Unsolicited Reviews

Unsolicited Reviews

Reviews of Books on Amazon

Published by Owen Jones on 22 July 2018

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Reviews of Books on Amazon

Reviews of Books on Amazon

The Reviews of Books on Amazon

I have been with Amazon for a relatively very long time – since a few weeks after it started, I think, but I can’t help thinking the the people at the top  – the ones running the firm (that might not include Jeff Bezos, the guy who set it up) are buffoons. Why? Well, let’s start with the question of reviews of books on Amazon.

They tried to fix the problem of sham reviews of books on Amazon, but all they ended up doing was punishing small authors by hunting through their friends’ lists to see whether somebody on one of those lists had written a favourable review and then deleting it. This does not stop more affluent or well-known authors from having fake reviews of books on Amazon posted, because they have access to a larger group of reviewers.

Please don’t get me wrong, fake reviews are not good – they are often called ‘sock puppet’ reviews. However, many readers become pen-pal friends of their favourite writers these days, and what is wrong with that for Heaven’s Sake?

Having said that, Amazon is quite happy to let Trolls leave ten-word shyte reviews without ever having proved that they have read the book (by having purchased it – called ‘a verified purchase review’).

No, they’re fine!

But why are they? I don’t understand…

The current Reviews of Books on Amazon policy stinks because it favours famous authors with representation in the form of an agent or and publisher, so it should be changed, but that is unlikely… just look at how Amazon rewards their top Kindle Unlimited authors with tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses leaving most people with an income under $20.

Another problem with reviews concern series. ONE woman didn’t like ONE book in a 24-part series but her review is attached to all of those books!

Is that mind-blowingly bonkers or what!

The other issue that they fall down on is taxation. Amazon is the only on-line company that I know of that makes the vendor, writer, in my case, work out the tax and add it to the cost of the item, book, for each country the item is sold in!

This is Stone-age lunacy!

I do all my own work myself, and am expected to work out the various taxes for fifteen countries for each of my 140 books?!

Aren’t repetitive mundane tasks what computers are supposed to be good at?

Put it this way: Amazon is by far the biggest on-line retailer of books, but it is the only retailer who forces its authors (and every other vendor) to do this.

I think that the CEO of Amazon should pack it in and grow sweetcorn. Let them head-hunt someone who really knows about taxation and fairness.

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All the best.

Owen

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Amazon Book Reviews

Published by Owen Jones on 10 August 2015
Amazon Book Reviews

Amazon Book Reviews

Amazon Book Reviews

My take on the recent controversy regarding Amazon book reviews is that Amazon seems to be disregarding the modern trend in the book reader-writer relationship.

In the ‘old days’, readers were not encouraged to form any type of relationship with their favourite writers, who mostly liked to maintain an image of cool aloofness. Any reader seeking a closer intimacy with a writer had first to write to the relevant literary agent, who passed the letters on. This is probably still true of the internationally famous, but the rest of us indie, self-published authors find it better to be be more accessible to our readership.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Amazon is in the process of scything out millions of reviews where they think the author knows the reviewer (and thereby suggesting corruption, which does exist for sure).

I am an unknown author in the scheme of things, but it is not unusual for me to receive two dozen emails and posts a week regarding my books from readers who are total strangers. I reply to each of these no matter what they are about and I am normally thanked for doing so.

The relationship stops there about half the time, but I regularly write to others, share jokes and photos etc. I have even met a few when they have visited Thailand, which involves not inconsiderable expense on my behalf as I live out in the wilds, but I do it to meet people who like my work.

However, the point is, long before this relationship has been formed, the reader has usually written an Amazon review or two of my books (they tend to be in series), so I (and they) are now to be penalised because I am accessible.

That doesn’t sound right to me.

Is Amazon trying to tell me, with the subtlety of a sledgehammer that I may not talk with readers who like my books, if I value their Amazon book reviews?

Basically, there are two types of reviewer. The one that posts a review and then emails me to say that he or she enjoyed the book and has posted a review, and the one who doesn’t contact me and posts an average to bad review.

By Amazon’s new rule, I will lose all those good reviews yet get left with all the crappy ones. That isn’t fair at all, and certainly doesn’t leave Amazon with a balanced public appreciation of my books.

I can only infer that Amazon would prefer me not to talk to my readers, as the well-known authors don’t talk to theirs, but that is not fair – we are different horses running different courses.

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All the best,

Owen

PS: Don’t take any notice of Amazon’s draconian rules on Amazon book reviews, please leave comments and reviews, I love to read them, and get in touch if you like.

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Bilingual in Chile

Published by Owen Jones on 19 November 2014
Bilingual in Chile - An Impossible Dream?

Bilingual in Chile

 

Bilingual in Chile – An Impossible Dream?

by Professor Thomas Jerome Baker
*****

Review by Owen Jones

‘Bilingual in Chile’ is a technical treatise, I hope that’s the correct phrase, something that I haven’t read for several decades, but I wanted to read it because it is on a subject that has been close to my heart for even several decades longer than that.

That makes sixty years, right? Well, in that case I’m six years out, but it’s close enough. You see, I grew up in an English-speaking family in Wales, where it was compulsory to learn Welsh in school. So when I started school at six years of age, I couldn’t understand why they were making me speak gobbledygook.

I learned that it was the original language of my country, liked my teacher and so had fun learning it. I had no idea at the time, what an effect starting to learn languages from such an early age would have upon my life.

I have been fluent in seven languages and am now learning Thai and have lived abroad comfortably for half of my life. Starting to learn languages so young dissolved the fear of doing it before I remember having it, but perhaps I never did.

