How not to sock puppet!

Further to their reporting of the infamous practice of some authors of reviewing their own books in glowing terms (and some even slamming their rivals), The Guardian has started a blog space where authors can in fact puff their own books. In two days it has 229 (and rising) books listed, some very strange and some very interesting. I put my own oar in last night - J M Newsome, The Boy with Two Heads, around number 220.

The link is here, and my publisher, Connie at Trifolium Books UK, has put it about on Facebook and Twitter.

I'm taking a break from blogging till the end of September now. Got to get that first draft sorted! 

Thank you for your following and hope you'll be back then.

"Sock puppeting" a big issue

Yesterday I posted a short note about being asked to review my own book by the Amazon system that follows up when you buy something from them. 

When I opened The Guardian later in the day, I found this article about a practice known as "sock puppeting". It turns out that this means authors reviewing their own books on the internet using a pseudonym!

There's a quote near the end of the article by Northern Irish crime writer, Stuart Neville, who says "... companies such as Amazon should look at tightening up their own procedures and policies to minimise this kind of behaviour. Any system can be gamed if someone knows the right tricks to play, but it shouldn't be as easy as it seems at present."

It's a very good article and taught me a lot - and I don't know Alison Flood who wrote it!