Rowling's "A Cuckoo's Calling" - phony marketing!

[empther]

It was listed on Amazon just this past April 30, 2013.

It was listed under the pen name Robert Galbraith who does not exist.

It was revealed only two days ago that the real author is J. K. Rowling.

But today it already has 110 Amazon Customer Reviews !!! :bigyikes:

Anybody who knows how this system works knows this is a ton of baloney. Amazon lists over four million books. A new book by an author, Robert Galbraith, who does not exist is not likely to sell more than a dozen copies in a year. Nobody has heard of such a book or its author so nobody buys it. It’s that simple.

Obviously, somebody is pumping up this book with phony Customer Reviews. It’s easy when you’re a billionaire like Rowling, or have made billions from her books like the publisher. Just pay a bunch of people the $9.99 price of the KINDLE edition to buy on their own personal computers, and they can write a glowing Customer Review, whether or not they’ve had time to read the book.

Corollary: Yesterday, there were 65 Customer Reviews, almost all of them giving the book five stars.
Today, more people have had time to independently read the book and the 110 Customer Reviews are more spread out over the one to five star spectrum.
Hmmmmmm!

 

[empther]

An Amazon Customer Review rating the book one star,
written by “Adam”

By Adam - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Cuckoo’s Calling (Hardcover)
So I bought this book 2 weeks ago, and today I discovered that it was written by JK Rowling. That explains a lot! All the glowing reviews made me think that this was going to be an interesting read, but now I realise it was probably just all part of a carefully planned marketing campaign (I see most of the writers who wrote those glowing reviews come from the same publising house, Little Brown - definitely seems fishy).

Yes, friends, we members of the moronic masses are just consumer-prey for the powers that be. :imsorry: :bighanky:

 

[BaltoCatechist]

Sometimes a famous author will release something under a pen name, just to see if it is the quality of the writing or just the name that is attracting buyers.

 

[triumphguy]

Apparently the book sold very well under the pseudonym and it was later found out to be JKR. She needs neither the fame or the fortune. She apparently was writing because as an author her purpose in life is to write.

Possibly she is a very talented writer and doesn’t need any help from Amazon or anyone else.

‘I turned down ‘Robert Galbraith’’: Editor admits rejecting JK Rowling’s secret novel

Celebrated crime writer Val McDermid, who wrote a positive “blurb” for the cover of The Cuckoo’s Calling unaware it was a Rowling work
independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/i-turned-down-robert-galbraith-editor-admits-rejecting-jk-rowlings-secret-novel-8708316.html

In the mid-1990s, a string of publishers turned down a manuscript written by an author called Joanne Rowling about a boy wizard. It was a decision that would cost them millions in lost revenues.

Now it has emerged that other publishers missed out on a more recent payday after rejecting a detective novel that the bestselling Harry Potter author submitted under a pseudonym.

They learned of their error on Sunday when JK Rowling was unmasked as Robert Galbraith, supposedly a military man and first-time crime writer of The Cuckoo’s Calling.

Kate Mills, fiction editor at Orion Publishing, came forward to admit that she had unwittingly turned down the new Rowling work, and suggested that colleagues at other publishers had done the same.

…
Celebrated crime writer Val McDermid, who wrote a positive “blurb” for the cover of The Cuckoo’s Calling unaware it was a Rowling work, said: “I have some sympathy with publishers who turned the book down. There are all sorts of reasons why people turn you down and it isn’t always to do with the quality of the book. Sadly in extraordinary circumstances like this you can look a bit of a numpty.”

Rowling said she had hoped to keep the secret longer “because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without the hype or expectation.”

 

[Bonnie]

‘I turned down ‘Robert Galbraith’’: Editor admits rejecting JK Rowling’s secret novel

That happened to Stephen King, too. He submitted a manuscript with a friend’s name & it was rejected. Humbling to find out it’s your name, and not your talent, that is selling books.

 

[triumphguy]

That happened to Stephen King, too. He submitted a manuscript with a friend’s name & it was rejected. Humbling to find out it’s your name, and not your talent, that is selling books.

