Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The Cheater



I've done enough ragging on major publishers and other old guard traditional establishment types in this blog so perhaps it's time to take a look at what's going on on the other side of the tracks, so to speak. Today it came to my attention via The New York Times and a great fist-to-the-face blog by my colleague Rob Kroese in his New Wave Authors (of which I'm a contributor) that self-publishing sensation John Locke paid hundreds or even thousands of dollars to people who would provide him with 5-Star Amazon reviews. Mr. Locke who has literally written the book on the subject of selling books--e-books in particular--has conveniently kept his secret hidden for quite some time.

Until now that is.

One suspects that one of these "for hire" reviewers probably entered into some kind of blackmail scenario in which he would expose Locke, or else pay up. And perhaps Locke, having consulted with his lawyers, just decided to fess up about the whole mess. Or maybe this is just the conspiracy-minded novelist in me coming out.

Whatever the case, Locke's credibility is now about as worthless as Facebook stock. In turn, Amazon is left with an interesting dilemma on their hands. What to do with phony reviews and even more important, what to do with cheating authors who "game the system" looking to cash in on trickery and not talent.

Writing is a business that takes talent for certain, but it also takes a mammoth amount of blood, sweat, tears, and self-sacrifice. In my case, it has even taken tremendous sacrifice on the part of my ex-wives and children, who even today are sometime a bit melancholy about the price we've all paid for "Vince's fucking career." It has been a struggle, but also a wonderful journey which is only now bearing the fruits of countless hours of labor.

I still recall all those years ago when I would wake up at dawn in order to write before work. I recall writing school and two years full-time intensive study and writing. I recall penning my first big novel in the library and the family so broke we were living on loans and whatever I could make from freelance writing. I recall the happiness we felt when my first big, six-figure contract came through and the near back-breaking sadness we experienced when the publisher was swallowed up by another in a corporate merger leaving me no choice but to start all over again. From scratch.

It cost me more time, more tears, more sweat, and even a second marriage, but I was determined to be a success at an art that takes hard work on top of talent. Now when I hear of swindlers and cheats and gamers, I just want to shake my head, pull in the sails and guide my life away from theirs. The bell tolls for all of us writers when one person decides to cheat. Especially an indie who, until now, was so revered for his efforts.

I'm not sure what's going to happen with John Locke or anyone else who believes they can get ahead by cheating. Writing is a religion, an art, and a life passion, and it must be treated with the greatest respect and sensitivity in this, the post-literate world. Anyone or anything that cheapens it should be discarded and forgotten about as quickly and expeditiously as possible.



 

20 comments:

  1. Vin, according to the NY Times article Locke paid $6000 for those 300 bogus reviews, but that was only from one outfit --who knows where else he bought other reviews. And without those fake reviews and their triggering Amazon's algorithms, doubtful he would've sold many books, let alone over a million. He's not the only "indie" author who's done this--you can find other atrociously written "indie" books that have become bestsellers overnight after having a flood of clearly fake 5-star reviews show up. Forbes has a good article out on this talking about how Amazon was complicit in this abuse--that they had to know those reviews were fake, and unless Amazon decides to act ethically, this isn't going to get fixed.

    Locke is an interesting case in that he wrote his book "How I sold a million books in 5 months" while leaving out the most critical part of how he accomplished this (by buying fake reviews). That has to be fraud. Can all the people who bought this book and then spent more money trying to implement a plan that had no chance of success sue him for fraud?? Very interesting.

    Vin, having Amazon's algorithms tied to # of reviews is begging for this type of fraud. For every 10 readers emailing me about how much they might like a book, maybe 1 might leave a review on Amazon. I'm sure you've had the same. Amazon has to know this as well. Their system has been rigged by them for this type of abuse. What they need to do now is first remove all of Locke's reviews (and Stephen Leather's) and block them from ever being picked up by their promotion software. Same with others that they determined bought fake reviews. And they need to actually care about the books they promote through direct email as opposed to treating them as widgets. Until they do that more and more Locke type con artists will find new ways to game Amazon. Because Amazon's inviting them to.

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  2. Dave, you've pretty much nailed it...We both know that there are authors who are getting away with murder by jacking the system, and I agree, Amazon has to step up to the plate and deal with it. I actually am inclined to call for both Leather's and Locke's books to be removed...

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  3. let them stay there. If Amazon's promotional algorithms are blocked from picking them up, they'll sell squat.

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  4. Great post, Mr. Zandri; couldn't agree with you more. My take here: http://steamwords.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/amazon-should-do-whats-best-for-indie-writers-readers/

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  5. In the words of the non-cowardly Lion who yellow-bricked his way to what was always there -- his higher self, "Who put the ape in apricot? Whatta they got that I ain't got?"

    Courage? Nah -- paid pollsters shellac'ing the veneer.

    While we as a buying public don't necessarily buy Eli and Peyton as fairies flitting the NFL season in farcical commercial messages, we've been previously conditioned to think our Reviews are Trues.

    What to do, what to do?

    ~ Absolutely*Kate, believing in believers

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  6. Just curious, Vincent. I see your name and your publisher's name, Aaron Patterson, tagged on virtually every bestselling book on Amazon, even when it's completely inappropriate, genre wise. And if it's not your name, it's your book title. See for yourself - "Dream On" is slapped anywhere and everywhere. And, please, don't tell me it's "fans" who are doing this. You (or your publisher) are gaming the system, too. Where does this unethical practice fall in your "cheating" lament?

