Infiltration... Top selling catholic book on amazon

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How dare you, sir, a lawyer has never been wrong about anything.
 
AlNg said:
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LawyersGunsAndMoney:
saying “it’s popular and also he has a family” doesn’t prove anything.
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Sorry Mr,. Lawyer but you are wrong as so many other lawyers have been wrong. When a book gets excellent reviews by so many hundreds of people who have bought and read the book, and so few negative reviews, it does say something.
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My understanding is that they had a marketing plan in place which was tailored to create positive reviews on Amazon prior to the launch of the book. Apparently there was a list of 2,000 “marketing team members”. If I’m wrong or being uncharitable in my understanding please let me know.
 
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to my understanding is that they had a marketing plan in place which was tailored to create positive reviews on Amazon prior to the launch of the book. Apparently there was a list of 2,000 “marketing team members”. If I’m wrong or being uncharitable in my understanding please let me know.
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even if that is true (personaly I do not know), it is a common tactic used by most publisher nowadays… nothing out of the ordinary.
 
LawyersGunsAndMoney said:
Note that I have never read the book, so I’m agnostic on whether or not it’s good. Just pointing out that saying “it’s popular and also he has a family” doesn’t prove anything.
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Agree.

Authors work hard to get good reviews on Amazon. They encourage their family, circle of friends, to both buy the book and give reviews. This is how you work the algorithm and it is a science.

Looking at the Amazon reviews, when you get past the first 5 ish pages, suddenly the “verified purchase” insignia is not often seen (I did not scroll through every page, my sort was set by “top rated”.

I am going to ignore every review that does not have a “verified purchase”, those tend to come from either super fans, family or people who simply despise the author.
 
Rational1 said:
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AlNg:
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LawyersGunsAndMoney:
saying “it’s popular and also he has a family” doesn’t prove anything.
Click to expand...
Sorry Mr,. Lawyer but you are wrong as so many other lawyers have been wrong. When a book gets excellent reviews by so many hundreds of people who have bought and read the book, and so few negative reviews, it does say something.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that they had a marketing plan in place which was tailored to create positive reviews on Amazon prior to the launch of the book. Apparently there was a list of 2,000 “marketing team members”. If I’m wrong or being uncharitable in my understanding please let me know.
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He asked 200 people to read a pdf version and then write a review on the book. I’m not sure exactly where the 2000 figure originated from, but it seems to be a common mistake that is starting to spread.
 
Crusader13 said:
He asked 200 people to read a pdf version and then write a review on the book.
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There were 934 reviews of the book. With 89% giving 5 star and 10% giving 4 star ratings. It lists many as verified purchasers of the book (Kindle version). And you can check to see whether this is the only thing that a particular reviewer has ever reviewed.
 
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AlNg said:
There were 934 reviews of the book. With 89% giving 5 star and 10% giving 5 star ratings.
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None of that makes the book “good.” I’m sure I could find an anti-Catholic book with a lot of positive reviews from Protestant readers. It wouldn’t prove the book is true or anything.

Again, keep in mind I’m not saying I’m against this guys book. I’ve never read it. Maybe it’s awesome. I’m just saying the fact that it has a bunch of five star reviews doesn’t “prove” anything.
 
LawyersGunsAndMoney said:
I’m just saying the fact that it has a bunch of five star reviews doesn’t “prove” anything.
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It was a typo - there were 10% giving 4 star ratings.
I would disagree. The fact that there are so few negative reviews does prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there are few people who disagree with what is written in the book.
LawyersGunsAndMoney said:
I’ve never read it
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Perhaps you should read it first and then tell us if the high ratings it has received on amazon are warranted.
BTW, how many of the 934 reviews have you read? remember 99% of the reviews are either 4 or 5 star. At this point in time, there are very few negative reviews of the book.
 
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AlNg said:
The fact that there are so few negative reviews does prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there are few people who disagree with what is written in the book.
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It simply proves that those who do not buy into the premise will not spend $$ on the book
 
I got the number from a book review site but it could have been a typo by the reviewer adding an extra zero to the number. Thank you for pointing it out.
 
AlNg said:
The fact that there are so few negative reviews does prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there are few people who disagree with what is written in the book.
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The book literally came out 5 days ago. It hasn’t had time to sit amongst the general public and elicit regular reviews.

Most of the reviews are from people who received advanced copies of the book, and those recipients were likely selected from sympathetic audience. I know Marshall has his whole subscription service going, so there is a built in group of receptive reviewers right there.

EDIT: There is certainly a concerted effort to garner positive reviews. I don’t know how else one would explain that this book—after only 5 days—has hundreds of more reviews than does classic Hahn books like Rome Sweet Home and The Lamb’s Supper that have been out for more than 20 years and are among the most popular Catholic books of the past 30 years.
 
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Honeslty, I wish Amazon would limit reviews to verified purchases. At least then you know that they were willing to fork over twenty something dollars.
 
I wanted to read it for curiosity’s sake. Then Marshall spent more than a month (and counting) hawking it in PT Barnum-esque fashion. I shouldn’t need to be hustled into reading something from a reputable scholar.
 
I am a fan of Dr. Marshall. His podcasts that I’ve listened to are excellent, and I enjoy his newsletter when I read it.

I look forward to reading this book eventually. I don’t really care if it’s at the top of the best seller’s list. That nonsense DaVinci Code was on the top of the best sellers list, so was Twilight, and they were both still garbage.

I have always found Dr. Marshal to be reasonable, and his work well-founded.
 
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Joe_5859 said:
I have to say, this sort of encapsulates my worst fears about what the book could be like. I used to like Taylor Marshall’s writings, but he seems to be going more and more into conspiracy theory territory as of late. If this book is a continuation of that trajectory, I think I’ll pass.
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I got an advanced copy of the book yesterday and I’m already on page 93. It’s hard to put it down… Very interesting.
 
Jesus calling? Anyone making a huge profit from allegedly being a prophet is a con. Don’t think so? Watch a few of Fr. John Hardon’s vids on YouTube about Visions and Visionaries.

The world abounds in fakes.
 
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