Who Is Author J. S. Lewis & Why Is He Pissing Off Other Authors?

Posted on January 20, 2014

It’s Monday, so it’s a really, really good day to discuss things that irk us, right? Exactly. And I’ve got one things on my hot plate today. Have you ever heard of author J. S. Lewis? I haven’t. Well, I hadn’t until this past weekend. He’s been a busy guy and released seven e-books on Amazon in December alone. Not bad. Not bad at all. The one book that caught my eye and I’ll focus on for the moment is Jamaican American Thug Drama (The Jamaican American Thug Drama Saga Book 1). It was released December 25th and has already garnered 62 reviews, 57 of which are five stars. He had 48 five star reviews as of Friday, 52 as of Saturday and then 57 as of Sunday. Want to know how he did it? It’s no secret. He’s been offering the method to a bunch of authors and pissing them off in the process.

Several authors reported via social media being contacted late last week by J. S. Lewis and he had something provocative to tempt them with. They told him where to stuff it. I asked two of these people to please send me screenshots of his message as proof in case I was asked and they did. Here’s the longer version of one of his messages (typos included):

“Hello (name),
I will tweet your book to my 58,000+ Twitter followers and I will post the link to your book on my facebook fanpage with 41,000+ facebook fans.

I am one of Amazon.com top 10 Bestselling Author in the Gay and Lesbian Category and I would like to share a secret to more book sales with you but am sure you already know—Millions of customers on Amazon.com relies daily on customer reviews to purchase books and I mean daily! Wow, a simple and strange secret it is. Would you like more sales? Would you like to sell the amount of books you DREAM of selling???

Then Get more positive customer reviews! And I am offering one HIGHLY POSITIVE HONEST FIVE STAR customer review from my heart based on reading the synopsis of your book, I believe you are an amazing writer, we all are, we just need to break the barrier that jails us. You can be incredibly successful! I strongly believe in Authors supporting other Authors on the pack to success!

In return, I humbly ask you to leave your review on my book on Amazon.com. Remember, we don’t have to buy each others book in order to leave a review, we can say we receive a free review copy. If you are interested, send me the link to your book so we can do this. I wish nothing but success for you. We are the Authors who will revolutionize the kindle world! My twitter is @Authorjslewis

Thanks so much for your time.”

The author he wrote to responded with this: “How can u give an honest review without reading my book??”

J. S. Lewis’s response: “read the synopsis my sister.”

And here’s another message he sent to someone on Facebook.

“Hello (name), Let’s all support each other as we stay on the path to success, I would love to post a highly positive review on your book and humbly asking you review in return, I wish nothing but the best for you. Please let me know if you accept my offer, remember you don’t have to buy my book to review because you could have gotton a free review copy.”

Have there been any biters to his request? Like I said, the book mentioned above was released on December 25th and already has 57 five star reviews. I started there and looked at the reviews themselves. Have a look for yourself here. So do any of these look like they’ve been written by someone who hasn’t actually read the book? Gonna say yes, plenty. And was there reciprocation? I looked at two of the reviewers who were authors themselves and looked at their most recent five star reviews. Fortunately, J.S. Lewis publishes his reviews under his own name (so he wasn’t difficult to spot) and you can find them all here.

J. S. Lewis has more than the one book, so there’s a good chance that some of the reviews may be spread out. And anybody he’s reviewed? I’m willing to bet they can be tied to a review on one of his. Have I looked at some of them? Yes. All of them? No. Enough of them to make some educated assumptions? Yes.

Now, I’ve read books by fellow authors and reviewed them and I reviewed them because I actually liked them (the books). I don’t make a habit of posting reviews, but I have done it. The difference is I haven’t based a review off of a back cover blurb and that’s where I draw the line.

J. S. Lewis calls himself an Amazon.com top 10 Bestselling Author. How does one achieve that? By selling books. What’s one way (of many) to sell books? By getting on the Best Seller charts. How does one accomplish that? Through reviews. How can one manipulate the system? By having reviews fabricated for them by people who haven’t actually read the book and who will receive an equally fabricated review written for them in return.

