After Legal Drum-Beating, Author Admits He Trashed Competitors In Amazon Reviews
from the when-you're-in-a-hole... dept
There's been an almighty kerfuffle in British historian circles the last couple of weeks, after some people noticed a couple of reviewers on Amazon were talking up one historian's work while trashing books written by others in the same field. The author in question was named Orlando Figes, a professor at London's Birkbeck College. One of the pseudonyms used on Amazon was "orlando-birkbeck", so it wasn't too difficult to assume who was posting the reviews. Word started getting around and was picked up by some newspapers, leading Figes' lawyer to deny his involvement and demand corrections be run, suggesting Figes could be entitled to damages. Then, the lawyer issued a statement blaming Figes' wife (herself a lawyer) for the reviews. Not surprisingly, Figes has now admitted he wrote the reviews, and he's very sorry. This isn't the first time authors have been caught giving themselves good reviews, and generally, most attempts to do this sort of thing end badly. You'd expect by now that most reasonably intelligent people would understand that, and figure out that the potential downside of getting caught far outweighs any positive benefit the fake reviews could deliver. Then again, you'd also expect that most reasonably intelligent people wouldn't fall for 419 scams, either.
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Disappointing
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Re: GlassHalfFull
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The Coward is right
The concept that people are rigging the reviews on Amazon is hardly news. And getting exposed isn't either.
I have a friend whose job it is to go through websites and post "reviews" of competitors products that would cast doubt on the safety and efficacy of those products.
She then ever-so-gently suggests that a certain other product would be much better and/or safer.
She actually had to take a writing test so they could tell if she writes well. And the company gives her the correct talking points that she should use to trash others.
So why not the same thing with a lowly author?
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Re: The Coward is right
Had this type of story been published on this blog several times in the past week then there would be grounds for such disdain. However, that is not the case.
It is apparent to me that the AC post is all too predictable and common place.
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Re: Re: The Coward is right
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Re:
I must be living in a rather strange part of the world then, because I only see one sunset a year.
Thanks for the update, I'll be sure to keep watch today.
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D'oh!
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