Message to authors

If your book is as good as you think it is, then you shouldn't instruct your fans to spam Amazon with uninformed 5-star reviews. Yes, SPAM. "I've had this book for 12 hours and I already love it!!!" is of no more value than "Penny stocks and V1agra!!" when it comes to deciding whether to buy a book. How about a review from an expert or a doctor (or could you not get an expert?) instead of:

• "This is a great book that is definitely large and full of data."
• "was blown away first of all by the physical size of the book"
• "You know sometime genius only appears in their first work, but with his second book [author] DID IT AGAIN!"
• "I've been looking forward to this since I first heard [author] talking about it, and expected it to be amazing"
• "Thanks for devoting so many years of your life to researching this so meticulously and sharing that with the world."

Now, I have been asked by authors whose mailing lists I'm on to contribute a review on Amazon, and I have not, mostly because I couldn't be bothered. But there's a difference between a thoughtful review and a raft of fanboys. What that practice says to me, the book-buying public, is that you, Author, think I'm so stupid that I'm going to buy the book off those reviews, when in reality I will probably just borrow it from the library and hate-read it. And maybe get carbs all over it. That's right.