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  7. Dear Anonymous....Tagging is a perfectly accepted practice and encouraged by all of my publishers, especially Thomas & Mercer. In fact, there's an entire chapter dedicated to it in the handbook they issue upon contract signing. I did however, remove Locke's name from my tags. I suspect I'm still on his books. I will continue to tag also. Nice try though, Ms. Anonymous ;)
    V

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  8. Vince, what do you make of this whole Stephen Leather fiasco? He succeeded by being even worse than Locke. He created sockpuppet accounts on Amazon to give himself five star reviews, to give one star to his "competitors" (this is such a wrong view of literature, in my opinion) and even bullied other writers using these accounts. That's a whole new level of bad, I think.

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  9. Vince - Great post/position. Indie writers get a bad rap by many in traditional and mainstream publishing (although you never hear the same kind of condescension and scorn about indie musicians or film makers), and Locke's and Leather's actions will reinforce some of those stereotypical attitudes the Sue Grafton's of the world hold on to.

    I'm interested in Amazon's reaction to all of this and what they will do, although as of this morning, Locke's books are still highly rated so I guess that the answer to my question is pretty evident. Too bad I can't get back the $2.99 I wasted on Locke's book...
    KM

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  10. Won't the system even out. If the "cheating" author isn't really good, won't there be an onslaught of bad reviews talking about how bad it is? I'm not defending them per se, paying for a good review does seem a bit off. Also, just because these authors use paid reviews, does this mean that they havn't spent years toiling over their own work? I don't see how fake reviews on Amazon pushed Locke's sales so high in the long run. I never read those things when I choose a book to read. We have all heard the stories of great classic literature recieving horrible reader reviews, so how influencial to sales are they? The reviews may give a little credibility to people who have never heard of an author, but hasn't word of mouth always been what really pushes sales of Indie authors? Also, is this system so differant than publishing houses pressering their authors to write good blurbs for their other clients?

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    1. Well. I just read the sample portion of one of his books, and I won't be reading any further...Yikes. Still, I don't see how reviews push his sales so high. I always sample first. If you can't grab me with the sample I'm not buying.

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  11. Ben, I'm shocked by what Leather has done. On top of it all, he's a very good writer and a member of my newest house, Thomas & Mercer. To make bad matters worse, I just blurbed a book for him...so I'm at am impasse here and no doubt so is T&M. ... For CJ: the problem with paying for fake great reviews is that the Amazon store is set up to automatically push books with great reviews. Locke was aware of this and in turn, gamed the system...

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    1. Thanks Vincent. I became very depressed after reading the sample chapter.

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  12. Vincent, thanks for this - first I've heard of it, but I'm FAR from surprised. I bought Locke's ridiculous book on selling ebooks and was so enraged after reading it that I immediately sat down and penned my own 7200-word guide to selling ebooks, simply because Locke's book had diddly-squat worth of practical stuff to help others. In any event, I appreciate you writing this up. Becoming successful is a long, hard slog only made harder when idiots foul things up for those of us unafraid of hard work, sacrifice, and constant gut checks.

    Be well,
    Jon F. Merz

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    1. Thanks Jon, I also bought Locke's "selling" book, just out of curiosity and quickly realized, it wasn't a writer who had written it, but an insurance salesman. Locke is nothing more than an cheap-ass, polyester wearing insurance salesman who's gotten lucky at a hobby and swindled a whole bunch of people...
      He's not a real writer. End of story...Let's all move on my friend...
      V

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  13. share motivational words buddy. Ignore those who try to bring you down, they do it because they have to be next to you. Greetings may be useful and successful always yes: D. I wait behind the visit.

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  14. Vin, the biggest problem here isn't with Locke but with Amazon. Amazon has created a situation where it's all about taking shortcuts and cheating your way to the top, and they encouraged and rewarded Locke and others for what they did. Why should newer writers work on studying their craft when you can have instantaneous success by gaming Amazon and pulling unethical shit like buying reviews or trading for them? Vin, I'm guessing you went through a similar road to being published, but it took me 10 years to sell my first novel, and going through the submission/rejection/acceptance cycle I learned a hell of a lot, and even more once I started selling books and began working with editors--and all that is being lost on new writers jumping into this ebook gold rush.

    The most depressing thing about this story is looking on indie boards and seeing some indie writers upset by what Locke did, but others debating whether it's really that wrong--and if that's what it takes to sell books, then maybe they should do it also. Unless Amazon decides to change things and make it about the quality of books and not about gaming the system, this is only going to get worse.

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    1. Again, a great comment, Dave. But I still sense (or must believe) that no matter where and how books get sold, only the good to great writers will rise to the top and more importantly, persevere, even after we're worm food. There will always be Lockes and James Freys (who's not a bad writer btw) and people like them who are able to slither their way to the top of the game. But I doubt their popularity will last for more than fifteen or so minutes. Relatively speaking. I enjoyed my rant last week about this whole thing and I'm over it and now it's down to the business at hand: good writing.

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    2. Wow, great post! I still have you in google alerts, lol. I hadn't heard that about Locke and that really saddens me. Like I told my daughter if you do right, everything will fall into place. If you buck the system, the system is eventually going to buck you right back.

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  15. Whoa, I go to post another comment and I was the last one to post on this blog post in particular, spooky! Anyway, I gave your link to an author we have on tour because I wanted him to see how damn interesting your blog is to encourage him to blog but after that instead of working on tours or going through tour stops today or doing anything on my to do list, I started reading. The part where you said "Vincent's fucking career" or something like that, it dawned on me that your life story would make a fantastic book. I think that's why you're so damn interesting to people, Vincent. Writing ruined your marriage you kept going anyway and look where you are today...a success story. I just think it would make a great memoir or even...a story you could write based on your life but it would be fictional even...something to think about?

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