Don’t Trust Those Rave Reviews

If you love good books, be wary of choosing them based on rave customer reviews on the Internet, cautions the New York Times. According to a University of Illinois expert, about one-third of all consumer book reviews on the Internet are fake, either written by marketers, the authors themselves, or a hired third-party.

“Consumer reviewers are powerful because, unlike old-style advertising and marketing, they offer the illusion of truth,” the article says. “They purport to be testimonials of real people, even though some are bought and sold just like everything else on the commercial Internet.”

“Reviewers” make good money pumping up book sales – the article cites one man who earns $28,000 a month cranking out favorable reviews. Another says she spends about 15 minutes reading a book to write a 300-page review. For a 50-page review, she doesn’t read the book at all.