Several people have called to my attention that some “progressive thinkers” have been going to the Amazon URLs where my books are sold and giving those books one-star (out of five) reviews and leaving derisory comments. These people (or person, who knows?) were undoubtedly motivated by their dislike of the content on this blog. In several cases, they admit they didn’t even read the books.
This juvenile behavior is, of course, a problem with the Amazon system. I am not sure if it is actually costing me money (turning people off buying the books), but I can promise you it doesn’t make me feel good. It’s sort of like waking up in the morning and finding graffiti all over the front wall of your house – and not very artistic graffiti at that – more like idiotic scrawls.
Amazon, as far as I can tell, does not allow for the correction of this kind of thing. And even so, trying to talk to a human being at the online behemoth, unless you’re Jeff Bezos’ mother, seems nigh on impossible. If anyone reading this knows how I can contact Amazon about this directly, I would be appreciative. I am sure there are other authors who have been similarly slimed.
UPDATE: Thanks to Allah(pundit), I just dialed the 800 number for AMazon (800-201-7575) and spoke to an actual person who was very cordial and helpful. They are looking into the matter and will be back to me within three business day. I will keep you posted on this admittedly minor adventure.
PJM Home
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
23 Comments
1. Robert Crawford:They used to take complains about this sort of thing and fix it pretty quickly. But that was a year or two ago; it may be that the volume of crap has overwhelmed them.
Feb 21, 2005 - 3:10 pm 2. Allah:1-800-201-7575
Feb 21, 2005 - 3:19 pm 3. chuck:Actually, I don’t mind seeing those one-star reviews, especially as they are often interspersed among four-star reviews. Knowing who doesn’t like a book, and why, can be a selling point for me. A review such as this:
The book will probably be historically significant only in that the author’s fascination and glorification of such insidious real-world personas as Ashcroft and Freeh lends it a bit of Leni Riefenstahl kitch.
tells me that you are on the right side. It *is* a bit disturbing that there are that many nut cases out there, but that has been our world since 9/11.
Feb 21, 2005 - 3:22 pm 4. Will Collier:They’ll remove “reviews” that are obviously just personal attacks. I’ve had it done myself for the one book I have on Amazon, send them an email.
Feb 21, 2005 - 3:27 pm 5. Mr. Davis:Doesn’t your publisher handle things like this? I suppose that’s obviously not the case, but then what are they doing for their cut? Didn’t Maxwell Perkins used to get Scott Fitzgerals’s liquor?
Feb 21, 2005 - 3:37 pm 6. Terrye:I noticed that the same thing is starting to happen to Chrichton. I wonder if he has noticed.
Feb 21, 2005 - 4:56 pm 7. marky48:Ah Roger lighten up. Only Publishamerica authors worry about those. I think they add character to the site. Nobody wants to see a bunch of five-star reviews from their friends> I have two conservative hack reviews of my work. Anyone can see through them.
Feb 21, 2005 - 5:26 pm 8. Roberts:Roger, the same thing happened to a friend of mine’s first novel. He proved that the purported “reviewer” didn’t even have a copy of the book for which he had put up a fake review.
I think that this part of Amazon is a huge scandal.
Feb 21, 2005 - 5:45 pm 9. truepeers:David Horowitz has called out the FrontPageMag readers to boost his star average at Amazon after the Chomsky bots have attacked him there. Maybe that’s what Roger wants?
Feb 21, 2005 - 5:54 pm 10. Roger:I was too embarrassed to say so, but I wouldn’t mind.
Feb 21, 2005 - 6:03 pm 11. docweasel:I don’t think its “minor”. It screws up a valuable service (user feedback, which I enjoy and find more honest and accessable than publisher blurbs and pro reviews) because of someone wanting to score cheap political points. I have to say I find this more prevalent on the left than the right, the idea that scoring cheap shots and winning meaningless battles (see the continued harping about Gannon) will somehow bring them real victories. I don’t think it will. It will just further alienate the general public against lefties and Dems. I don’t think anyone reading negative comments about Roger Simon unrelated to the books in question in an Amazon review is going to think any less of Simon, he is going to simply think less of the reviewer. If that reviewer has a lefty slant, I think they will just chalk it up to more lefty lunacy. That’s exactly why I call Freepers and fringe righties on their excesses. It doesn’t win you anything, it just convinces people you aren’t serious.
