http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/technology/amazon-book-reviews-deleted-in-a-purge-aimed-at-manipulation.html?hp
The story points out that Amazon's "sweeping but hazy purge has generated an uproar about what it means to review in an era when everyone is an author and everyone is a reviewer."
Let me say for the record that I've never solicited a review on Amazon or anywhere else. And I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account, so I'm not using social media to spread the word. Even worse (for my bottom line), I have never been interested in fame, unlike, it appears, most of the world.
I will say that there are plenty of fine writers who are constantly looking for places to publish their work. And the traditional way is hard--anyone who has tried that route knows it. In a bit more than a year, it will have been 30 years since my first book came out. But I know the pain and frustration of rejection as does everyone who ever tried to be published.
I'm sure the review section for books on Amazon has been abused. It seems obvious that it would be. I will go further here and say I loathe the anonymous responders to news stories in the media who believe they are doing something important by sitting and yelping after stories all day every day. Occasionally, fine. But as an avocation, it's a waste of everyone's time.
I really feel for unpublished writers who are looking for venues. I'm on your side. And volunteering a well-thought-out review of a book is fine. But authors who solicit and use such reviews are mistaken if they think it will change how the world, in the end, views their work. It won't.
It may change how much money the writer makes, and, sadly, that's the only reason a lot of people write. But I can't imagine doing that, and I doubt any writer worth her salt could, either.
It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
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Hither and Yon: The speech by the NRA's Wayne LaPierre regarding the killings in Newtown, Ct., is the single most reprehensible public utterance after such a tragedy in my lifetime . . . No date yet for publication of my next book, but I am writing . . . My most recent book, Emerson's Brother, has sold only modestly, but it's a quiet, moving novel that I think anyone would enjoy, so you might give it a try . . . And yes, I think it's okay to try and interest you in one of my books on my own blog!
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