Comments on: The Great Paid Review Scandal, Follow-Up

By: Amazon’s Review System Needs to Be Changed | Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:01:17 +0000

[...] year offered a positive review for the cost of $399.00. After being outed by Slate, you apparently discontinued the public offering of this [...]

By: Ruth Gunter Mitchell

Ruth Gunter Mitchell — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:28:28 +0000

Thanks for the comments. It was my first–and maybe last–novel, and I learned a lot from the experience. If I ever repeat the process, I will be more willing to pound the pavement for myself.

By: Joey

Joey — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:16:03 +0000

I’m an author who took BookSurge’s service to Publish my book “Maximum Influence Advantage” at Amazon. Hmm… they never offered any review service for my book but I doubt it would even have helped anyway. Folks are very wary of ‘testimonials’ and would rather scour forums and blogs for reviews.

By: Books : Timesunion.com blog -- Books Blog: A Conspiracy of Smart People » Lessons in self-publishing -- timesunion.com -- Albany N.Y.

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:37:07 +0000

[...] The Book Square blog follows up, and finds the service may no longer be available. That blog is here: http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2007/01/25/2268/ [...]

By: ktwice

ktwice — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 04:58:51 +0000

Ruth — I’m sorry that you had to learn this the hard way. I firmly believe that self-publishing is a great avenue toward publishing, but self-published authors really need to educate themselves about the business. If selling lots of books is your goal, then you need to think like an old-fashioned door-to-door salesman. So do many traditionally published authors — getting reviews for their works isn’t easy, either. Too many books, too few outlets for publicity. This is why you need to keep working it.

When you say community, do you mean target audience or where you live? Because the thing about the Internet is that it changes our definition of community, and I find that authors who understand that their community is not defined by physical boundaries tend to find a higher level of success. But it depends on the book, the subject, the author…well, you know.

By: KR Blog » Blog Archive » Short Takes

KR Blog » Blog Archive » Short Takes — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 04:08:56 +0000

[...] “Weâ€™re sorry to say this, but the barrier for entry into the world of being a published author is low.” [...]

By: Ruth Gunter Mitchell

Ruth Gunter Mitchell — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 03:07:41 +0000

Sad to say, but I am one of those self-published authors who paid for Ms. Marsh’s review. You’re exactly right about how hard it is to get my book read. I’ve done very well in my own community, but I can’t get the bookstores interested. I’ve learned a lot from my experience with BookSurge and some of its “packages.”