Ian Loome's Blog - Posts Tagged "ian-loome"
THE SATURDAY REPORT, VOL. 1, NO 1, March 20, 2021
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going a wee bit stir crazy.
Now, having been shut in for most of a year, like everyone, I highly doubt that's surprising.
So, I'm going to write a blog, for now (and probably later) titled "The Saturday Report." You can read and follow it on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, or my website.
(For those of you unsure how you came to be following "Ian Loome", I used to write under the pennames 'L.H. Thomson' and 'Sam Powers'. It was making life exceedingly complicated. So now I use my middle name, Ian, and my actual surname, Loome.)
Yeah, I know blogs are old hat, that reading in general seems passé compared with youtube channels or tweets. But... I like things that take time to read and absorb. I see value in that. I tend to believe most fiction fans do, too.
I'm not going to write about myself much, because my life is as boring as most people's, most of the time. I'm 51, and most of the things that interest me are either intangible social concepts and discussions or things far bigger and more interesting than anything I can offer: history, neuroscience, entertainment, politics, sports. I like to talk about "things" not "personal drudgery."
I will, however, talk a little about my work, because people ask a lot, relatively speaking. I may also post the odd short story, as an outlet for an exercise in craft.
But mostly, it's going to be a weird, eclectic hodgepodge of observations, ideas, rants and ephemera. I like lists. I like trivia. I think QI and Jeopardy! should both be mandatory viewing for school kids. I play blues guitar. I read historical fiction as well as mysteries, thrillers and non-fiction. I enjoy video games but feel too guilty about the time sink to play them. I'm exceedingly English, despite having lived in Canada since my teens (and, having accepted that in the last year, mostly consume English news and television).
I hope you'll join me and chime in using the comments. I'm not goign to get into debates or arguments with people, so anything vitriolic or pissy will be duly ignored, as I'd expect any of us to be allowed to do online.
So... why now, eight years into a fiction career?
Okay, well... this will be the one notable exception when it comes to yapping about me.
What might surprise you is that for eight years prior to COVID, I went out just as little as we all have this year.
Perhaps less.
Unfortunately, autism spectrum disorder (asd-1, Asperger's) and ADHD contribute to a barely manageable depression and social anxiety, which I've combatted my entire life. I also had an extremely traumatic childhood marred by physical abuse. All of these combine to produce low self-worth, a sense of nihilism about human behavior. I am afflicted by an inability to see value or quality in my own work, and a malaise with respect to trying... anything, really.
By 2012, my mental state had deteriorated badly, to the point of being largely non-functional outside my home. After five years, in 2017, I got help, medication and began regaining some sanity and stability.
One of the first things you recognize when you begin to address early childhood trauma and mental illness is that nearly all of your fond memories involve other people. For most normal folks, being sociable on some level is sort of essential. It is for me, too, but my brain doesn't send out the right signals to remind me do so, or to pay attention: to my needs, to their needs, to being a part of communities.
And I miss it. I miss meeting new people, finding interesting people to talk to. I miss the realization that I have an interest or history in common with someone else.
I can't be sociable day-in, day-out, because my lack of focus due to ADHD makes quite a bit of day-to-day function challenging. Lump in the judgements of others and it's a recipe for burnout.
So I suspect I won't be posting more than once a week, at least for now. If my blather proves interesting enough and people want more, I'm sure they'll let me know.
In the meantime, thank you for supporting my writing and staying in touch. Comments below always welcome and encouraged!
Cheers,
Ian
P.S. Two new books out next month! More on that next week.
Now, having been shut in for most of a year, like everyone, I highly doubt that's surprising.
So, I'm going to write a blog, for now (and probably later) titled "The Saturday Report." You can read and follow it on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, or my website.
(For those of you unsure how you came to be following "Ian Loome", I used to write under the pennames 'L.H. Thomson' and 'Sam Powers'. It was making life exceedingly complicated. So now I use my middle name, Ian, and my actual surname, Loome.)
Yeah, I know blogs are old hat, that reading in general seems passé compared with youtube channels or tweets. But... I like things that take time to read and absorb. I see value in that. I tend to believe most fiction fans do, too.
