Full text of letter from authors condemning fake book reviews by Ellory and other

Forty nine leading British writer have written to The Daily Telegraph in London condemning the proliferation of false book reviews.

This follows revelations that several authors, the most recent being award-winning crime writer RJ Ellory, have posted flattering reviews of their own work while criticisng the work of other authors.

book, author, Lee Child, book reviewThe group, including bestselling writers Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Karin Slaughter, Val McDermid and Helen FitzGerald, say widespread use of “fake identities” was causing untold damage to the publishing world.

They urge the reading public to "take possession" of the online review process with free and honest reviews that will drown out "phoney voices".

The online review capacity of sites such as Amazon has suffered a credibility issue in the past with the widespread practise of authors and publishers purchasing positive reviews.

book, Ian Rankin, book review, authorOne example was American Todd Rutherford's now defunct gettingbookreviews.com where he offered 50 positive reviews for $999 and at one stage was making $28,000 a month.

Meanwhile, here's the full text of the British authors' letter:

SIR – More and more books are bought, sold, and recommended online, and the health of this exciting ecosystem depends on free and honest conversation among readers. But some writers are misusing these channels in ways that are fraudulent and damaging to publishing at large.

Stephen Leather, the British thriller writer, recently admitted that he used fake identities online to promote his work. John Locke, the American bestseller, has revealed he has paid for reviews of his books. R J Ellory, the British author, has confessed to posting flattering reviews of his own work and to using assumed names to attack other authors perceived to be his rivals. These are just three cases of abuse; few in publishing believe they are unique. It is likely that other authors are pursuing these underhand tactics as well.

We condemn this behaviour, and commit never to use such tactics. But the only lasting solution is for readers to take possession of the process. The internet belongs to us all. Honest and heartfelt reviews, good or bad, enthusiastic or disapproving, can drown out the phoney voices, and underhand tactics will be marginalised to the point of irrelevance. No single author, however devious, can compete with the whole community.

Linwood Barclay
Tom Bale
Mark Billingham
Declan Burke
Ramsey Campbell
Tania Carver
Lee Child
Michael Connelly
N.J. Cooper
David Corbett
Ruth Dudley Edwards
Stella Duffy
Jeremy Duns
Mark Edwards
Chris Ewan
Helen FitzGerald
Meg Gardiner
Adèle Geras
Joanne Harris
Mo Hayder
David Hewson
Charlie Higson
Peter James
Graham Joyce
Laura Lippman
Stuart MacBride
Val McDermid
Roger McGough
Denise Mina
Steve Mosby
Stuart Neville
Jo Nesbo
Ayo Onatade
SJ Parris
Tony Parsons
Sarah Pinborough
Ian Rankin
Shoo Rayner
John Rickards
Stav Sherez
Karin Slaughter
Andrew Taylor
Luca Veste
Louise Voss
Martyn Waites
Neil White
Laura Wilson
Susan Hill
Gordon Harries

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book review: The life to come by Michelle de Krester

Image
One of the characters I most enjoyed in Michelle de Krester's The life to come is Sydney's inner west. I arrived in Newtown on a yellowy January morning in the early 1980s and lived above King St near the start of Erskinville Rd for six months before a succession of terrace houses across Newtown, Emmore and Macdonaldtown. Coming from the country to study 'Communications' I could easily have been minor character fodder for the author, momentarily shuffling by in ill-fitting jeans alongside the ubiquitous Pippa and George (that is, they are the only characters appearing in all five sections of what is an artfully decentralised narrative). I might not have done too well descriptively from de Krester's pen. She finds a way to poke holes in all of her characters, perhaps with the exception of expat Christabel who is the most downtrodden of characters, but not by the author, who otherwise sustains a mildly scornful, disapproving or comedic tone. For example, Geo
Read more + comment »

Book review: The Nowhere Child by Christian White

Image
Little Sammy Went is gone, and while The Nowhere Child tells us where fairly quickly - who, how, why and at what cost takes the rest of this fast-paced book to uncover. I use the cliche 'fast-paced' on purpose because like most genre books, except for the exceptional few, the 'fast-pace' does rely on cliches to a fair degree. Which is not to say The Nowhere Child is a poor novel. Rather it is a clever book, with more than enough periods of real tension and surprise to keep the reader turning pages (or flicking them as the case may be). Clever because it embeds just enough themes that are deemed praiseworthy and admirable in the subjective group-think world that is publishing. (That is not a criticism of the book or publishing, just a reality in these days of thought-fear.) Of course there is the obligatory references to reading and authors - we must worship at the the book altar of course. Being set in both Australia and the US may explain why at times Matth
Read more + comment »

Author Richard Flanagan's speech to the Garma Festival 2018: full transcript

Image
When my father died at the age of 98 he had largely divested himself of possessions. Among what little remained was an old desk in which he had collected various writings precious to him over the years: poems, sayings, quotes, a few pieces he had written, some correspondence.  Photo: From Garma Festival 2017 Among them my elder sister found a letter written by one of my father’s cousins many years before. In it she told my father that his mother, my grandmother, was of Aboriginal descent, and that in her family she had been brought up to never mention this fact outside of the home. My father loved discussing interesting letters with his family. He never discussed this letter. Yet he kept it. The story of covering up Indigenous pasts was a common one in Tasmania, where such behaviour was for some a form of survival. There is no documentation to prove my father’s cousin’s story is true, but that doesn’t make it untrue. It leaves the story as an unanswerable question mark over my
Read more + comment »