going to come from people who are close to the author, whether personally close or just fans of his/her work. That’s who reads a book first, isn’t it? A discerning reader looking at those first few reviews can probably guess that they aren’t completely unbiased; but they hopefully still contain information that will help the reader decide whether or not to purchase the book.
And really, ALL reviews are biased. They’re opinions, they carry all kinds of bias with them no matter who writes them. My friend who was inclined to like my book because she already likes me is biased; and the reader who was disinclined to like it because she doesn’t like books with infidelity and alcohol in them is biased, too. That’s okay, it’s part of how the system works. After a few reviews, the various directions of bias begin to cancel one another out and you get an overall picture of what is likable and not likable about the book.
Which is what reviews are for.
The whole thing about having friends review your work is a matter for debate. Different authors can draw the line at different places and all still be acting within the realm of ethical behavior, provided that there is no dishonesty involved, no pressure, no fake book orgasms.
What is NOT in the realm of ethical behavior is reviewing or rating a book that you haven’t read in exchange for money or quid pro quo (or because it was written by a friend and you didn’t really make the time to read it even though you promised you would). It’s not okay to have a publicist do any of this on your behalf. It’s not okay to post a review that someone else has written for you, especially about a book you haven’t read. It’s not okay to put a 5-star rating on the book of the guy sitting next to you at the writer’s conference if he agrees to do the same for you — unless you read one another’s books first and promise to be honest and disclose your relationship in the review, in which case a sleazy tactic becomes a decent idea.
If promoters like Louise Carter feel the need to hide their methods from the authors they serve, that should be a red flag to all of us that this kind of thing is wrong, wrong, wrong. I don’t know anything about Louise other than this one Facebook conversation and the fact that I believe based on knowing Katie Barber personally that it is genuine. But I do know there are hundreds of ethical, creative ways to market books. Any publicist worth her salt should be finding, innovating and championing those methods for her clients.
Our little online community of authors and readers is based on trust, and reviews are one mechanism by which that trust is manifested. We trust readers to be as honest and fair as they can be when they review books; in turn, readers trust us to be transparent and let our work speak for itself. I’ll repeat here what I said in my self-publishing workshop: I know how hard it is to put that book out there and be sitting on six or ten reviews; when you need twenty (or more) to qualify for many promotional platforms or to have the credibility readers look for. I remember that anxiety, and I understand the temptation to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to get those numbers up. Do something, but don’t do this. Don’t violate your integrity, and don’t let someone talk you into promoting your book by compromising your reputation.
Once it’s gone, it’s hard to get back.
______________________________________________
I’m M.J. (Manda) Pullen, an author and mom in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I blog about writing, publishing, motherhood, health, psychology and whatever else strikes me in the moment.
My books include The Marriage Pact series, a trilogy of funny, semi-realistic Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction novels coming Fall 2015 from Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press in association with Macmillan Entertainment. If you enjoyed this entry, please follow along or join my email list. Thanks for reading!
Sign up for M.J’s Mailing list & read Late for the Holidays FREE! Sign Me Up!
MJ Pullen
M.J. Pullen is a distracted writer and the mom of two boys in Roswell, Georgia, where she is absolutely late for something important right now. Her books include quirky romantic comedies and playful women's fiction. She blogs erratically with writing advice, random observations, and reflections on raising very loud kids and dogs. Join her Distracted Readers newsletter list for updates, free content, giveaways and more.
One thought on “Attention Writers: Don’t Accept Fake Reviews”
I’m amazed, I have to admit. Seldom do I encounter a blog that’s both
educative and amusing, and without a doubt, you’ve
hit the nail on the head. The problem is something too few folks are speaking intelligently about.
I’m very happy that I found this during my hunt for something
concerning this.
I’m amazed, I have to admit. Seldom do I encounter a blog that’s both
educative and amusing, and without a doubt, you’ve
hit the nail on the head. The problem is something too few folks are speaking intelligently about.
I’m very happy that I found this during my hunt for something
concerning this.