Feb 21, 2005 - 6:36 pm 12. Ben:Roger,
As one who purchases from Amazon, let me assure you that comments of that nature have no bearing on my decision to purchase or not purchase a particular book. In many ways, reviews are like comments on a blog, in that they tell you as much about the person writing the comment as about the subject of the comment. Moreover, it’s just as easy to spot a troll. One of the things I routinely do is take a brief survey of the number of 1 and 5 star reviews to make an assessment about the quality of the overall score. If there are a lot of 1 star reviews that are obvious trolling, I take into account how that affects the overall score.
Feb 21, 2005 - 7:37 pm 13. CT:“I have to say I find this more prevalent on the left than the right, the idea that scoring cheap shots and winning meaningless battles (see the continued harping about Gannon) will somehow bring them real victories.”
Agreed. I guess it’s the left wing equivalent of rhetorical masturbation. Can’t get a real victory, but they have to get satisfaction somehow.
Feb 21, 2005 - 9:00 pm 14. Mike:It really says something about the strength of ideas on the left when they put so much effort into sophomoric behavior such as this. If they spent half their time thinking up some good ideas to contribute to the democratic debate and less time with such pranks and the rest of their poisonous bile, they might do better at the ballot box.
OK… I guess it’s asking a bit much for them to THINK… easier to play their games and spew their hate.
Feb 22, 2005 - 1:19 am 15. vegetius:I took a look at the ‘reviews’. It seems it’s the same guy every time. I would be nice if he were actually buying the books and then panning them.
But, it’s quite obvious that he’s he’s on a mission.
I always see if the reviewer has posted other
reviews and go to their page to see if there is a pattern. I wouldn’t get worried over this guy most folks who buy on Amazon are wise to the ways of the reviews. Chrichton is getting the same treatment though on a larger scale.
Feb 22, 2005 - 7:45 am 16. Ben:vegetius -
Also, look at the posting date of the reviews. Many were posted on the same day. That most likely means he didn’t actually read the books, but was more concerned with trashing the author.
It was also interesting to note the books he reviewed favorable (e.g., Richard Clarke). Sort of tells you his leanings, doesn’t it?
Feb 22, 2005 - 10:22 am 17. pdq332:Here’s what you do: Find one of those automatic bad reviews and follow the link to all of the other reviews by that reviewer. Then for each of those reviews, click as many times as you can to say that you did not find the review helpful. That’ll teach ‘em. Ha !
Feb 22, 2005 - 10:25 am 18. Joe Bonforte:Amazon has an obvious fix that would do much to remedy this problem. They know who has bought what from them. They could easily give a much higher weight in their recommendation engine to people who are known to have purchased the item.
And, given the fact that many books are in electronic form and indexed, there’s even a fix for those who did not buy a book from amazon. Just ask something like “what’s the fourth word on page 174″, and if that can be answered correctly, then again the review receives higher weight. (If it were not answered, the review would still be accepted – just weighted much lower.)
The higher weight reviews can then be displayed more prominently, and of course their weight would be reflected in the average # of stars for the review.
Feb 22, 2005 - 10:29 am 19. Patrick Tyson:I mentioned here last November that negative customer reviews were being added to Jane Smiley titles in the aftermath of an incendiary essay she wrote for Slate in the aftermath of the election. The essay was being linked in the reviews. Those reviews are no longer present. Good luck, Roger.
Feb 22, 2005 - 10:52 am 20. vegetius:Ben:
Yeah I noticed the ‘Clarke’ friendly review and the other preferences.
Nice pick-up on the review dates!!!! I missed that. That should help Roger if he follows through with Amazon. He owes you an ‘attaboy’.
Feb 22, 2005 - 12:16 pm 21. Patrick Tyson:Done.
Feb 22, 2005 - 5:30 pm 22. thibaud:Any rating system that does not rate the raters will produce noise for the most part. Amazon needs to take a lesson from eBay.
Feb 22, 2005 - 9:55 pm 23. George Purcell:FWIW, Roger, I might look at and use Amazon ratings for toasters and hand drills, but not for books. Too subjective.
Feb 23, 2005 - 2:27 pm