Amazon Reviews...

by Matt Lynn

There’s a lovely piece in The Guardian today by Christina Martin about Amazon reviews. Apparently, there has been more controversy about authors writing their own reviews (how could they – the cads!) and whether the reviews are really reliable.

She makes the valuable point that they may or may not be real. It doesn’t really matter. You can fairly easily tell which ones are genuine and which ones are fakes by the way they are written, and whether the person has reviewed similar books. And they open up the debate about books to lots of new voices. After all, before we had to rely on the reviews on the back of book jackets – and they were often fairly fictitious as well.

Most authors have an ambivalent attitude to Amazon and other online reviews. Personally I like them. I’ve had good ones and stinkers, and although none of us like being criticised, I can take that in good spirit. The internet is full of nasty stuff, and there is no reason why authors should be exempt. Online reviews are one of the few ways we have of getting feedback on our work, and of judging how much impact it is making on the world.

The more of them the better – even if they aren’t real.

Celebrity or Privacy

Having sold out in just one week in January, amazon.com ordered 500 copies of CUT SHORT. I should be pleased... but you're getting to know me and my 'What if' questions. So despite all the great reviews this week (links on my earlier post) I started wondering... what happens if no one else buys it?
Then I read this lovely comment on my blog (http://leighrussell.blogspot.com/)
"In all honesty, even as a woman myself, I have never been a follower of women writing crime. They never seem to go for the jugular, and always hold back. That was until I heard crime writer Sam Millar praising the hell out of this debut novel, Cut Short. I immediately bought it on Amazon, and was delighted with it. Really great writing, and terrific story. Can’t wait until your new book hits the shelves."
I know some authors are only interested in sales of 1,000s, but I'm still genuinely thrilled when one person enjoys CUT SHORT. I don't think that will ever change.

Matt Lynn asks, should authors remain obscure. Just as there are celebrities who become writers so there are authors who gain celebrity status. Is this a good idea?

A book, like any other creative work, must stand on its own merits. What difference if Melville hunted whales, or Robert Louis Stevenson sailed the seas with pirates. It may be helpfull, but it’s not necessary to experience something before writing about it. I, for one, have never killed anyone.

In this modern world authors need to promote sales of books. This is particularly so when writing for a smaller, independent publisher. CUT SHORT has not benefitted from the 3for2 tables in bookstores, or had a place bought for it on the bestseller lists. It has not been promoted on amazon’s home page or reviewed in the national press. Nevertheless, it has somehow received many excellent reviews and, mainly through word of mouth recommendation, has been reprinted twice in six months. It has sold out repeatedly on amazon, most recently within a week of amazon.com restocking.

CUT SHORT is out there, in the public domain where people can buy it, read it, and review it. I post links to reviews of CUT SHORT and blog and tweet every time it sells out. I blog about the vicissitudes of CUT SHORT, about the edits for ROAD CLOSED and the concept for DEAD END.

But my own life - dull and irrelevant as it is - my own life is private. And it's really not that interesting to anyone outside my family. (Members of my family are not to comment!)

Leigh Russell

A good week for CUT SHORT

amazon.com sold out of CUT SHORT last month one week after restocking. 500 more copies on their way. Might be best to preorder before they sell out again.

EURO CRIME
CUT SHORT in reviewer's TOP 5 READS of 2009
http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/Top_2009_Reads.html

Two new reviews this week:
http://noirjournal.typepad.com/
http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/

Extract: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW3Ixmq3OyA

plus
CUT SHORT one of many titles included in 4 for 3 offer on amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Cut-Short-Geraldine-Steel-No/dp/1842432710/

and another 5 star review on amazon.co.uk today -
"Excellent, 9 Feb 2010
By Cormac Mac "Crime king" (London) - See all my reviews
Cut Short is an excellent first novel. It was recommended to me by a friend who loves the Karl Kane series of books by crime writer Sam Millar. I wasn't disappointed. Steel is a name you will be hearing more of in the future. Buy this book. Steal it. Whatever you do, read it."

A good week!