People get rejected for all sorts of reasons, and not just because of lack of talent. For instance the book has to fit the publishers “style” or market.

I bet the publishers who turned down JKR 15 years ago feel pretty foolish now.

 

[jimmy]

I don’t know why the OP is so upset over this. Writers often publish under pseudonyms. This shows how talented JK Rowling is.

 

[agnes_therese]

I don’t know why the OP is so upset over this. Writers often publish under pseudonyms.

Me, neither. And 110 reviews, compared to the number of copies amazon has probably sold, isn’t much of a either.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

It was listed on Amazon just this past April 30, 2013.

It was listed under the pen name Robert Galbraith who does not exist.

It was revealed only two days ago that the real author is J. K. Rowling.

But today it already has 110 Amazon Customer Reviews !!! :bigyikes:

Anybody who knows how this system works knows this is a ton of baloney. Amazon lists over four million books. A new book by an author, Robert Galbraith, who does not exist is not likely to sell more than a dozen copies in a year. Nobody has heard of such a book or its author so nobody buys it. It’s that simple.

Obviously, somebody is pumping up this book with phony Customer Reviews. It’s easy when you’re a billionaire like Rowling, or have made billions from her books like the publisher. Just pay a bunch of people the $9.99 price of the KINDLE edition to buy on their own personal computers, and they can write a glowing Customer Review, whether or not they’ve had time to read the book.

Corollary: Yesterday, there were 65 Customer Reviews, almost all of them giving the book five stars.
Today, more people have had time to independently read the book and the 110 Customer Reviews are more spread out over the one to five star spectrum.
Hmmmmmm!

And you ‘know’ all this for a fact becauuuuuse…???

 

[jimmy]

I might go and buy the book.

 

[bluerose]

Here’s some news that’s likely to send the OP over the edge…

Almost ALL published authors ask their friends, relatives, and colleagues to write reviews for them.

I have a circle of friends who are mystery writers: Aimee and David Thurlo, Ellery Adams, Lorna Barrett (to name a few). And we do ask our fellow writers to go on amazon.com and give us a rating or review. We also ask our friends and relatives who read the book to go on amazon.com and give their reviews and ratings as well. I can honestly say that those in my little circle have a high standard of integrity… we might not give a horrible review, but we won’t give an undeserved glowing review either (nothing less than three stars, either… if it gets that low, we assume the reviewer was too polite to tell us how bad they really thought it was!)

Welcome to the world of marketing and publicity.

 

[empther]

I don’t know why the OP is so upset over this. Writers often publish under pseudonyms. This shows how talented JK Rowling is.

You don’t know how it works. It has nothing to do with how good or bad Rowling’s book is.

Amazon keeps “best seller” lists of each book genre and of all books. Here’s what you need to know. ** This list is not based on the total number of copies a book has sold but on how recently it has sold a copy, according to some scheduling formula. **For example: a week ago, a book may have rated #212,000. It hasn’t sold a copy since then. It’s rank is now #385,222 and dropping every day. Tonight, somebody buys a copy. Tomorrow, it’s sales rank will be 98,444. Then it will start dropping off again if nobody buys a copy.

People will buy a book for one of two reasons:
----- somebody told them about it,
or,
---- they saw it on Amazon’s “top 100 best selling mysteries list”.

To get your book on that “top 100” list just get a few dozen friends to buy your book and give it good reviews. Your book will be on the list for a long time.
Meanwhile, an unknown “Gone With The Wind” languishes down the list at #486,567 where nobody ever notices it.

 

[triumphguy]

Apparently JKR didn’t want anyone to know she had written this, so your theory is dis-proven.

 

[empther]

Apparently JKR didn’t want anyone to know she had written this, so your theory is dis-proven.

Incredible lack of reading comprehension!

 

[triumphguy]

Incredible lack of reading comprehension!

