Can we really trust book reviews? (The dark side of online reviews)

The stakes are always high, whichever game you find yourself playing where the competition is exceptionally fierce. From the perspective of bookselling and publishing, this appears to be especially so. There are countless authors out there, in both the traditional and self-publishing arenas, releasing the fruits of their labours by the hundreds every week, and inevitably they’re all clamouring for your money. In years gone by, promotion was practically the sole province of the publisher, unless the author was prepared to do signing tours, and convention and literary festival appearances.

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