UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

Will wrote: "Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I knew there had to be a scam in there somewhere..."

This must be the reason why when I look up some consumer goods on Amazon, review after review says they received a free one or at a discount. I did think 'what's going on here, why has no one actually bought the flipping thing for full price?' Is this what they call Vine reviewers, or is that something else?

I think it's more a case of honesty winning out :-)
With 'real' books it's normal for the reviewer to get a free copy. I've had free copies of stuff I've reviewed in various magazines. Publishers have always done it, otherwise their books just wouldn't get reviewed. This stems from the pre-Amazon world.

So I assume that this is the same system and people just being honest about it.
At the very least it means that you can make your own mind up how much weight you give the review

Reviewers have always had more books to read than they can handle. Publishers hand out free copies to entice them - reviews and quotes have been important forever (back when ARCs were sent which did NOT look like the finished product).

I would read the reviews by Verified Purchasers, and the ones that clearly identify themselves as having received the book for free. After that, you're on your own with the reviewer's words and your own IQ to judge the validity of the review for you.

I especially look for issues such as rushed endings or bad endings otherwise, missing pages, and excessive number of typos and misspellings. Much of the rest you can determine from the sample; if there is no sample, I don't buy: something's not right.

Jim wrote: "I think it's more a case of honesty winning out :-)
With 'real' books it's normal for the reviewer to get a free copy. I've had free copies of stuff I've reviewed in various magazines. Publishers h..."

Hmm, but this was for consumer goods such as nightlights. I do wonder who gives all that sort of stuff away for a review?