Monday, August 20, 2007

Innocent passerby perplexed

After reading Harriet Klausner's review of the book The Careful Use of Compliments: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel, a person unfamiliar with the situation writes [emphasis mine]:
Trina L. Drotar

HK, you mention that people who enjoyed Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency would enjoy this book although they are different. It would be useful if you would elaborate on that. If you read both books, you certainly should be able to do that. All I am seeing here is a plot summary, which I could get from Amazon or many other places [indeed]. You might keep this in mind in other reviews. Why is the book good, interesting, bad, etc? What made the book that way? Are the characters well developed, etc? These are far more useful than plot summaries.
Ah, we agree. But, with the above recipe, how many reviews would you produce ? Moreover, you may even want to write a two-star review at times! For a Top Reviewer that's a no-starter.

2 comments:

Barbara Delaney said...

All of that assumes Hurriet is actually interested in writing helpful reviews. She's not. Her purpose is advertising, pure and simple.

Barbara Delaney said...

I always thought that this comment made by author A.W. Schade was the most inadvertently revealing of all comments in defense of Amazon shilling:

"JJS,

Thank you for your comments, but just for an FYI all I am is an author and publisher looking for open-minded reviews on the story. I sent both reviewers a copy of the book, but have no idea if they read them. There was Grady, and Craig who is a devout Mormon and at least appeared to be open minded:) As for the other point, Amazon did get back with me that they removed the ad, that is all I know. I just don't believe the "comment" section is the forum for reviewers to attack other reviewers. The problem should be addressed with Amazon. As you noted from past comments some people made assumptions about my book without ever reading it. Thanks again! And I hope this ends the issue."

"...Amazon did get back with me that they removed the ad." Mr. Schade is referring to Grady Harp's review of his book that had received comments from people questioning Harp's credibility. Even in defense of Harp he still called his review an ad, which it is. It's amazing how sometimes the truth emerges despite efforts to the contrary.