So. I wrote somebody this and am now putting it on the timeline because I truly do hate to waste anything Ive written. To recap: Folks were talking about one-star reviews, so I went to read some of mine. And discovered a weird. My book Black Hawk had 17 one-stars in its first two years. Then it got 200 one-stars between Oct 9 and October 13. 200 sock puppets popped up, joined GoodReads, posted a list of ~70 reviews, and disappeared. All the review lists are essentially identical. All the lists were about ~70% five-stars and ~30% one-stars. I think this mix of five-stars and one-stars was to fly under the radar of whatever anti-fraud system GoodReads has in place. Im pretty sure the one-star reviews were the point of this exercise. Whodunnit? This could be somebody with very firm ideas about Historical Romance who is just determined to promote their view. But even such a weirdo as that is not likely to see books solely as one-star and five-star. Thered be a few meh three-star reviews in there somewhere if this were simply clones of someones taste in books. What it looks like is an attack on a handful of authors. The authors: Julie Anne Long, Sherry Thomas, Courtney Milan, Sarah MacLean, Tessa Dare, Sabrina Jerffries, Jennifer Haymore, Elizabeth Hoyt, Mary Balogh. Me. What these authors have in common is that they are print published. Most of them (not me) have hit serious bestseller lists. Most have been RITA nommed. Seven of the ten are newish authors who have established themselves quickly. Trying to cling to some modesty here and not succeeding -- all these women are well regarded. They get reviewed in respected publications and by big review sites. I can see no material gain for anybody from manipulating their GR ratings downward. It looks like malice, pure and simple. What to do about it: I dont think theres any harm done. Moving a point up or down the GoodReads algorithm will not affect sales. And I expect this little kerfuffle to get cleared up by GoodReads eventually. Ive sent them a message, anyway, that might get read by somebody. But I wonder if there other sockpuppet lists (that dont mention Black Hawk) attacking Historical Romance authors? I think it would pay HistRom authors to wait till GoodReads clears out my own particular nest of sockpuppets and then go check their own ratings for the period October 9 to October 13. (Is somebody out there really rubbing their hands together and cackling in triumph because I spent a morning posting about this instead of dithering over the WIP?)
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 17:04:23 +0000