The above quote is taken from a discussion thread on the ASIMOV's Messageboard.
Phony book-reviews on Amazon.com are legion - but they are easy to spot. So why are they so badly written, so tacky, so transparently fake?
Because of stupidity. If a writer is so dumb as to not see the faults of his self-published books, he will be more than dumb enough to think he can write fake self-praise and get away with it.
It's like the old joke: "Why did the idiot jump from the Empire State Building? He wanted to be a big hit on Broadway."
How to spot phony reviews:
* Look for absurd comparisons like "Better than Harry Potter!", "up there with the Bible!";
* Fakers use weird phrasings like "the conclusion is implosive" or "this year's classic" or "philosophically action-packed";
* ANY book review that trumpets a book's great philosophical breakthroughs is a bit suspect;
* Fake or dubious credentials (i.e. referring to non-existent magazines or critics);
* Aggressive attacks on negative reviews;
* If you compare the reviewer's OTHER reviews, they are the same inflated praise of one single writer;
* The reviewer uses reviews of famous writers (such as J.K. Rowling) to sneak in "plugs" for the writer he fakes for (i.e. "Harry Potter is not as good as this book by X");
* The reviewer's name sounds phony, or he uses a pseudonym;
* He consistently gives 5 stars out of 5 for every book by a single writer.
If you are even THINKING of writing phony reviews of your own stuff... get out of my blog right now!
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