This now begs the question of whether this is an acceptable tactic or an unacceptable one. Is this just a different version of buying reviews? The currency here is an exchange and the end result is the same. To be fair, I’ll state it’s not something I’d take part in and if asked, I would refuse. But it’s entirely possible that my opinion is in the minority. So, you tell me. I’m genuinely curious as to your thoughts on this.

Yes? No? Why?

________________________
Kristoffer Gair (who formerly wrote under the pseudonym Kage Alan) is the Detroit-based author of Honor Unbound, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To My Sexual Orientation, Andy Stevenson Vs. The Lord Of The Loins, Gaylias: Operation Thunderspell, several short stories featured in anthologies (to be combined in a forthcoming book), the recently re-published novella Falling Awake, its sequel, Falling Awake II: Revenant and Falling Awake III: Requiem.

27 Responses to “Who Is Author J. S. Lewis & Why Is He Pissing Off Other Authors?”

Dorien says:
January 20, 2014 at 11:01 am
“I am one of Amazon.com top 10 Bestselling Author” (sic)

“Millions of customers on Amazon.com relies daily” (they does?)

Where can I sign up for this marvelous offer, and where do I start posting my glowing reviews? (What do you mean, “ethics?” We’re talking SALES here! Screw ethics!

Sigh.

D

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Monique says:
January 20, 2014 at 11:24 am
Wow I am surprise his ego fits in his emails. He is a self serving and pompous arse.

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Patricia Logan says:
January 20, 2014 at 12:01 pm
It is simply just another way of buying reviews, and frankly it’s getting old. This guy is amazingly pretentious (read his bio) and his career will be short lived if he thinks that garnering vapid reviews in this manner is the way to go. The fact is, my biggest fans are other authors so why would I piss them off by asking to blatantly fake my reviews for the sake of sales. That “bigger sales” line is a fantasy anyway when you look and compare his sales ranking to other authors (mine for instance) and the number of reviews. As of this morning, my latest release has 9 reviews and I know that each and every one of them read my book and took the time to write a comprehensive review for it… not the “simply spellbinding… raw and honest” type of review. Those one liners are great and some readers do review that way. I see them do it for book after book and I love them for it… but not EVERY SINGLE REVIEW down the line for one book. Those have no substance whatsoever and are obviously written from people who’ve not read the book. Some readers will be fooled by this and buy a book or two. Once they read the book, they may be disappointed or not (I have no intention of ever reading this guy’s books because of his tactics, so I will never know).

I find it hilarious that he can write back and say, “read the synopsis, my sister” and be taken seriously by another author looking for reviews. In fact, he sent this email not only to authors but to readers. Do you think readers are going to wonder whose been reviewing it with glowing reviews after disliking it themselves? That author would immediately be suspect in my book. How ridiculous. Another scammer. Well, let him have fun with that and like I said, how long is his career going to last doing this?

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Patricia (Trish) Hebel says:
January 20, 2014 at 12:01 pm
Wow! What an ego! Is it worth it to be a best selling author, knowing you achieved it by cheating? Guess he’s all about the money. What about the general public? Are we going to be able to trust any review? They already want to control the internet, just get enough people disillusioned, and that makes it a frightening possibility. Great, bring the only sources of happiness that people have left crashing down. Good going f**ktard!.

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Ryan Field says:
January 20, 2014 at 12:03 pm
I’m glad you posted about it. I don’t have any strong opinions to offer that would surprise anyone. But I’m glad you posted on the topic because I do think that if aggressive authors want to go about getting reviews this way we should know who they are.

I’m not sure about how the FTC would react to all this. I’m not an expert on the topic. In some cases there might be some alleged criminal behavior going on and it’s NOT a chance I would be willing to take with my life or with my career. This goes deeper than just sales or ranks. In some cases it might be consumer fraud. And I think we’ll be seeing more legal issues popping up in the future. And not just with book reviews, with all online reviews.

Here’s a link to an article that more involved:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2296366/Fake-Online-Reviews-Cost-19-Companies-350000

Excerpt from article:

“New York is going further. Regulators today announced their crackdown on illegal reviews, and have reached agreements with 19 different companies who will stop posting and soliciting fake reviews as well as pay $350,000 in penalties.”

