Many people in any sort of business that requires promoting
will tell you “there are no such things as a bad publicity.” Well, really, that isn’t the case,
especially with this age of social media.
The world is full of eggshells on the ground and you have to be careful
not to step in the wrong place and make the loudest noise.
Recently I came across a review for a comedy show that was
produced by a twitter bud of mine, Victoria Banner called Goddamn
Millennials. I’ve seen YouTube videos
on all the comedians featured in the show and they were all pretty funny. Victoria is also damned funny otherwise she
wouldn’t be mentioned here. Anyway,
this apparent reviewer claims to be from California and can write you a
“newspaper article for press release” for a mere five dollars. Now one, this person is definitely a scam
artist and not a very good one, and, two, you usually get what you pay for;
just five dollars will not get you much.
You can read the review in question here: https://victoriabanner.com/2016/06/19/high-praise-for-my-shows-according-to-a-freelance-writer-from-singapore/. Just don’t read it with your literary eyes;
it’s painful. This is just for a
laugh. Remember this person is supposed
to be writing a review for a comedy show that featured four comedians from the
Vancouver BC area. The reviewer could
have written better if he just saw the promo videos Victoria created and posted
on her YouTube channel then just creating a document out of the air attempting
to baffle the readership with b*^#$@!t. Victoria even made a video trying to read
the review out loud. Here’s a link to
it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCUx_BF22E4.
This is so bad it’s comedy gold.
So after delving into this I got to thinking; this must be
happening in the literary world too.
Specifically those of us involved in self publishing who would seem to
do anything to get our literature noticed.
Now I’m guessing there are people not unlike our gentleman in the
previous paragraphs posing as a nineteen-year-old student from California who
would write you a pro review for mere pennies but I found out something a
little worse; especially for the amazon.com world.
The term is sockpuppetry and the initial reference I found
it in was an article in Forbes by contributor Suw Chairman-Anderson. Here’s the link to the article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/suwcharmananderson/2012/08/28/fake-reviews-amazons-rotten-core/#5941d94a66d6. It’s direct target is author Stephen Leather
who’s genre is thrillers. Now I admit
I’ve never read any one of Mr. Leather’s books it is apparent he is a
professional author, (I looked him and his stuff up. Interwebz, right?) however he publicly admitted to creating bogus
accounts to create fake reviews for his books on Amazon and creating a buzz to
sell them. Apparently this is a thing
and one that’s not frowned upon much.
Now, I have gone through times where I thought in creating
reviews with other accounts and I could harbor a guess others have thought
about the same or have gone as far as Stephen Leather has whether or not they
had the balls to admit it in public later in life after gaining an agent worth
their weight in salt and a major publisher.
Instead I decided to stick with my character and create this blog site
instead. And taking the high road has
resulted with one sold copy whereas that guy lives in Thailand and has sold
millions. It’s a bitter pill.
The reverse is also true, it seems. There are fake accounts created to give good
reviews to themselves or even their friends but they’d use this evil power
against others to troll them down with a garbage review. It’s like dealing with a literary super pac
I think. Or at least I think such
things can spiral out of control. It
gets that crazy on Twitter at times.
So have you literary fiends out there thought about it
yourself? Have you contacted an outside
source to create a media review to promote your book or your gig to generate
buzz? Did you get trolled by
competition who felt threatened enough to drag your book through the mud. Feel free to leave comments down below.
Now, a few other things:
First, Pokemon Go: A
new kind of zombie walkers with cell phones that could have devastating effects. I won’t judge you if you stick to a few
guidelines as you should have done with your cell phone before this app came
into being. One, when you drive a
motorized vehicle, such as a car or motorcycle, DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME! Please
stick to driving said vehicle and keep the phone away. Two, when you are walking outside, DO NOT
PLAY THIS GAME! Leave the phone in your
pocket. The problem with this second
part you must wander outside to catch Pokemon and therefore have the phones out
as you search. If you wish to do this
while you walk don’t be looking at your phone.
Look up and about while walking in the real world and when you need to
see where you’re at in the game, stop first, then look at the screen. That will be acceptable behavior when
playing Pokemon Go. Constantly looking
at the screen and walking, NOT GOOD!
(Takes a deep breath)
And second, I’m trying to create audio videos for my YouTube
channel and having a hell of a f*&%!*g time doing it. The audio file is done, the picture is
chosen, but apparently my movie maker is not cooperating with me. So I have no idea when I’ll get this
albatross done.
So that’s my weekly blog…yeah it’s becoming a weekly
occurance, who knew?
TTFN
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