6 ms·

The reviews on Amazon look really suspicious. http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-Uncommon-Incredible-Superhuman/dp/030746363X/ http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body

by steve19 16y ago

The reviews on Amazon look really suspicious. http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-Uncommon-Incredible-Superhuman/dp/030746363X/ http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-Uncommon-Incredible-Superh... In the past few hours since the book was put on sale, there have been 90+ five star reviews. Either this is one of the best book every published, of the publisher/author has been organizing or paying for reviews.

kmfrk 16y ago
This is always the case with movies and videogames, so I think the same applies: the people who are interested in the product go to see/watch/read it first. Eventually, "everyone else" gets around to try it out, and the score drops accordingly.
- WillyF 16y ago
  Not sure that's going to happen here. Look at the reviews from the updated version of The 4HWW: http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutting-Edge/product-reviews/0307465357/ http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutti... The original edition didn't do quite as well, but it still has a huge quantity of great reviews: http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/product-reviews/0307353133/ http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/p...
  - jonhendry 16y ago
    It's a bit of a cult. But there are a more reasonable number of 1, 2, 3-star reviews.
dchest 16y ago
Some publishers/authors really organize reviews by sending preview copies of books to reviewers.
- PStamatiou 16y ago
  I am one of those. I had an advance copy, loved it and posted my review. Feel free to challenge anything in my review: http://amzn.to/hDRfVB http://amzn.to/hDRfVB
  - jonhendry 16y ago
    What did you do to get the advance copy?
    - PStamatiou 16y ago
      I've known Tim for a while now. I have a somewhat known blog and a decent Twitter following. He asked me if I wanted a copy. Related: I had mentioned Tim and something he had said about metabolism downregulation in my popular "startup diet" post this year: http://paulstamatiou.com/programmers-startup-diet-how-i-lost-35-pounds http://paulstamatiou.com/programmers-startup-diet-how-i-lost...
  - staunch 16y ago
    Since you asked: 1) You didn't disclose that you received the book as a gift from the author/publisher and in advance. 2) That you were (I presume) asked to review the book on Amazon by the author/publisher. 3) That you didn't even read the book (only "several chapters") before giving it a 5 star "review". 4) You used a URL shortener on HN. 5) You used a URL shortener to obscure the Amazon affiliate tag in your link.
    - PStamatiou 16y ago
      staunch - valid questions 1) fair point, but devil's advocate says that is to be expected considering I posted it on launch day. 2) yes, I received a friendly reminder email that today was launch day and that tim would appreciate reviews. he did not specify positive in his wording. just that he would like reviews up. 3) The book actually _recommends_ not reading it in its entirety but rather selecting a few relevant sections based on what you want to do. I am not interested in the fat loss sections as I am already at 11.8% body fat, rather I am interested in the muscle building sections. Page 11 talks about 4 different "tracks" you can take with the book: rapid fat-loss, rapid muscle gain, rapid strength gain or rapid sense of total well-being (improving sex, perfecting sleep, etc). I quote from the book: Do *not* read this book from start to finish. 4/5) I had already tweeted it earlier so it was easy for me to copy the link. As for affiliate, the HN consensus seems to be that "good faith" links with affiliate codes are okay. a book I would have recommended anyway. If HN really, really hated affiliate links then my Kindle review would not have gotten so many upvotes and 16 people would not have purchased them through me and the disclosed aff link
jonhendry 16y ago
That'd be a natural thing for him to outsource.

by steve19 16y ago

kmfrk 16y ago

This is always the case with movies and videogames, so I think the same applies: the people who are interested in the product go to see/watch/read it first. Eventually, "everyone else" gets around to try it out, and the score drops accordingly.

WillyF 16y ago
Not sure that's going to happen here. Look at the reviews from the updated version of The 4HWW: http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutting-Edge/product-reviews/0307465357/ http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutti... The original edition didn't do quite as well, but it still has a huge quantity of great reviews: http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/product-reviews/0307353133/ http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/p...
- jonhendry 16y ago
  It's a bit of a cult. But there are a more reasonable number of 1, 2, 3-star reviews.

dchest 16y ago

Some publishers/authors really organize reviews by sending preview copies of books to reviewers.

PStamatiou 16y ago
I am one of those. I had an advance copy, loved it and posted my review. Feel free to challenge anything in my review: http://amzn.to/hDRfVB http://amzn.to/hDRfVB
- jonhendry 16y ago
  What did you do to get the advance copy?
  - PStamatiou 16y ago
    I've known Tim for a while now. I have a somewhat known blog and a decent Twitter following. He asked me if I wanted a copy. Related: I had mentioned Tim and something he had said about metabolism downregulation in my popular "startup diet" post this year: http://paulstamatiou.com/programmers-startup-diet-how-i-lost-35-pounds http://paulstamatiou.com/programmers-startup-diet-how-i-lost...
- staunch 16y ago
  Since you asked: 1) You didn't disclose that you received the book as a gift from the author/publisher and in advance. 2) That you were (I presume) asked to review the book on Amazon by the author/publisher. 3) That you didn't even read the book (only "several chapters") before giving it a 5 star "review". 4) You used a URL shortener on HN. 5) You used a URL shortener to obscure the Amazon affiliate tag in your link.
  - PStamatiou 16y ago
    staunch - valid questions 1) fair point, but devil's advocate says that is to be expected considering I posted it on launch day. 2) yes, I received a friendly reminder email that today was launch day and that tim would appreciate reviews. he did not specify positive in his wording. just that he would like reviews up. 3) The book actually _recommends_ not reading it in its entirety but rather selecting a few relevant sections based on what you want to do. I am not interested in the fat loss sections as I am already at 11.8% body fat, rather I am interested in the muscle building sections. Page 11 talks about 4 different "tracks" you can take with the book: rapid fat-loss, rapid muscle gain, rapid strength gain or rapid sense of total well-being (improving sex, perfecting sleep, etc). I quote from the book: Do *not* read this book from start to finish. 4/5) I had already tweeted it earlier so it was easy for me to copy the link. As for affiliate, the HN consensus seems to be that "good faith" links with affiliate codes are okay. a book I would have recommended anyway. If HN really, really hated affiliate links then my Kindle review would not have gotten so many upvotes and 16 people would not have purchased them through me and the disclosed aff link

jonhendry 16y ago

That'd be a natural thing for him to outsource.