I'm not going to write about myself much, because my life is as boring as most people's, most of the time. I'm 51, and most of the things that interest me are either intangible social concepts and discussions or things far bigger and more interesting than anything I can offer: history, neuroscience, entertainment, politics, sports. I like to talk about "things" not "personal drudgery."
I will, however, talk a little about my work, because people ask a lot, relatively speaking. I may also post the odd short story, as an outlet for an exercise in craft.
But mostly, it's going to be a weird, eclectic hodgepodge of observations, ideas, rants and ephemera. I like lists. I like trivia. I think QI and Jeopardy! should both be mandatory viewing for school kids. I play blues guitar. I read historical fiction as well as mysteries, thrillers and non-fiction. I enjoy video games but feel too guilty about the time sink to play them. I'm exceedingly English, despite having lived in Canada since my teens (and, having accepted that in the last year, mostly consume English news and television).
I hope you'll join me and chime in using the comments. I'm not goign to get into debates or arguments with people, so anything vitriolic or pissy will be duly ignored, as I'd expect any of us to be allowed to do online.
So... why now, eight years into a fiction career?
Okay, well... this will be the one notable exception when it comes to yapping about me.
What might surprise you is that for eight years prior to COVID, I went out just as little as we all have this year.
Perhaps less.
Unfortunately, autism spectrum disorder (asd-1, Asperger's) and ADHD contribute to a barely manageable depression and social anxiety, which I've combatted my entire life. I also had an extremely traumatic childhood marred by physical abuse. All of these combine to produce low self-worth, a sense of nihilism about human behavior. I am afflicted by an inability to see value or quality in my own work, and a malaise with respect to trying... anything, really.
By 2012, my mental state had deteriorated badly, to the point of being largely non-functional outside my home. After five years, in 2017, I got help, medication and began regaining some sanity and stability.
One of the first things you recognize when you begin to address early childhood trauma and mental illness is that nearly all of your fond memories involve other people. For most normal folks, being sociable on some level is sort of essential. It is for me, too, but my brain doesn't send out the right signals to remind me do so, or to pay attention: to my needs, to their needs, to being a part of communities.
And I miss it. I miss meeting new people, finding interesting people to talk to. I miss the realization that I have an interest or history in common with someone else.
I can't be sociable day-in, day-out, because my lack of focus due to ADHD makes quite a bit of day-to-day function challenging. Lump in the judgements of others and it's a recipe for burnout.
So I suspect I won't be posting more than once a week, at least for now. If my blather proves interesting enough and people want more, I'm sure they'll let me know.
In the meantime, thank you for supporting my writing and staying in touch. Comments below always welcome and encouraged!
Cheers,
Ian
P.S. Two new books out next month! More on that next week.
A (fairly) DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SPOTTING EBOOK REVIEW CHEATS
THE SATURDAY REPORT, VOL. 1, NO 2, March 27, 2021
Ever pick up a quick read on Amazon, Apple, Nook or Kobo and, as you read it, think to yourself, "Wait a minute: am I drunk?"
You look back at the website and... yeah, you read that right. It has a 4.4/5 average review score on 1,200 reviews. And yet, the writer has the literacy of a toadstool.
"This can't be right," you might think. Then the anger sets in, the sense that you're being played for a sucker. That feeling that there's noooo way those scores are legit...
I've amassed a pretty good system for spotting book cheats. It takes a few minutes to use, but considered against the time we waste browsing generally, that's not much to protect your purchase. Share with others, and we can all make their scheming lives a little more difficult.
A quick caveat: It's much easier to spot cheats after a book has been out long enough to accumulate at least a hundred reviews (NOT the combined ratings and reviews, just reviews). And a second: if the book is from a series, check the first in series. It will be the most heavily papered with bogus praise.
You may have one or more anti-cheat systems of your own. Most I've heard from readers won't work, which I'll also explain.
There are several commonly applied strategies, each a variation on the same theme: that there's one score you can look at that tells you more.
For some, it's "I only read the one stars"; for others it's "I discount all the five stars". For yet a third group, it's "I only read the three stars."
