IT’S been like Cluedo this week as scandal rages through the world of crime writing.
Well-known authors have been exposed for setting up fake identities on blogs, Amazon and Twitter – “sock puppet” accounts – to write glowing reviews of their books and trash rivals.
Writer Jeremy Duns unravelled the story on Twitter and it spread into national newspapers. One author has owned up and apologised. The hunt for more sock puppeteers goes on.
Publishing is cut-throat. With spending restricted and the explosion of ebooks, there are a lot of writers looking for a paying audience.
That said, it surprises me that a successful author should knit themselves a cat’s cradle of fake support to make a sale.
And the revelation is even more distressing for new authors such as myself who – without the support of a publishing house or back catalogue – rely on these very blogs, tweets and Amazon reviews to build an audience.
If readers come to think all those 5* recommendations are a fraud the foundations of the system will crack.
The fiction must stop on the final page.
I want my Danny Lancaster crime novels – The Wreck Of The Margherita and Death Squad – to succeed, to top bestseller lists and transfer into TV and films.
It’s a mountain to climb and competition is ferocious but if Danny makes it he will do so on his own two feet.
While on the subject of deceit, I would like to add that I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs, never claimed a duck house on expenses and, sadly, never had any illicit trysts with attractive chanteuses.
Probably why I find so much time to write.
Come to think of it, writing is probably the better option. As an author, you can steal, shag and shoot people till tea time and no one gets hurt.
After months of trench warfare with BT Yahoo we have a breakthrough.
I have managed to email subscribers to Operation eBook Drop which provides free ebooks to serving coalition troops. And already some have taken up the offer.
It’s strange to think that people somewhere hot behind a Hesco barrier are reading Danny.
@williamjtodd
www.facebook.com/DannyLancasterInvestigates