From The New York Journal of Books and Noir Journal
"As the story races to its gripping conclusion, there’s not a moment when the reader won’t be either fearful for another possible victim, hopeful that the killer will make one fatal mistake, or desperately waiting for Steele to discover that one missing clue.
This is an excellent book—the kind one might read for hours on a winter evening before a roaring fire. Russell pulls the reader into an intense involvement with the characters, the town of Woolmarsh, and the search for the killer.
Truly a great start for new mystery author Leigh Russell."
Reviewer Michael Lipkin is a Senior Editor for a major publishing house and the writer and editor for Noir Journal.

A Battle Worth Fighting

I'm very excited to see CUT SHORT reviewed on the BEST BOOKS OF 2009 list in Publishers Weekly in the US as the only title starred in the Mass Market section. You can read the review here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6707975.html?q=leigh+russell+cut+short

On a very sad note, we appear to be losing Borders. I have written about this on my blog http://leighrussell.blogspot.com/ but want to reiterate my thanks here to all the staff who have been so friendly and helpful towards me personally in my events at Borders.

People are already asking “whether there is a place for traditional shops selling books on our high streets” (James Thompson in the Independent 24 November 2009)
This seems to me to be a battle worth fighting. We should all be encouraging everyone we know to “Buy a Book for Christmas in a Real Bookshop”. First the independents, now Borders, Waterstones will be the next to fold. By this time next year, it may only be possible to buy books online, other than blockbusters from supermarkets, or a title from a limited range at WH Smith’s. (Remember Woolworths? Who’s next?)
It’s not enough to bleat. “A civilized city without bookshops – or without enough bookshops – struck me as a contradiction in terms. And then I realised why I'd only belatedly discovered that Borders and Waterstone's weren't where they'd once been. I hadn't visited them for months.” (Tom Sutcliffe in the Independent 24 November 2009)
If readers don’t buy at bookshops, there will be no bookshops. Maybe that isn’t important, but if it matters to you – GO AND BUY A BOOK IN A BOOKSHOP. If enough people do, maybe we "ordinary people" can turn this around. At the very least, we will have tried. Those of us who believe bookshops are worth saving, let's not lay down and die just yet.
Leigh Russell

reviews

Matt Lynn posted about ghost writing, where books purport to be written by authors who often haven’t even read them. One high profile celebrity expressed surprise on hearing about something included in her autobiography. ‘Oh, did they put that in?’ she asked her interviewer. (Sorry if I’ve mentioned it before – it creases me up every time.)

It is common knowledge that publishers buy places on best seller lists, chalk up ‘sales’ of deliveries to bookstores, even when the books are subsequently returned unsold – the whole industry is, like other industries these days, a charade based on image and appearance. The reality of the substance behind all these shenanigans is very different to the show. We live in an age of appearances.

So it should come as no surprise to learn there is a website offering “honest and heartfelt reviews of your book” on amazon. “The average self published book sells less than two dozen copies in its lifetime, leaving the author in debt, and the millions of potential book buyers oblivious to the valuable information included in the book” this website tells us. Well, OK, part of that is probably true. Not sure about the “millions of potential book buyers” though . . .

“The time has finally come where you, the self published author, can get quality, real life book reviews” the website announces. This claim is substantiated by genuine testimonials. One satisfied customer tells us his book “now sells thirty copies a month”. His amazon page has “no customer reviews” so the reviews he bought are not only effective, they are invisible! It truly is miraculous.
Another author is quoted as saying “I wanted you guys to know that when I read your reviews I cried like a baby. At last someone gets me.” It’s good to know that, finally, someone appreciates her genius - and it only cost her a few dollars.

Not only does one review cost just $15, it will be posted on amazon “within a week”. And all the reviews are “quality, real life, honest and heartfelt.”

Like so many other legal scams, this review service exploits the delusions of the vain. Do these writers actually believe the praise they pay for is genuine? Not only are they fools, they miss the adrenaline rush of stumbling on a review posted on amazon. I’m always thrilled when I see another five star review of CUT SHORT on amazon. Admittedly I’ve never “cried like a baby” when I’ve read my five star reviews, but at least the reviews of CUT SHORT – unsolicited and unpaid for - are genuine.

So can we trust anything as genuine these days? I think I’ll stick to fiction. At least it doesn’t pretend to be true. And you can buy almost three of my books for the cost of one review . . .