I have never seen what I just expressed anywhere except in Baker’s book and he makes the point very cogently.

Baker uses copious references and block quotes from other experts in the field to support his theories, proposed solutions and ideas, in a way that makes the flow of his argument easy to follow.

I have some knowledge of schooling in Thailand and can see how much, if not all, of this book can be applied to this country as well.

If you are interested in languages, teaching them or speaking them, or in their relevance to a local or even national economy, then I am sure that you will find ‘Bilingual in Chile – An Impossible Dream?’ interesting.

My only criticisms do not concern the content of ‘Bilingual in Chile – An Impossible Dream?’, but of the format and they make the book unnecessarily confusing.

Firstly, in the foreword, Baker refers to the publication as a book, but within the book, he refers to some chapters as posts, betraying the possible original construction of the book. This is further borne out by adverts appearing in the post-chapters, which would be more fitting at the very end of the book. Secondly, there seem to be three different covers.

Amazon Image   Bilingual in Chile: An Impossible Dream?

Review only, of ‘Bilingual in Chile’ by +Owen Jones

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Something Must be Done and Crazy Medicine

Published by Owen Jones on 17 November 2014 1
Something Must be Done and Crazy Medicine

Something Must be Done and Crazy Medicine

 

‘Something Must be Done’ and ‘Crazy Medicine’

by Matt Carrell

Review by Owen Jones
*****

‘Something Must be Done’ and ‘Crazy Medicine’ ( a short story in the book ‘Thai Lottery’)

I read ‘Crazy Medicine’ first, but a year or two ago. I think I found it on Carrell’s web site as a sampler. Then I was given it together with ‘Something Must be Done’.

Since I had enjoyed it so much the first time, I read it again. It is set in Thailand and gives an accurate impression of how most girls work with caring Mama Sans in the Land of Smiles.

All too often writers with personal agendas give the  impression that the Mama San is some sort of greedy pimp only in it for the money she can screw out of the girls and their clients.

However, this is not my experience. They are usually ex-working girls themselves, who either are in a stable relationship or are getting too long in the tooth. They often fulfil the roles of Agony Aunt and Mrs. Fix-it for the younger, inexperienced girls.

Carrell brings this relationship out perfectly in this story..
The second story is set in the UK and the USA. It considers the question of how external forces beyond one’s control can severely affect one’s life.

I liked this story relating to juvenile gun crime very much as well.

Both shorts tell tales that invite the reader to make moral judgements, but Carrell does not force his own opinions upon us. Rather we are shown aspects that he finds important and encouraged to think about them.

I wholeheartedly recommend that you read both of these short stories, but I don’t know where you’d find the first one.

Perhaps Mr. Carrell would provide the link in the comments box below.

Amazon Image   Thai Lottery… and Other Stories from Pattaya, Thailand

Reviews only, of  ‘Something Must be Done’ and ‘Crazy Medicine’, by +Owen Jones

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More Addams than Gothic Vampire

Published by Owen Jones on 25 July 2014 1
Not a Trad Vlad Gothic Vampire

The Disallowed

 

The Disallowed

A Story of Modern Vampires

by Owen Jones

 

More Addams Family than Trad Vlad Gothic Vampire

 

Review by Barry Boy

The DisallowedA story of modern vampiresNot trad vladmodern day vampiresFive Star review from Amazon

 

 

I can virtually guarantee that you have never read a book that purports to be about vampires like this one before! This story is not your Trad Vlad Gothic vampire tale of old by any means!

The Disallowed by Owen Jones is billed as ‘The Story of a Contemporary Vampire Family’ and as such bears more of a relationship with the Addams Family than any Hammer House of Horror film from the Sixties or Seventies.

Heng Lee, the main character in the book, is a goatherd, who suffers catastrophic organ failure over a short period of time while going about his life and work in the mountains where he has a farm and lives with his family: a wife and two teenage children.

Heng is expected to die, because they do not have enough money to pay for proper hospital treatment, which in  any case is a long way off. However, the local Shaman comes up with an idea that might save his life.

The cure is radical and comical, but it does seem to work, although it changes Heng completely and in such a way, that others want to be like him. This is the charming and often humorous story of Heng Lee – a modern vampire, his contemporary vampire family and the whole community where they live.

Do modern vampires really exist? You may wish that you could join Heng and his community too after reading this story, Jones makes it sound almost idyllic!

If you like a bit of humour and something new, a different twist on the old Gothic vampire story, you should give The Disallowed a go, I am sure that you will not regret it!

Amazon Image     The Disallowed: The Tale of a Contemporary Vampire Family – Not your old trad Vlad Gothic Vampire!

(c) Owen Jones Megan Publishing Services 2014

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Daddy’s Hobby in Review

Published by Owen Jones on 23 May 2014 1
The Behind The Smile story - book cover - Pattaya Beach Road
Daddy’s Hobby in Review

Daddy’s Hobby in Review originally on Amazon.

Volume One of Behind The Smile

5.0 out of 5 stars Exemplary, May 16, 2014

ChristophFischerBooks “”diebus””

This review is from: Daddy’s Hobby (Behind The Smile – The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya) (Kindle Edition)

“Daddy’s Hobby (Behind The Smile – The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya)” by Owen Jones is an insightful look into the life of a Thai bar girl. It is a moving story that shines through its exemplary realism. Jones shows real life drama as I imagine it much more likely than stories on the subject that I have read. It tells a tale of tragedy and hope, of love, prostitution and the grey area between without drifting into thriller and political territory, which makes it so much more powerful.
Well worth reading.

Read more here: Behind The Smile

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