The current hot issue in publishing is paid book reviews, initially incited by David Streitfeld’s “The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy” that appeared in the New York Times over the weekend and profiled Jason Rutherford’s GettingBookReviews.com (now an inactive domain)–a service that was pulling in $28,000 a month for writing reviews of books commissioned by their authors.
The issue grew early this week, with Salon taking on the underlying issue here–self-publishing’s uphill battle for respect.
But on the afternoon of August 27, shortly after the Times piece initially ran, things took a stranger turn: an email containing a press release from Rutherford appeared in inboxes of Publishers Weekly. The email’s subject line: “NY Times Story on Paid Book Reviews Makes a Splash.” In the message, Rutherford promoted the Times article, citing online traffic stats and touting Streitfeld’s profile as “extensive” and “far longer than a traditional newspaper piece. The Reason? Rutherford’s story was so compelling that it mandated more detail and attention.”
The end of the message mentions how “blown away” Rutherford was at the response to the Times article, as well as closing with this sentence:
Rutherford is currently planning a comeback in book publicity, but “in a way that doesn’t offend Google or Amazon”.
Email sent by Rutherford to Publishers Weekly. Click to enlarge.
The email, meant to drum up more interest in Rutherford and his “comeback,” is a clear sign that he doesn’t think he’s committed any fault and further reinforces the image of an individual who’s only aware of his enterprises, not of his enterprises’ context or their consequences. In other words, he’s out of touch with reality (in a way that’s reminiscent of “publisher” PublishAmerica). Rutherford’s email is evidence that he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with manipulating the system if it allows him to manipulate it. The only problem is that he doesn’t seem aware that he’s been caught.
I always knew there was some kind of black op going on regarding certain writers who had achieved staggering sales success in a very short time while claiming to have done virtually no promotion.
When asked how they did it (and I asked quite a few of them), their answer was invariably, “Just lucky, I guess.”
Now we know how they did it.
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.
Is there anything wrong with relaunching under a new (more legitimate) business practice? No.
Does it appear as though Mr. Rutherford is a bit of an opportunist and adept at identifying a need and exploiting it? Yes. But to be fair – isn’t that the description of any business who see a niche and fills it?
Is there something wrong with manipulating the hopes/dreams and pocketbooks of (sometimes desperate) authors? Yes. I think it is too soon to judge the new and improved offering – but confess I am suspicious given past behavior. That is the problem with a bad reputation, it is harder to change than it would have been to establish a good one from the beginning.
I would also say it is questionable to me that there is actually a need for paid reviews of the original business model. Any author with time and inclination – and of course – a decent book, can get the reviews in an organic fashion. As with writing the book, the process of marketing it requires the proper time and effort. Like many things in life, there are few short cuts that substitute for the hard work.
What are we, kids here? The process by which books are selected for reviews in august journals such as the New York Times is hardly an impartial, incorruptible one. Favoritism, logrolling, and indirect bribery — the amount of ad space a publisher bought in the book review determined how many of their books were reviewed, lavish book launch parties and junkets, wining and dining editors or reviewers — are all employed.
Look at the tongue bath the Times gave Stephen King’s 11/22/63. Rave reviews, interview, etc. Ya think that happened by accident? Or how about when a certain book suddenly gets prominent, positive reviews in nearly all the major review venues. Don’t try to convince me that the stars just happened to align the right way and all the book review editors all thought the book was great, not to mention how they also all decided to feature the same book simultaneously.
A comment following Salon.com’s article about Rutherford’s paid review scheme wrote:In such a situation, I can’t really blame anybody for using a pay-for-review scheme.
“John Muir (of the Volkswagen Idiot book and the publishing company he financed from that) told me he’d asked a New York Times editor why they never were willing to review any of the John Muir Publications books, and he was told that they wouldn’t review any publisher who didn’t buy advertising.”
Reviews are a form of advertising that doesn’t look like advertising. The big boys are pros at this and we’re hopeless amateurs. The playing field’s never been remotely level. It’s next to impossible to get your book reviewed in a major periodical if your publisher isn’t making a major push, and impossible if you’re self-published.
Hear, hear. Nail on head.
I don’t fault Rutherford.
The only real problem I have with Locke is he wrote a ‘How-To’ book about how he sold a million ebooks and conveniently left out the part about buying reviews–not to mention actually buying copies of his own book.
There must be a wave of cognitive dissonance of tsunami proportions out there if no one caught on to the scam. Why didn’t anyone point out the emperor had no clothes concerning these bestsellers built on faux reviews?
Why are people so quick to throw the first stone? Have I made mistakes? Yes! Why do people think it is wrong for me to want to get my story out of moving on and trying to do things better?
Mr. Rutherford, you have no place in the publishing industry. This is not a “slap on the hand mistake”. Have you set up Google Alerts lately? You claim to be a publicist, but clearly you missed out on PR 101. Your publicity right now is anything BUT favorable. Actions have consequences. If you think that NYT article is going to save you, think again. No writer in their sane mind would touch you with a ten foot pole. Writers Weekly outed you last year, and the consumer complaints detailing your unethical actions finally caught up with you. It makes me ill that I work my butt off while scammers like you take the easy way out to make a quick buck off people. If you want to repair the damage, then personally apologize to the people you duped by selling them bogus book reviews and return their money. Not once, in any of the articles did you apologize for your actions. Publishers Weekly, thank you for setting the record straight. Sorry, Mr. Rutherford but the buck literally stops here. “Rutherford’s email is evidence that he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with manipulating the system if it allows him to manipulate it. The only problem is that he doesn’t seem aware that he’s been caught.”
Actually, my blog has been overwhelmed with people asking for help. They recognize that I admitted my methods in the past were flawed, but I have adjusted my services to accomplish a great need that remains unmet: affordable book promotion assistance for the masses.
It reminds one of why this whole self-publishing deal was called “vanity press” publishing in the old days-I still call it that, and if some amazingly lucky individual actually breaks through into the legit market, fine, so why shouldn’t this guy take advantage of people silly enough to waste ther time doing this? The straight publishing industry has got more termites in it than the 15th Century Catholic Church, but it’s still the only real way to get to Author’s Heaven. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go rob a bank so I’ll have enough rep to get an agent-I mean an Indulgence…
For now he says he has an honest service where people pay to have their books talked about on his blog or his Twitter. He failed to be able to answer me when I asked what does he have that makes this kind of marketing worth paying for? His blog has a myriad of posts about books but zero comments and no page rank or alexia or any other rank to speak of. His Twitter has thousands of follows and he follows thousands but his Klout score shows that there is no real click through rate on anything he tweets or it would be through the roof. (Not that Klout is a real indicator of influence but if you are being engaged and clicked and what not it absolutely results in a score rise.) So, his new service in a way is worse than his old service of writing reviews for money. There is no added benefit for being posted on his blog or his Twitter.
Pam,
This is inaccurate. On my blog, the description of my new service clearly states that I will promote an author’s book to media and reviewers in addition to blogging and social media.
In June I had a chat with a lady who sells reviews on Fiverr (see the comments on Busymommylist’s Amazon.com review of All My Love, Detrick), and her way around Amazon’s rules was to say she was only paid for the reviews that appeared on her blog. The reviews she wrote for Amazon were completely free of charge…
What impressed me most was her ability to read a 600pp novel in a couple of hours.
What’s needed on Amazon is a system like the one on Goodreads, which presents reviews by friends and people you follow first, so you can just ignore all the fakers.