The
United States government cracked down on fake product reviews in a
groundbreaking case a few minths ago. Though it did not involve books, it could easily have.
Look
at the book marketing world and you’ll see we’re in an era of disinformation.
Let’s
start with the basics:
·
Fake
book reviews abound across the Internet.
We know this because so many authors get friends and family to post
positive reviews of books they never read and may not even like. Further, they paid marketing companies a fee
to get others to post reviews but the people posting the reviews would only do a review because they were compensated for doing so.
·
When
it comes to book reviews with book review publications or websites, many are
paid for. You can pay Kirkus Reviews
or The Foreword to publish a review
in their magazines. You can get any of
dozens of book review sites to post a review for a fee.
·
The
news media is increasingly becoming a pay-for-play operation. Numerous local and some national TV shows
will sell air time and pass it off as a legit segment on their show. They command thousands of dollars per show.
·
Many
radio stations sell air time and people will use it to rate what looks and
sounds like a legit show but is nothing more than an informercial.
·
There’s
paid product placement every day in movies, TV shows, and by so-called Internet
influencers.
·
Many
best-seller lists are manipulated by bulk buys staged by authors and marketing
companies to make themselves look legit.
·
Many
social media stars have fake followings.
You see lofty totals – hundreds of thousands or millions of followers
for someone who puts ass selfies on Instagram.
A lot of those numbers are paid-for-fakes.
·
The
editorial line with media outlets continues to blur when advertisers fund
them. They may say there’s a church and
state wall, but how could the money not influence editorial coverage some of
the time?
·
Fake
news is all over the Internet.
·
Charges
of fake news against actual legit news sources by the U.S. president undermine
people’s respect for the real news.
So
we have a world of fake reviews, fake news, false claims of fake news, and
falsified followings of bullshit Internet influencers.
What a world. So how does this
influence the book market?
Books
need the media, reviews, and all that the book marketplace has to offer in order
to succeed. Do authors have to play the
game and buy reviews and ask editors to favor their books because they bought
an advertisement? Do authors even know
which media outlets are legit and which ones are not?
We
need a fair playground for authors to sell their books, compete for legit media
coverage, and for the really good books to rise above the mediocre or
awful. In today’s publishing and media
landscape, fakery, obfuscation, and favoritism rule.
“The
US Federal Trade Commission has successfully brought the first ever case
against using fraudulent, paid Amazon reviews to falsely advertise an online
product, the agency announced Tuesday evening.
The company in question, named Cure Encapsulations, Inc. and owned by
Naftula Jacobowitz, paid a third-party website to write five-star Amazon
reviews for a weight-loss supplement called garcinia cambogia. The plant, native to Indonesia, is widely
mischaracterized as contributing to weight loss, but is in fact known to cause
acute liver failure.”
--The Verge, 2/27/19
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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative
opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone
and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him
on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels
much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in
Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and
IBPA’s Independent. This was named one of the best book
marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the
top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best
resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.
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