These are all natural attempts to rely on cynicism as more intrinsically accurate, honest or representative than enthusiasm.
But taste is so subjective that relying on someone else's dislike -- or assuming THAT review isn't dishonest -- is fraught with error. For one, cheating authors use fake reviews to attack their competitors and drag their scores down, knowing most won't know who they are or be able to retaliate. (This is one area of methodology I'm not going to break down further, as I don't want to encourage it.)
Once you know how cheating works, it's easy to see why "one rating" quality control notions don't.
Come with me now, book fans, as we navigate the perilous world of a marketplace where, somehow, 80% of all books are typically rated four-stars or better. A strange and magical place where one new writer is brilliant, the next unable to write a convincing letter to Santa, and yet both have phenomenal scores.
Before I get too glib or sarcastic, it's worth noting that there is actually a lot less cheating on the 'Zon than there used to be. It has an exceedingly heavy handed internal anti-cheat system. But... there is still way too much. The site still relies on one basic premise: people with active, shopping accounts aren't being paid for reviews or lying.
Heh... hehheh... yes, I realize that's remarkably quaint. Of course, that's the nice way of saying there isn't an online customer review system that hasn't been compromised, because companies can really only do so much.
That's the big challenge of the internet.
Here are some workarounds, in the order you should try them.
They're followed by a long note about the accompanying logic. PLEASE try them out; you'll be doing honest writers a favor and help them keep writing.
1. READ THE SAMPLE.
Click the book cover on any product page and it will take you to a sample of the book. If you find that terrible, the rest will be.
It's the ONLY quick way to avoid being ripped off. Every other reasonably accurate check on quality takes a few minutes and a little patience. This doesn't. Yet few people do it.
Trust your own opinion! Don't let other people you don't know make your mind up for you!
If you value your money and good writing, don't buy authors you haven't read at all, just based on reviews. It's like trusting TV commercials to be 100% true; it's just not wise.
Cheats notwithstanding, a big problem on ebook stores is that the low price seems throwaway, so when people are ripped off, they just forget about it in short order.
But that drags down the quality of everything over time.
Reading the sample will tell you far more than ANY review. Above all, cheats tend to be poor writers with lousy turn-of-phrase.
Do this first, and the other ideas here will likely confirm your initial suspicion.
2. COMPARE 'VERIFIED REVIEWS' to 'UNVERIFIED.'
What you're looking for is a book with more verified, ideally. Unverified reviews are UNPOLICEABLE. They're just called "all readers" on the site, but they are unverified and easily faked.
To do this, you'll want to click on the review score menu at the bottom left of the page, by the reviews.
Click on any score -- five-star, one star, doesn't matter -- to open up a submenu breaking down the scores numerically, along with pull-down menus to narrow your search.
First, under 'filter by' on the drop down menu change the star count to 'all stars'. Then, switch the drop down menu from "all reviewers' to "verified" reviews.
If the number of VERIFIED reviews (not ratings, which is a bit more nebulous) drops to a figure where it represents less than half the total, on a book with more than 100 reviews, you should be suspicious.
If the number of unverified reviews is dramatically higher after 200 reviews, the person is buying reviews. (Again I'll explain why and exceptions at the end of this, but for clarity, stick with me here.)
3. SHAPE OF THE REVIEW CURVE
Check out the little box of aggregate reviews in the bottom left-hand corner of the page, the bar graph.
On a cheat, over time, the one-star reviews will often accumulate. The overall score won't go down from 41/2, because they'll counter the ones with purchased fives.
But what WILL happen is the number of one-star reviews will, over time, usually surpass the two- and three-star reviews, and usually substantially.
On a book that is hiding its true nature, the bar graph's right edge will resemble a tilted 'c' -- considerably more fives and ones than threes.
Of course, there may be so few ones, twos and threes overall that this doesn't help much, which is why it's check number three, not the first thing to look at.
If the ones, twos and threes are all single-digit, or under a few dozen reviews, okay. That could just be poor proofing, people's sensibilities, those offended by language.
But if it has double-digit more one-star reviews than three? They're probably cheating.
