| Author |
Message |
    
Whistlingwoman
Regular Poster
Username: Whistlingwoman
Post Number: 41
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 03, 2004 - 02:53 pm: | 
|
Amazon halts tit-for-tat critics
Authors and publishers face credit card barrier to anonymously puffing their books
Andrew Clark in New York
Thursday July 29, 2004
The Guardian
The world's biggest online bookseller, Amazon, is to clamp down on anonymous reviews of titles on its website in an attempt to curb excesses of back-stabbing in the competitive world of publishing.
After mounting concern about abuse of its open door policy regarding feedback, Amazon has begun a new system, Real Names, which requires reviewers to provide their credit card details before posting a comment.
The change, which was quietly introduced earlier this month, is intended to put an end to authors and publishers anonymously showering their own books with praise while trashing the work of their rivals. An Amazon spokeswoman said: "This is the latest step in an ongoing effort to continually improve the content of the site."
Since its launch in 1995, Amazon developed a worldwide following of 42m active users. It made profits of $35m (£19.2m) on sales of $5.2bn last year.
Ratings by reviewers are displayed prominently for each product and are considered to be influential to sales.
Under the new rules, website users will still be able to make comments under pen names but they will not be able to merely describe themselves as "a reader".
Amazon's spokeswoman insisted that "the vast majority of people who come to our site to write reviews don't have any particular axe to grind". But she said the company believed reviews would be "stronger" if they had names attached.
Award-winning authors such as Philip Pullman, Alain de Botton and James Delingpole have been among those to complain about anonymous reviews on the site.
Last year a former KGB agent, Alexander Vassiliev, sued Amazon for libel over a review on its website which raised questions over the source material for his book on Soviet espionage.
Kate Pool, the deputy general secretary of the Society of Authors, welcomed the changes. "What started off as a good service was subject to abuse. People caught on to how easily it could be manipulated. Authors, publicity departments, friends, aunts and uncles all sent in wonderful reviews on their own books or terrible ones of their rivals' work."
She said that although authors considered Amazon to be a success in widening book ownership many had concerns about the company, including its habit of offering cheap secondhand copies alongside new novels, which deprives writers of royalties.
Reviews on Amazon's site are of variable quality and many are tongue in cheek. A review of the King James Bible from one reader in Indianapolis describes the tome as "a rollicking, non-stop, action-adventure which ends with a thrilling conclusion and a hearty 'Amen'". Meanwhile, Bill Clinton's recently published memoirs receives a rough ride from a New York customer, who advises buyers: "Give your money to charity instead of enriching this pants-on-fire liar."
The problem of authenticating comments on Amazon's website was laid bare in February, when a technical fault caused the company's Canadian site to reveal the identity of dozens of anonymous reviewers. One commentator describing himself as "a reader from St Louis" was exposed as Dave Eggers, author of the acclaimed A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius, who heaped praise on the work of his friend, Heidi Julavits, as "one of the best books of the year".
Critics point out that tit-for-reviews are nothing new. Publishers have always put "blurb" on the back of books containing enthusiastic quotes from fellow authors, irrespective of the quality of the work.
On the website:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
"This book gets pointless and dull very quickly. It is smug, faux intellectualism for those who would like to be intellectuals but who are just smug."
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by JK Rowling
"The book found its place in my bookshelves, not with the other Harry Potter books - but as the one book I am saving for a public burning celebration."
The South Beach Diet by Arthur Agatson
"After 10 days on the South Beach diet, I had lost 10 pounds, which was great. However, on day 10 I was in hospital with kidney stones so big that they got stuck on the way out - a direct result of the diet, according to the urologist, and the emergency physician, and my family doctor."
Mr Maybe by Jane Green
(Reviewed by "a reader from west London" who was later unmasked as Jane Green)
"I doubted that Jane Green could pull it off once again, but thankfully my fears were unfounded. She manages to convey the dilemmas that so many of us go through at some point in our lives in terms far more honest and real than most other comparable authors."
|
Anthonyh7
Newbie Poster
Username: Anthonyh7
Post Number: 5
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 04, 2004 - 09:46 am: |
|
Thanks for this information "WW!" I saw my book on the site last week being sold for chump change by an anonymous company I didn't approve of. This is good info. Please continue to share. |
Whistlingwoman
Regular Poster
Username: Whistlingwoman
Post Number: 42
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 04, 2004 - 01:56 pm: |
|
Will do.
I heard that authors do not get a cut of the profits from the second party sells. Is this true?
|
Whistlingwoman
Regular Poster
Username: Whistlingwoman
Post Number: 43
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 04, 2004 - 01:56 pm: |
|
Will do.
I heard that authors do not get a cut of the profits from the second party sales. Is this true?
|
|
Email This Page