I think I read this right:

Obviously, somebody is pumping up this book with phony Customer Reviews. It’s easy when you’re a billionaire like Rowling, or have made billions from her books like the publisher. Just pay a bunch of people the $9.99 price of the KINDLE edition to buy on their own personal computers, and they can write a glowing Customer Review, whether or not they’ve had time to read the book.

And this:

Yes, friends, we members of the moronic masses are just consumer-prey for the powers that be.

Maybe JKR is a talented person who just likes to exercise her talent.

She exercised it when she was broke and alone. Why wouldn’t she want to exercise it when she is rich and famous?

If she just wanted to sell a ton of books she would have used her real name.

 

[empther]

Maybe JKR is a talented person who just likes to exercise her talent.

She exercised it when she was broke and alone. Why wouldn’t she want to exercise it when she is rich and famous?

It’s not talent to get a bunch of your friends,
or get the publisher to do it,
to buy a hundred or so copies of the book **in a short space of time **so as to get the book on Amazon’s “top 100” list so people will notice it as I explained in post 12.

 

[jimmy]

You don’t know how it works. It has nothing to do with how good or bad Rowling’s book is.

Amazon keeps “best seller” lists of each book genre and of all books. Here’s what you need to know. **This list is not based on the total number of copies a book has sold but on how recently it has sold a copy, according to some scheduling formula. **For example: a week ago, a book may have rated #212,000. It hasn’t sold a copy since then. It’s rank is now #385,222 and dropping every day. Tonight, somebody buys a copy. Tomorrow, it’s sales rank will be 98,444. Then it will start dropping off again if nobody buys a copy.

People will buy a book for one of two reasons:
----- somebody told them about it,
or,
---- they saw it on Amazon’s “top 100 best selling mysteries list”.

To get your book on that “top 100” list just get a few dozen friends to buy your book and give it good reviews. Your book will be on the list for a long time.
Meanwhile, an unknown “Gone With The Wind” languishes down the list at #486,567 where nobody ever notices it.

That is because it isn’t a list of all time bestsellers. It is a list of the top sellers in the present. It isn’t much different than a list of top 40 songs every week. A song might be number 1 on Americas top 40 songs today, but next week it is number 3. Is it deceptive that the leaders for box office sales at the movies changes every week? It is a sham that they don’t still list Titanic and Return of the King in the top ten each week for box office sales? It is a list of what is currently trending, and what is trendy today, might not be tomorrow. Gone with the Wind has a low ranking because no one buys it. And it takes a lot more than a dozen book sales to really make a difference on those numbers.

 

[jimmy]

It’s not talent to get a bunch of your friends,
or get the publisher to do it,
to buy a hundred or so copies of the book **in a short space of time **so as to get the book on Amazon’s “top 100” list so people will notice it as I explained in post 12.

You sound like a conspiracy theorist. Why do you assume that all the reviews are from her friends? Why do you assume that she bought all the copies that it took to give it its ranking? Maybe, just maybe, the book was good enough to actually earn those rankings and good reviews. You find it hard to believe that a first time author could become that popular? Her books are some of the highest grossing books ever, including her very first book. She did it once, why can’t it happen again?

Maybe the reviews aren’t from her friends. Maybe she actually wrote them all herself. JKR has 56 psuedonyms possibly.

 

[triumphguy]

It’s not talent to get a bunch of your friends,
or get the publisher to do it,
to buy a hundred or so copies of the book **in a short space of time **so as to get the book on Amazon’s “top 100” list so people will notice it as I explained in post 12.

Show me proof that she paid 9.99 per kindle version for a bunch of friends to write good reviews.

I’ll wait.

 

[jimmy]

I am curious how someone becomes a popular author according to your view. Apparently, an author is lucky to get a dozen sales in a year if it is his first book, even if it is genuinely a very good book. I am curious how Steven King, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, and etc. became such popular authors. If their first book sold so poorly, it is reasonable that their second, third, and fourth should have sold about the same. You really aren’t creating much of a fanbase with a dozen sales per year. What put them over the edge of success if it wasn’t a book that people actually bought and liked?