DON'T assume that a book with all fours and fives is cheating.
How do I know this? Because I have a couple. Typically as in my case this only happens when there aren't many reviews overall, so only hardcore fans have reviewed the book, and they tend to be more forgiving.
Don't punish a writer for doing well and serving his readers, that's an awful thought.
BUT if it also doesn't pass the other checks in this list? Yeah, those fives were probably purchased.
4. SOME VERIFIED ACCOUNTS ARE BOGUS, BUT ITS RARE
I mention this one last, and in passing, because it's quite rare but does happen: verified accounts can be used to cheat. They are much rarer, because of the cost associated, but many are likely legacy accounts from before cheating crackdowns.
The only way really to spot these is by pattern. The books either obtain too many verified reviews too quickly or the reviewers themselves demonstrate strange review patterns.
It's been studied extensively academically, and online shoppers review at a rate of one review per 500-to-1,000 purchasers per product, depending on the ecosystem and other factors.
If a new release goes up and has a hundred 'verified' reviews in its first month, that suggests it has been downloaded around 50,000 times.
In a month.
And yet, the best-selling books -- and I mean the top 10 in a category, not 100 -- on these sites generally don't go average over that month much beyond a thousand books sold a day.
You'd basically have to hold the number one or two spot all month to hit 2,000 a day.
So the math doesn't add up.
Those below them? They sell the mid-to-low hundreds daily.
A book that is #60 on the thriller best-seller list generally shouldn't be able to get more than one or two new verified reviews each day, if that.
That's why even the best reviewed, best-selling authors usually have more unverified reviews in the first 50-to-1oo posted (the exception to rule two); it takes at least a month after release for verified reviews (purchases) to catch up to those they've given to fans for advance reviews.
Another pattern to check is the reviewer themselves. Click on the reviewer's name to bring up their reviewing history. If they have nine reviews and seven are the same author and NOTHING else for years, they're probably a sock puppet account. (More notes and explanation at the end). People who review online don't review just one thing, to benefit someone else.
Equally, if the reviews are mostly one- and two-star attacks, it's probably an account being used to lower competitors' scores.
It's worth checking out reviews for another reason: even if they aren't cheats, some reviewers are far more objective and useful than others. Click on a few; you'll be surprised how many review everything they buy as either "one star" or "five star", making their opinion subjectively worthless.
----
OKAY, deeper explanation time.
1) There are two principle categories of cheat: those who supplement a low number of decent reviews, out of a sense they can't obtain enough to be competitive; and those who paper their books with false reviews to offset bad scores that drag down their average.
The first ain't great, as they gain competitive advantage unfairly. But it's also not the problem for shoppers, just other authors. A good book is a good book.
The second is the problem in terms of purchasing.
It's important to understand that books that visually have a 41/2 star rating (a 4.3/5 or above) sell hundreds of times, generally, those with a visual four or below.
When prices are low, shoppers are less discerning and pay less attention to small details, more to the visual cues.
But... here's the rub: there are in-house stats available by several methods that show you not only how many ebooks are available in a certain subcategory... but how many rate above or below those scores.
And on the biggest site, 70-80%, depending on category, are above 4-stars.
If that sounds a little suspicious, I would note that it's easy to be too cynical; most authors don't cheat.
It's just that for the most part, they aren't as visible or easy to find as those who do, because the system is designed to more often present you not only the best-reviewed books, but those that amass those reviews more quickly... making it prime territory for cheats.
Over time, as people read the cheating book, they increase its one-star review count dramatically.
They are then forced to buy that attention via ads, because books with high scores but unverified reviews have to bid higher, generally, to win per-click bids in ad auctions.
And they need unverified reviews, which are easily faked, to counteract all the lousy, genuine reviews their book has attracted.
So the more they cheat, the more they "hold position" in the sales chart... but the more they need to spend on ads to keep it that way, which benefits the site selling the books.
And while the system has safeguards to prevent cheats, it also favors them when they get past that system. It is a "if you don't get caught you're not cheating" ecosystem, in effect.
2) There are good reasons for a new book to have slightly more unverified reviews WHEN THE BOOK IS NEW and has less than a hundred reviews total.