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G. A. Hauser says:
January 20, 2014 at 2:20 pm
its FRAUD plain and simple. and should be subjected to criminal punishment, and amazon should pull their thumb out of their ass and delete them.

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Rondal says:
January 20, 2014 at 12:26 pm
I do not know of this guy, however I know this happens. Also many respond by posting 1star reviews if you dont agree, when clearly by their post they didn’t read. We have many author we work with and the review process is always a hot issue. Reviews being posted before the book has even been released, this I give you a 5 star you give me a 5 star. Oh and let’s not forget those persons (I refuse to call them authors) who spread 1 star rating on books similar to theirs on the day they released. The review process is being manipulated and Amazon, goodreads, and others dont seem to care.

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Etienne says:
January 20, 2014 at 12:41 pm
I got a kind or similar e-mail recently. This guy was offering to send me 85 of his books if I’d buy one book on Amazon so he could raise his sales ranking.

Needless to say, that e-mail went to the trash bucket.

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Sharita Lira says:
January 20, 2014 at 1:09 pm
I’m so glad you posted this Kris. You’re spot on with this blog. Why would any author do this? I like to earn my reviews not get suckered into doing it for someone else just to get one. This is cheating, kind of like stuffing the ballot box on voting day, which us Chicagoans are familiar with. *smiles* Anyways, this guy is a jerk and I hope anyone who might pick up his book will take another look before they do.

His so called success is obviously fabricated! Authors should care enough about their books to earn a good review not pay or do favors for a jerk like him.

Great post

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rj scott says:
January 20, 2014 at 1:18 pm
I got this email… I responded with my usual British politeness…

Hi Jay…

This isn’t something I do. I don’t encourage reviews or exchange them. Thank you for asking though.

Rj x

* * * *

And no, I never solicit reviews, pay for them, or ask for them. I send out ARCs to review sites and some of my lovely readers leave them for me. My biggest selling books have the following reviews:

Heart of texas (out since 2011) – 40 reviews
Christmas Throwaway (out since Xmas 2010) – 78 reviews

The rest of my books… meh… I have no idea… all I do know is that every single one of them is organic and true…

*mutters about cheats*

RJ X

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A.E. Via says:
January 20, 2014 at 1:20 pm
I am proud to say that I am one of the authors that turned over this information to Kris because I was outraged at the offer by this conniving bastard. I am a new writer only having published one book so far but I would never consider cheating not only readers but my fellow authors of my genre. And if you have taken Mr. Lewis up on his offer, then your fooling yourself if you’re thinking that this is not deceitful and unethical. If you are producing good work than let it speak for itself. Your readers will respect you more and continue to buy your books if you’re not trying to deceive them.
Thank you Kris for putting this person out in the open, maybe he’ll consider doing what is right before he loses the few honest readers that he might have.

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K.C. Wells says:
January 20, 2014 at 1:27 pm
Yep. I got one too.
AND IGNORE IT!!!
Sigh…

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CR Guiliano says:
January 20, 2014 at 1:57 pm
I received the exact same social media post from this author (and could have screen printed it for you as well). I ignored it. I’m not as savvy as many, and my only thought was how can anyone post a comprehensive review on a book based on the synopsis? That doesn’t make sense to me. I did have an author offer to review one of my books if I would review one of theirs. It was a simple exchange, we BOTH BOUGHT each other’s books and the reviews were honest. Neither of us asked for a glowing one, just an honest one. That I don’t mind doing, even though I don’t make a habit of reviewing at all. The saddest thing IMHO, is that it makes it very hard for us little and unknown authors to get anywhere when others are blatantly manipulating the system. *sighs*

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L.M. Brown says:
January 20, 2014 at 2:03 pm
I don’t get many reviews and very few of the ones I get are very good. When I do get a good one it makes my day completely. Getting a five star review that I haven’t earned would certainly leave a bitter taste in my mouth and I honestly don’t think my conscience would allow me to do such a thing. I might not get many five star reviews, but I like to think I have earned every one.

As for leaving reviews, I rarely do so, but when I do it not for any other reason but that I have loved the book I have read and want other people to know how amazing it is too.

