Hugh Howey buys fake reviews from Fiverr.com and many other places. In reviewing Hugh Howey’s Amazon reviews, it was easy to spot the many thousands of fake reviews, even with the many deceptive practices reviewers were using to seem legitimate, such as supposed real names and verified purchases. Because it’s cheaper to buy short reviews, most of Hugh Howey’s fake reviews are often short, about 50 words as this is one of the lowest price points for buying fake reviews. These short fake reviews don’t really say anything about the book. The fake reviews are there only as online endorsements to get people to buy a book.
Because it’s essential that five-star reviews line the first page, real reader reviews are pushed down as fast as possible. Hugh Howey does this by not only buying reviews but by using influencers to get others to write reviews. Hugh Howey relies as much on influencers as he does review-for-hire writers.
The Hugh Howey influencer scam works like this. Hugh Howey provides incentives for friends, family, and associates to promote Hugh Howey. Cash mostly but also mentions in his blog, write ins for discussion groups, promises to recommend to his publisher and agent, and on and on. The job of the influencers is not to talk about Hugh Howey but to get other people talking about and mentioning Hugh Howey.
“The Joneses” movie shows how scams like this work and Hugh Howey is a pro at this scam. If you’ve ever been on a discussion board, on Facebook, on Twitter or anywhere where someone out of the blue works Hugh Howey’s name or his books into the discussion you’ve encountered this scam. The mentions are designed to seem real but are anything but. The mentions are bought and paid for with cash, with promises, and with Hugh Howey being a few levels removed from the scam.
Influencers also are used to get people writing reviews of Hugh Howey books. As most of the influencers have established themselves at major discussion boards and sites like Goodreads and Amazon, it’s easy for them to work their scam to get discussions turned to Hugh Howey and his books. They also try to work Hugh Howey’s name into the discussion title so his name is seen even if you don’t get suckered into participating in the influenced discussion.
The massive fraud of Hugh Howey and how he was outed for fake reviews has been widely talked about. The fraud of Hugh Howey is so massive it doesn’t just involve a few fake review or even a few hundred, it involves thousands of fake reviews.
One of the places Hugh Howey bought fake reviews was from Gettingbookreviews.com, a company outed by the New York Times as a review-for-hire company. According to the New York Times, Gettingbookreviews.com was paid to write 4,531 reviews for authors. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/business/book-reviewers-for-hire-meet-a-demand-for-online-raves.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The massive number of fake reviews for Hugh Howey’s books is staggering and it would seem that a significant portion of his earnings go to buying fake reviews. Even more disturbing is the fact that buying fake reviews isn’t Hugh Howey’s only fraudulent tactic. Fake reviews are just the beginning.
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