Authors mail out unpurchased, unofficial copies to their Advance Readers.
That's so they have a decent score as soon as the book comes out.
But by the time a book has over a hundred reviews, you should see the ones that are "verified" -- i.e. based on a purchase and labelled 'verified' at the top of the review -- becoming the more prominent number (and usually before then, based on review speed. More in a minute.) or at least very close to the number of unverified.
Some measures -- such as drastically limiting the popularity and exposure of free books -- are now more harmful than helpful.
When the 'Zon took that step, it was because legitimately popular free books, with good scores, could be used by "verified", real accounts -- set up in fake names for the purpose but with no real spending behind them -- to bolster their credibility.
A 'sock puppet' account that has one verified book and a bunch of unverifieds or other products looks suspicious. One with other 'verified' authors costs them nothing if the verified authors were downloaded for free, but appears legitimate.
But sock puppet accounts now cost serious money to make an impact, as reviewing is limited to people with $50 in purchases or more. That's a hell of price considering each account can only review a book once.
That's why they now buy 'unverified' reviews, because any of the website's millions (billions?) of regular customers can use their existing shopping account and just be paid to cheat.
What they CAN'T do is use that system for "verified purchases".... because then the customers would actually have to buy the product, and they make their money by selling fake reviews online in bulk. They would lose their profit pretty quickly if each review cost $3-9.
And authors have no way to provide 'verified' copies; only the website can do that.
Limiting freebies -- while probably beneficial to overall quality as many were awful -- also limits promotion for legitimate authors... forcing them to turn more to the internal ad system for exposure.
Okay, there you have it. That's how to spot ebook review cheats; I hope you employ it to avoid getting ripped off and to support authors who don't buy reviews.
-----
Okay, some fun stuff: As mentioned last week I have two books coming out next month: "Snitches Get Stitches" is the latest Liam Quinn mystery. It centers on the death of a political aide in Quinn's beloved Philadelphia, and the ne'er do well brother who wants Quinn to provide some answers.
I've had a couple of advance readers who were offended for religious reasons to the unashamedly pro-LGBTQ stuff in it. My job is not to pander to every reader's beliefs, it's to write the story I want to write.
I was a journalist for years, I try to base my opinions in science, reason and fact. If they get in the way of beliefs that make others feel secure, that's unfortunate. It's not going to change how I write, and if it costs me support and sales, it costs me support and sales.
The second book out, if that sounds offputting, is unashamedly anti-Nazi, which I figure is safe ground for most of us.
"Master of the Reich" sees former CIA clandestine operative Joe Brennan become embroiled in a decades-long international fascist conspiracy, involving a terror attack and a U.S. election.
As some have noted, the Brennan books are jumping around a bit in style. This one is well shorter than "Shadow Agenda" but still about 380 pages. About half of it is a historical back narrative. It's different. I hope people like it.
Quinn is out April 2 and can be pre-ordered ; Brennan is out April 10 and can be pre-ordered .
I am not making hardcopy paper books available right now. There's considerable work and complexity to doing that, I have limited time and ability to multi-task due to ADHD, and the demand is low. If I'm wrong about that, let me know.
I hope to get Vellum and a Mac later this year, which allegedly will make the bookmaking process much easier. Vellum is sort of do-it-all book software. But until then, it's ebook only.
----
And... that's the blog for this week. As always, if you want to try my work for free, sign up and I'll send you a couple of books. As always, comments and questions below are most welcome.
Cheers all,
Ian
Ever pick up a quick read on Amazon, Apple, Nook or Kobo and, as you read it, think to yourself, "Wait a minute: am I drunk?"
You look back at the website and... yeah, you read that right. It has a 4.4/5 average review score on 1,200 reviews. And yet, the writer has the literacy of a toadstool.
"This can't be right," you might think. Then the anger sets in, the sense that you're being played for a sucker. That feeling that there's noooo way those scores are legit...
I've amassed a pretty good system for spotting book cheats. It takes a few minutes to use, but considered against the time we waste browsing generally, that's not much to protect your purchase. Share with others, and we can all make their scheming lives a little more difficult.
A quick caveat: It's much easier to spot cheats after a book has been out long enough to accumulate at least a hundred reviews (NOT the combined ratings and reviews, just reviews). And a second: if the book is from a series, check the first in series. It will be the most heavily papered with bogus praise.
You may have one or more anti-cheat systems of your own. Most I've heard from readers won't work, which I'll also explain.
There are several commonly applied strategies, each a variation on the same theme: that there's one score you can look at that tells you more.
For some, it's "I only read the one stars"; for others it's "I discount all the five stars". For yet a third group, it's "I only read the three stars."
These are all natural attempts to rely on cynicism as more intrinsically accurate, honest or representative than enthusiasm.
But taste is so subjective that relying on someone else's dislike -- or assuming THAT review isn't dishonest -- is fraught with error. For one, cheating authors use fake reviews to attack their competitors and drag their scores down, knowing most won't know who they are or be able to retaliate. (This is one area of methodology I'm not going to break down further, as I don't want to encourage it.)
Once you know how cheating works, it's easy to see why "one rating" quality control notions don't.
Come with me now, book fans, as we navigate the perilous world of a marketplace where, somehow, 80% of all books are typically rated four-stars or better. A strange and magical place where one new writer is brilliant, the next unable to write a convincing letter to Santa, and yet both have phenomenal scores.
Before I get too glib or sarcastic, it's worth noting that there is actually a lot less cheating on the 'Zon than there used to be. It has an exceedingly heavy handed internal anti-cheat system. But... there is still way too much. The site still relies on one basic premise: people with active, shopping accounts aren't being paid for reviews or lying.
Heh... hehheh... yes, I realize that's remarkably quaint. Of course, that's the nice way of saying there isn't an online customer review system that hasn't been compromised, because companies can really only do so much.
That's the big challenge of the internet.
Here are some workarounds, in the order you should try them.
They're followed by a long note about the accompanying logic. PLEASE try them out; you'll be doing honest writers a favor and help them keep writing.
1. READ THE SAMPLE.
Click the book cover on any product page and it will take you to a sample of the book. If you find that terrible, the rest will be.
It's the ONLY quick way to avoid being ripped off. Every other reasonably accurate check on quality takes a few minutes and a little patience. This doesn't. Yet few people do it.
Trust your own opinion! Don't let other people you don't know make your mind up for you!
If you value your money and good writing, don't buy authors you haven't read at all, just based on reviews. It's like trusting TV commercials to be 100% true; it's just not wise.
Cheats notwithstanding, a big problem on ebook stores is that the low price seems throwaway, so when people are ripped off, they just forget about it in short order.
But that drags down the quality of everything over time.
Reading the sample will tell you far more than ANY review. Above all, cheats tend to be poor writers with lousy turn-of-phrase.
Do this first, and the other ideas here will likely confirm your initial suspicion.
2. COMPARE 'VERIFIED REVIEWS' to 'UNVERIFIED.'
What you're looking for is a book with more verified, ideally. Unverified reviews are UNPOLICEABLE. They're just called "all readers" on the site, but they are unverified and easily faked.
To do this, you'll want to click on the review score menu at the bottom left of the page, by the reviews.
Click on any score -- five-star, one star, doesn't matter -- to open up a submenu breaking down the scores numerically, along with pull-down menus to narrow your search.
First, under 'filter by' on the drop down menu change the star count to 'all stars'. Then, switch the drop down menu from "all reviewers' to "verified" reviews.
If the number of VERIFIED reviews (not ratings, which is a bit more nebulous) drops to a figure where it represents less than half the total, on a book with more than 100 reviews, you should be suspicious.
If the number of unverified reviews is dramatically higher after 200 reviews, the person is buying reviews. (Again I'll explain why and exceptions at the end of this, but for clarity, stick with me here.)
3. SHAPE OF THE REVIEW CURVE
Check out the little box of aggregate reviews in the bottom left-hand corner of the page, the bar graph.
On a cheat, over time, the one-star reviews will often accumulate. The overall score won't go down from 41/2, because they'll counter the ones with purchased fives.
