Weblog on the Internet and public policy, journalism, virtual community, and more from David Brake, a Canadian academic, consultant and journalist

Archive forMarch 2nd, 2004 | back to home

2 March 2004
Filed under:Virtual Communities at10:45 am

A programmer error unmasked who was behind anonymous reviews on Amazon and lots of disreputable (if unsurprising) conduct was revealed. As you’d expect, some authors published glowing reviews of their own books, others plugged their friends’ works and panned their enemies’.

“Reviews are not the only features writers take advantage of to improve their image on Amazon. Many have been known to list their own books as alternate recommendations for any given book, and to compile lists of favorite books with their own at the top.”

I am ashamed to say that I have taken advantage of none of these techniques to boost my own sales but if you would care to visit my book’s “Amazon US entry”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789495392/blogorg-20 or its “UK entry”:http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1405300264/qid%253D1044801476/davidbrakeswe-21 I would be grateful if you would give them five star reviews (whether or not you’ve actually read them!).