Comments on: More on bogus Amazon reviews

By: KirstenMortensen.com » Blog Archive » Amazon’s policy on sock puppetry

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:20:18 +0000

[...] It isn’t easy to find, but if you check out the Participation Guidelines that Amazon publishes on the Community section of the site, there’s a clause that suggests sock puppetry is a no-no. It’s under Prohibited Content or Activities, which lists the “conduct or Content that is prohibited” and includes this bullet: The impersonation of any person or entity or forging of any e-mail communication or any part of a message [...]

By: KirstenMortensen.com » Blog Archive » What would you do?

KirstenMortensen.com » Blog Archive » What would you do? — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:25:23 +0000

[...] Several months ago I put up a post about a fellow named Rhett Ellis who has used psuedonymous Amazon reviews to try to pump his self-pubbed novels. [...]

By: Vancouver girl

Vancouver girl — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:17:24 +0000

I know Rhett or knew him personally. I know his writing style, and I can say for certain that most of those amazon reviews are his own words. His dream is to be a published writer, but it looks like he’s shot that dream to heck.

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 12:02:55 +0000

Wow, Charles, phone messages????

Do you really think he brings in that much? $30-40K?

By: Charles E Dawson

Charles E Dawson — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 03:33:30 +0000

Interesting. I too have had direct experience with Rhett Ellis. After writing a very negative review of his ‘How I Fell in Love with a Librarian’ , I got a spate of phone messages from Ellis. When I finally spoke with him, he actually tried to brow beat me into withdrawing the review (something he subsequently managed to do with Amazon – the review has been deleted).
Aspects of this ‘manipulation game’ arose in that conversation too.

What you have to realize is all this is gravy for Mr. Ellis. He has about 6 books out there (in itself a self-serving little cycle). In our conversation, he claimed he was a minister by profession, so any book income is just a tidy little supplement. I can think of a lot of things I could do with an extra $30 or $40 K.

It’s unfortunate, because it makes one leery of Amazon review, and yet I have found reviews that have lead me to good reads I would have otherwise missed. Currently, the clueless folks at Amazon have combined Ellis’ Librarian book with Larry Bienhart’s ‘the Librarian’. I can only hope that some of the folks who buy Ellis’ pathetic little book are lucky enough to discover Larry Bienhart’s body of work !

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Wed, 03 May 2006 15:27:41 +0000

Hi, John.

Nothing like a fresh bit of Internet slang, eh?

Re: Ellis — it’s funny, but he’s not really a novelist. He’s a guy who has set up a business that exploits a weakness in the screening of Amazon’s “online community.”

It will be interesting to see what will happen if this gets some visibility.

By: Duke of Earle

Duke of Earle — Wed, 03 May 2006 14:54:38 +0000

Good post. I learned from it what a “sock puppet” is (other than the kind I played with as a kid.)

I had a similar experience (and blogged about it) with an online camera retailer in New Jersey. I’ve since learned that several of these folks are notorious for writing their own “buyers’ reviews” to convince people like me that they’re legit. The telltale was that about two-thirds of the reviews said they were the best retailer the reviewer had ever dealt with, but the other one-third said they were crooks. Nothing in between. Hmmmm.

Back to your post. I agree. Mr Ellis is enjoying short term very limited benefit, but at the cost of his integrity and reputation. Not a good exchange, IMO.

John