But what WILL happen is the number of one-star reviews will, over time, usually surpass the two- and three-star reviews, and usually substantially.
On a book that is hiding its true nature, the bar graph's right edge will resemble a tilted 'c' -- considerably more fives and ones than threes.
Of course, there may be so few ones, twos and threes overall that this doesn't help much, which is why it's check number three, not the first thing to look at.
If the ones, twos and threes are all single-digit, or under a few dozen reviews, okay. That could just be poor proofing, people's sensibilities, those offended by language.
But if it has double-digit more one-star reviews than three? They're probably cheating.
DON'T assume that a book with all fours and fives is cheating.
How do I know this? Because I have a couple. Typically as in my case this only happens when there aren't many reviews overall, so only hardcore fans have reviewed the book, and they tend to be more forgiving.
Don't punish a writer for doing well and serving his readers, that's an awful thought.
BUT if it also doesn't pass the other checks in this list? Yeah, those fives were probably purchased.
4. SOME VERIFIED ACCOUNTS ARE BOGUS, BUT ITS RARE
I mention this one last, and in passing, because it's quite rare but does happen: verified accounts can be used to cheat. They are much rarer, because of the cost associated, but many are likely legacy accounts from before cheating crackdowns.
The only way really to spot these is by pattern. The books either obtain too many verified reviews too quickly or the reviewers themselves demonstrate strange review patterns.
It's been studied extensively academically, and online shoppers review at a rate of one review per 500-to-1,000 purchasers per product, depending on the ecosystem and other factors.
If a new release goes up and has a hundred 'verified' reviews in its first month, that suggests it has been downloaded around 50,000 times.
In a month.
And yet, the best-selling books -- and I mean the top 10 in a category, not 100 -- on these sites generally don't go average over that month much beyond a thousand books sold a day.
You'd basically have to hold the number one or two spot all month to hit 2,000 a day.
So the math doesn't add up.
Those below them? They sell the mid-to-low hundreds daily.
A book that is #60 on the thriller best-seller list generally shouldn't be able to get more than one or two new verified reviews each day, if that.
That's why even the best reviewed, best-selling authors usually have more unverified reviews in the first 50-to-1oo posted (the exception to rule two); it takes at least a month after release for verified reviews (purchases) to catch up to those they've given to fans for advance reviews.
Another pattern to check is the reviewer themselves. Click on the reviewer's name to bring up their reviewing history. If they have nine reviews and seven are the same author and NOTHING else for years, they're probably a sock puppet account. (More notes and explanation at the end). People who review online don't review just one thing, to benefit someone else.
Equally, if the reviews are mostly one- and two-star attacks, it's probably an account being used to lower competitors' scores.
It's worth checking out reviews for another reason: even if they aren't cheats, some reviewers are far more objective and useful than others. Click on a few; you'll be surprised how many review everything they buy as either "one star" or "five star", making their opinion subjectively worthless.
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OKAY, deeper explanation time.
1) There are two principle categories of cheat: those who supplement a low number of decent reviews, out of a sense they can't obtain enough to be competitive; and those who paper their books with false reviews to offset bad scores that drag down their average.
The first ain't great, as they gain competitive advantage unfairly. But it's also not the problem for shoppers, just other authors. A good book is a good book.
The second is the problem in terms of purchasing.
It's important to understand that books that visually have a 41/2 star rating (a 4.3/5 or above) sell hundreds of times, generally, those with a visual four or below.
When prices are low, shoppers are less discerning and pay less attention to small details, more to the visual cues.
But... here's the rub: there are in-house stats available by several methods that show you not only how many ebooks are available in a certain subcategory... but how many rate above or below those scores.
And on the biggest site, 70-80%, depending on category, are above 4-stars.
If that sounds a little suspicious, I would note that it's easy to be too cynical; most authors don't cheat.
It's just that for the most part, they aren't as visible or easy to find as those who do, because the system is designed to more often present you not only the best-reviewed books, but those that amass those reviews more quickly... making it prime territory for cheats.
Over time, as people read the cheating book, they increase its one-star review count dramatically.
