Amazon book reviews can be tough love

Asking a lot of people to review your book on Amazon is a double-edged sword. Don't even try it unless you've got a darned good book, or you'll get slammed.

But having a crummy book isn't the only reason you might get nasty reviews. People might just hate your guts.

I've studied many thousands of books on Amazon, but I've never seen one with a larger proportion of negative reviews than this one.

Twenty-four of out 52 reviews are just one star. The lead review, voted "most helpful" by other shoppers, puts it succinctly:

Boring.

I'm not sure why Mr. Shaughnessy thought people would be interested in this story. It is quite simply the most boring book I've read in the last five years. Pure and total garbage.

But the story doesn't end there. Irked by the negative reviews, the author's daughter launched an e-mail campaign to recruit positive reviews on Amazon. The text of the e-mail was reprinted on this sports blog.

... As pathetic as it is, these people actually take the time out of their day to go to Amazon.com and write a negative customer review for a book they have not even read, just to spite Dan Shaughnessy. So, I am writing to ask a small favor. If you can, please take the time to go to Amazon.com and write a customer review of your own, letting people know what you --someone who actually read it-- thought of the book...

It was a well-written e-mail, and it resulted in lots more reviews. Mostly bad.

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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors