Self-praise gets writers in a tangle on the Net

Net Results: You know that famous New Yorker cartoon where the dog sits at a computer with its paw on the mouse, turns to another dog to quip: "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog"?

Well, sometimes they do.

That's what somewell-known writers found last week when a software glitch on the Canadian Amazon.com website revealed the names of all anonymous book reviewers on the entire, international Amazon site - including some who'd posted fabulous, five-star anonymous reviews of their own books. The New York Times had a thoroughly entertaining story on the situation last Sunday.

Like many internet sites, Amazon has a feature that enables anyone to post a product review. Such reviews can be surprisingly influential - I know I'm not alone in having bought items - including digital cameras, laptops, modems, ice-cream machines, music CDs and books - based on such website reviews.

Oh, I'll read whatever the professional reviewers say on cnet.com or PCWorld.com or this paper's weekend books section, too. But often it's consumers on the Net who give more insight into the products that matter most to me.

That's what spurred writers to give several stars to their own books on Amazon, or get friends and family to pen effusive reviews on the site. They know sales can be shifted up or down according to what the readers on the site say.

But how embarrassing to be exposed at this reviewing sleight of hand.

Approached by Times writer Amy Harmon, some writers 'fessed up good-naturedly. Among them was Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius fame, who used the anonymous moniker "A Reader from St Louis, MO" to tout his friend Heidi Julavits's novel.

He says he did it because he felt some naysayers in the backbiting literary world had given her anonymous Amazon reviews that were unfairly brutal. And he admitted to having acted similarly on Amazon at various times on behalf of other friends.

Another prominent American writer, John Rechy, was found to have posted an enthusiastic review of his latest novel, The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens. He signed it, "A Reader from Chicago". He laughed when the Times writer cornered him.

And why not? Or more to the point, what else could he do? His name was now appearing next to the review, and better to make a joke of yourself gracefully than sputter pompously and try some ridiculous excuse.

Ah, the Net - such a great (and, thanks to the uncertainties of so much software, unexpected) leveller.

Anyway, I like the idea of this anonymous reviewer war between the literary laurelled. According to the article, whole swathes of the American literary world seem to suspect other "anons" on Amazon to be secretive but famous literary world pugilists throwing punches at their friends or themselves.

Of course, most of those reviewers are just plain book-loving folk who like contributing their point of view to Amazon.com.

They sign anonymously because they're happy being anonymous, or don't want to get weird e-mails from people, or because it's the easiest option on the reviewing form - if you check the option of not giving your name, Amazon's software detects where you are by your IP address and up pops, say, "A Reader from Dublin".

Amusingly, you can also check an option that lets you be known as the author of the work, which didn't seem to be a popular choice with the writers composing their self-praise.

How unfortunate that the likes of Voltaire, Joyce, and Mark Twain missed out on this medium! Imagine the brutal put-downs, the exquisite literary disembowellings, the sound and the fury. Especially of those who dare review their own books favourably.

Although, on the other hand, the Times points out that this is nothing new - both Walt Whitman and Anthony Burgess, among others, have given glowing reviews to their own works under pseudonyms.

And there's something rather delicious about finding that the literati are sensitive or vain or angry or desperate or - most of all - enthusiastic enough to jump into the online reviewing fray.

But then again, doesn't this describe any one of us willing to chance an arm writing a review on Amazon, posting a comment on a Net bulletin board, offering advice in a chatroom, or bickering on an e-mail list?

Why should it surprise us that those who write professionally for a living, whose names grace the bestseller lists, should go to an online forum where they too can secretly join in?

One of the best aspects of the Net is that you can go online and be yourself or be someone new, and join a huge global dialogue. You sink or swim by your ideas and how well you express them to others. Just like those poor, exposed novelists. weblog: http://weblog.techno-culture.com