They are then forced to buy that attention via ads, because books with high scores but unverified reviews have to bid higher, generally, to win per-click bids in ad auctions.
And they need unverified reviews, which are easily faked, to counteract all the lousy, genuine reviews their book has attracted.
So the more they cheat, the more they "hold position" in the sales chart... but the more they need to spend on ads to keep it that way, which benefits the site selling the books.
And while the system has safeguards to prevent cheats, it also favors them when they get past that system. It is a "if you don't get caught you're not cheating" ecosystem, in effect.
2) There are good reasons for a new book to have slightly more unverified reviews WHEN THE BOOK IS NEW and has less than a hundred reviews total.
Authors mail out unpurchased, unofficial copies to their Advance Readers.
That's so they have a decent score as soon as the book comes out.
But by the time a book has over a hundred reviews, you should see the ones that are "verified" -- i.e. based on a purchase and labelled 'verified' at the top of the review -- becoming the more prominent number (and usually before then, based on review speed. More in a minute.) or at least very close to the number of unverified.
Some measures -- such as drastically limiting the popularity and exposure of free books -- are now more harmful than helpful.
When the 'Zon took that step, it was because legitimately popular free books, with good scores, could be used by "verified", real accounts -- set up in fake names for the purpose but with no real spending behind them -- to bolster their credibility.
A 'sock puppet' account that has one verified book and a bunch of unverifieds or other products looks suspicious. One with other 'verified' authors costs them nothing if the verified authors were downloaded for free, but appears legitimate.
But sock puppet accounts now cost serious money to make an impact, as reviewing is limited to people with $50 in purchases or more. That's a hell of price considering each account can only review a book once.
That's why they now buy 'unverified' reviews, because any of the website's millions (billions?) of regular customers can use their existing shopping account and just be paid to cheat.
What they CAN'T do is use that system for "verified purchases".... because then the customers would actually have to buy the product, and they make their money by selling fake reviews online in bulk. They would lose their profit pretty quickly if each review cost $3-9.
And authors have no way to provide 'verified' copies; only the website can do that.
Limiting freebies -- while probably beneficial to overall quality as many were awful -- also limits promotion for legitimate authors... forcing them to turn more to the internal ad system for exposure.
Okay, there you have it. That's how to spot ebook review cheats; I hope you employ it to avoid getting ripped off and to support authors who don't buy reviews.
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Okay, some fun stuff: As mentioned last week I have two books coming out next month: "Snitches Get Stitches" is the latest Liam Quinn mystery. It centers on the death of a political aide in Quinn's beloved Philadelphia, and the ne'er do well brother who wants Quinn to provide some answers.
I've had a couple of advance readers who were offended for religious reasons to the unashamedly pro-LGBTQ stuff in it. My job is not to pander to every reader's beliefs, it's to write the story I want to write.
I was a journalist for years, I try to base my opinions in science, reason and fact. If they get in the way of beliefs that make others feel secure, that's unfortunate. It's not going to change how I write, and if it costs me support and sales, it costs me support and sales.
The second book out, if that sounds offputting, is unashamedly anti-Nazi, which I figure is safe ground for most of us.
"Master of the Reich" sees former CIA clandestine operative Joe Brennan become embroiled in a decades-long international fascist conspiracy, involving a terror attack and a U.S. election.
As some have noted, the Brennan books are jumping around a bit in style. This one is well shorter than "Shadow Agenda" but still about 380 pages. About half of it is a historical back narrative. It's different. I hope people like it.
Quinn is out April 2 and can be pre-ordered ; Brennan is out April 10 and can be pre-ordered .
I am not making hardcopy paper books available right now. There's considerable work and complexity to doing that, I have limited time and ability to multi-task due to ADHD, and the demand is low. If I'm wrong about that, let me know.
I hope to get Vellum and a Mac later this year, which allegedly will make the bookmaking process much easier. Vellum is sort of do-it-all book software. But until then, it's ebook only.
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And... that's the blog for this week. As always, if you want to try my work for free, sign up and I'll send you a couple of books. As always, comments and questions below are most welcome.
Cheers all,
Ian