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Jymbo says:
January 20, 2014 at 2:22 pm
I’m not an author, but I am a reader of a lot of different authors. I can’t possibly fathom the idea of me “selling” or “swapping” my review; which I try to post on every story I read. I like to think that my review gives the author an indication of who his/her story is reaching and how it is being received through the targeted audience. I always give an “honest” take on what I have read and to “review” a book after having read only the blurb/synopsis is about as ‘dishonest’ as I can imagine. This person’s behavior, to me, is simply deplorable and to think that he/she is glowing with all this false pride (bought and paid/swapped for) is even more apprehensible!! If this becomes ‘the norm’, then I can’t help but believe that all respect for the Genre will be soon defunct!

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LuvWarrior says:
January 20, 2014 at 3:20 pm
Horrible that anyone would stoop so low. It looks like with PRIME you can borrow some of his books. Once my Kindle is charged I might just do that. And with any luck my professional proofreading skills will tear them up. LOL

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Adrienne Wilder says:
January 20, 2014 at 4:14 pm
I recently read an article where it said that getting a top position on amazon didn’t use reviews as a part of the equation. I wonder if that’s true or not?

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Adrienne Wilder says:
January 20, 2014 at 4:14 pm
P.s.
How the hell did this guy get 41K on his fan page on FaceBook. Seriously?

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Kris says:
January 20, 2014 at 4:22 pm
That’s easy, Adrienne. It’s called Fiverr.

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Kiernan Kelly says:
January 20, 2014 at 5:27 pm
Ugh. I hate the fact that people pay for good reviews. It ranks right up there with people who trash books for no reason other than to be malicious. IMHO, they are both dishonest, and do a great disservice to potential readers.

And this guy? The worst of a bad lot. Admitting to writing a review based on the blurb? Are you freaking kidding me? What a jackass.

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LuvWarrior says:
January 20, 2014 at 5:47 pm
Okay, I borrowed a copy from Amazon Prime Lending and I am having a hard time reading this dreck. High school, amateurish and needs a good proofreader! Maybe I should offer him my services. LOL But he probably doesn’t care as long as people keep committing fraud and put up fake reviews on something they clearly haven’t read. Hmmm, sometime soon my own review will be submitted. Yes, I’ll be honest and will have read this story. Thank you.

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Joelle Casteel says:
January 20, 2014 at 7:08 pm
I agree, Kris, this is another form of buying reviews and I’d refuse if he messaged me. I do enjoy reviewing, but that’s after I’ve read the book. And yes, I’ve received plenty of free books because my friends know that I’ll give a review- and I only review if I feel good in giving a 4 or 5 star.

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Patricia Nelson says:
January 20, 2014 at 7:36 pm
What a jackass! As a reader who does reviews, the idea that someone doing a review based on the blurb/synopsis or “I’ll trade a fake review in exchange for one from you” really makes me FURIOUS!!!!!

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Adrian says:
January 20, 2014 at 10:46 pm
I got one if these messages from him and was so appalled I couldn’t even respond back. At least he’s not persistent if he doesn’t receive a message back and doesn’t harass. But this is unacceptable in my opinion.

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Patricia Lynne says:
January 20, 2014 at 11:24 pm
Last year, I had an author contact me asking to swap books and do reviews. I turned the author down because I felt it put too much pressure on both of us to pad the review and make it good. So there’s no way I’d do that. It’s sad that this is going around. Had a few other author friends lately get contacted not by this guy, but other authors wanting to fake reviews.

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Devyn Dawson says:
January 21, 2014 at 3:57 am
Not only is this person being shady, but it’s against Amazon’s rules. They don’t want authors reviewing authors books. Maybe he should be reported to Amazon and given reality a taste. For those of us who get reviews from people who like to write reviews after they’ve READ my work, it cheapens it all for us. It will catch up to him.

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Hedonist says:
January 21, 2014 at 6:45 am
Umm yeah, no. I don’t even do review swaps because I don’t want to risk being guilt tripped into leaving a review more positive than I genuinely would write. Basing a review off a blurb is just wrong, there’s no way it could be a fair representation of the book.