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Monday News: More Bestselling Fraud; Love iPhone? Buy Samsung; Pentagon threatens...

Happy Labor Day to the U.S. folks.

 

Duns sussed out that Ellory was masquerading as Nicodemus when Ellory signed a number of his comments (to various reviews) as “Roger” and “Roger from Montreal”. Ultimately Ellory confessed to this action when the Telegraph wrote about it and offered a half assed apology.

The recent reviews – both positive and negative – that have been posted on my amazon accounts are my responsibility and my responsibility alone,” he said. “I wholeheartedly regret the lapse of judgment that allowed personal opinions to be disseminated in this way and I would like to apologise to my readers and the writing community.”

In response to Dun’s work on Leather, Leather retaliated:

Both he and Steve Mosby started getting down votes on good reviews of their books. Both also featured in Leather’s horribly bad “Inspector Zhang Goes To Harrogate” short story, alongside himself as a best-selling and massively-penised (I assume) thriller writer. The story was pulled from Amazon (by them or by Leather, though I suspect the latter because Amazon so far have shown no inclination to do anything about people gaming their review system) shortly after a one-star review drew a bucket of “OMG YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT LEATHER IS THE BEST EVAH” responses.

The Crime Writers’ Association has responded:

 The CWA feels this practice is unfair to authors and also to the readers who are so supportive of the crime genre. It does not fit with our ethos of supporting all published crime authors and promoting the crime genre. At present we don’t know how widespread the practice is. However we will be taking steps to set up a membership code of ethics, and considering if other steps may be necessary from us as an authors’ organisation.

Some are calling it “the Wild West”. Is that an attempt to romanticize the fraud that is taking place by authors? Visit a reviewer blog these days and you’ll almost always see an FTC violation. We bloggers aren’t engaged in Wild West behavior. Instead, bloggers see threats from authors (See STGRB site) and are ceasing to blog because of those threats and sock puppetry. It would be nice of author organizations would crack down on things like attacks against bloggers, sock puppetry, and the like but I don’t see it happening. Instead, bloggers, readers and reviewers will continue to be under attack and those who try to speak out, like Jeremy Dun, will be blasphemed by the frauds.

“You are in material breach and violation of the non-disclosure agreements you signed,” said the letter by Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s General Counsel. “The Department of Defense is considering pursuing against you, and all those acting in concert with you, all remedies legally available to us in light of this situation.”

Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty. You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

5 Comments

  1. Patricia Eimer
    Sep 03, 2012 @ 07:58:19

    Thanks for the voter reg. app. I’m already set up but this would have been so much more convenient to have when we moved then having to go to the DMV.

    And the writer fraud thing? When are people going to learn. Eventually they will get caught. Even the crime writers.

    ReplyReply

  2. DS
    Sep 03, 2012 @ 09:41:14

    And here I thought all of the allegations by authors that they were under attack by competitors via reviews was just paranoid thinking. I was clearly wrong.

    However, I think it’s a stupid idea. As a reader I don’t choose between two books. Buying one book would not prevent from buying several books by different authors in the same genre.

    ReplyReply

  3. Mireya
    Sep 03, 2012 @ 10:49:12

    Re: Apple v. Samsung, they (Apple) are already applying for an injunction on that model and several others. I have to say I fell in love with the Samsung big screen, but is it worth it to spend money on one at this point? No way in hell I am touching any Apple products though.

    ReplyReply

  4. Mary Anne Graham
    Sep 03, 2012 @ 11:03:35

    I’m a self-pubbed author, and for the life of me, I don’t get why someone would buy reviews. Whether readers in the review chain “out” fake reviews or not, I think they are too bright to be fooled by them. Fake reviews don’t carry that “spark” of genuine love/hate that shines through a “real” review. Besides, the author’s work has to speak for itself. If it can’t or doesn’t do that then it has problems that no reviews, real or fake, could ever fix. Plus, on a creative level, why spend so much time putting your heart and soul into a book and then smear it with a taint of fraud? I’d like to write full-time too, so I’d love my work to support that, but I won’t taint my work even to buy my freedom… I just don’t get it….

    ReplyReply

  5. Fiona McGier
    Sep 04, 2012 @ 17:55:30

    I may have 2 jobs and write when I can squeeze it into my sleep time, but I’m also a voter registrar, especially busy before a general election. Please note that the LAST DAY you can register to vote in the November 6 general election is OCTOBER 9, 2012. I have a button that says: “Vote or shut up”. You have one opportunity to express yourself at the ballot box…please use it!

    ReplyReply

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