Tuesday News: Goodreads deletes positive reviews; NY State cracks down on fake reviews; HC revenues bolstered by Christian publisher
Nelson Lifts Sales, Earnings at HC in Fiscal 2013 – Christian publisher, Thomas Nelson, was the primary reason for the positive results for fiscal year 2013. Revenue was up $1.37 billion from $1.19 billion due to lower litigation costs and $27 million in earnings from Thomas Nelson. 19% of GLOBAL sales are digital for the company. Publishers Weekly
Lady Danielle’s Status Update – Lady Danielle’s positive 5 star reviews for Harry Potter books were deleted without warning. She has no idea why they were deleted only that they were. Goodreads is not returning those reviews and this has Goodreads users in a panic. Whether this was just an error is unknown but coming so close on the heels of Goodreads new policy regarding the deletion of reviews and shelves, one has to wonder what is happening on the tech side of the book reading social media site. Goodreads
Give Yourself 5 Stars? Online, It Might Cost You – New York regulators will announce on Monday the most comprehensive crackdown to date on deceptive reviews on the Internet. Agreements have been reached with 19 companies to cease their misleading practices and pay a total of $350,000 in penalties. Unless New York targets an author or even Fiverr, I don’t see this law having a huge effect in publishing. The FTC can’t even crack down on its own promotional speech without disclosure policy. NYTimes.com
Another HBP video spoof. Definitely something you should watch with headphones due to the strong language.
Do you mean NY state is cracking down? Headline says NYTimes.
This whole Goodreads drama almost seems like a bizarre bad joke if it wasn’t so depressing. Its as if Amazon bought Goodreads to destroy it.
Question regarding GR and review/shelf deletion. How do these people know their stuff is being deleted? Shelves I can see, but I would have no idea if they deleted one of my reviews.
@It’s Me: I believe they are getting e-mail notices that tell them their content has been deleted.
in the comments, Danielle shares that she noticed because her “read” shelf number of books was declining.
That stinks! A lot of people don’t have anything to check against if their stuff gets deleted and they aren’t told. I have shelves titled ‘gave up on’ and ‘endings that pissed me off’, I’m surprised they’re still there, lol
OMG. How is it that this situation has gotten so nuts? On the one hand, who takes reviews seriously? They are, after all, just opinions. I know, supposedly reviews drive sales, and may make authors feel good. On the other hand, am I the only reader who chooses to read books based on content, and not someone else’s opinion? I think it ‘s cool when I notice that other readers like the same things that I do, but that has never affected my reading choices. I have never, and will never, buy (or even read) a book just because it gets good reviews. I like GoodReads, or Amazon reviews, simply because I can see what is new, what’s out there. The nature of the reviews themselves, however, represent other, differently-biased, opinions than my own, and therefore have no effect (or affect) on my buying/reading choices (sometimes I still get reading material the old fashioned way, at a public library). ;-)
The GR thing is so annoying. I use GR as a way to keep track of my books. Usually I just rate a book and don’t leave a review and the rating isn’t for the author or anyone else per se just me that way I know if I like an author or not and if I should be looking for the next in the series a year from now or whatever. I would have no way of knowing if my GR shelves were being pilfered by GR because GR is the only way I keep track of my books. I’ve read and rated upwards of 3500 books in the two years I’ve been using goodreads. I’d hate to have to try and remember them all to put them on another site or format!
I’ve been noticing as an author, not as a reader who posts reviews from time to time. Because I’m weird that way, I keep a note of my books’ ratings, number of ratings, number of reviews. In the last week, the numbers started dropping and I checked and saw some negative reviews had been deleted.
I know because like many authors, 100 good reviews and one bad one and it’s the bad one I can still repeat word for word a decade later ;-)
I’m annoyed. Sure, a scathing review makes my lip quiver and tears well in my eyes as I prepare to print it off, stamp on it, and use it to line the litter tray, but that’s one of My Readers you’re silencing.
And last time I checked, yep, big girl panties are on. And I don’t appreciate the condescending little note from GR that pops up on a low rating. And they misspelled ‘OK’.
Ok, you got a bad review. Deep breath. It happens to every author eventually. Keep in mind that one negative review will not impact your book’s sales. In fact, studies have shown that negative reviews can actually help book sales, as they legitimize the positive reviews on your book’s page.
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