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Comment by keslag | Hacker News Reader

A book released today with a 5 star rating about how much the reviewer needed this book? Horse shit. If it was your mom, I might buy it. My mom would give 5 stars and babble on about how cute I was as a baby. But Si Dunn rates almost everything 5 stars, and everything is life changing to this manning plant.

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Lots of books will have pre-release and the author asks the reviewer to comment on Amazon on release day.

Take down your anger level a bit. The world ain't so bad.. :)

So, because many publishers have fake accounts that lie, I should give this one a pass? Pete, I encourage you to write a book. The world is far worse than you seem to think.

The publishers send out review copies to people. Sometimes they get 5 stars, sometimes they get three. The publishers don't tell the reviewers to give them five stars, they ask for an honest review. Do they send lots of books to reviewers that tend to give five stars, probably, they aren't gluttons for punishment. But that's a far cry from fake accounts.

If you read in there, Si Dunn won't write the review unless he gives it 4 or 5 stars. He then sells the books he reviews back on Amazon. He doesn't do ebook reviews because you can't sell the ebook. So he gets paid about 65-75% of list. Looking at his reviews and twitter feed, it's a few hundred a month, and for a writer who quotes more than he reviews, probably not more than a few hours work.

https://sagecreek.wordpress.com/about/

People can keep downvoting me, but it doesn't make that 5 star review any more legitimate.

So what if he makes a few bucks on it? The publishers don't pay him, they give him the same thing they give all the reviewers they request reviews from, a free book. He doesn't guarantee a good review in exchange, he guarantee he will either give a good review, a mediocre review, or no review. 4 stars on Amazon means the book is mediocre. If he doesn't like it, he doesn't review it.

That doesn't make his 5 star review illegitimate at all. If he thought it was a 4 star book, he would give it four stars, if he thought it was a 3 star book, he wouldn't give a rating. He gave it 5 stars because he thinks it is worth 5 stars.

------------

His note in full from your link:

------------ NOTE: I am not paid by publishers to review and tout their books. And I do not guarantee to publish a review about a particular book. If I do not like a book, I will not review it here. Writing a book requires significant time, effort, and expense, and I will not trash someone else’s writing. My goal here is to provide what I hope is an honest assessment and provide useful information to readers seeking particular types of books. Sometimes I offer a few critical comments, but mostly, I try to provide useful information that can help a reader decide to purchase a book–or not.

I receive sample copies from publishers, and I am under no obligation to publish reviews of any of those books. Indeed, I review only the books that I want to review, and I try to assess how well I think the books meet the goals set forth by their writers.

Publishers may mail printed books for possible review (no promises!) to: Si Dunn, Sagecreek Productions LLC, 1101 W. 34th St., #131, Austin, TX 78705-1907. As a general rule, I do not review e-books.

If you buy a book or e-book through links published in one of my reviews, I will make a few dimes (and not much more!) through my Amazon Affiliate account. Periodically, after printed books have been on my shelves for a while, I have to make room for new ones. So I sell some of the reviewed books on the used-book market. A few get donated to libraries. And a few are passed along to friends and relatives.

Book reviewing definitely is not a way to get rich quick–nor slowly. But reviewing is something I have done, part-time, for more than 35 years, mainly because I love books and enjoy helping authors reach new readers.

> (My thanks to Manning for providing a review copy.)

In England that line needs to go at the front of the review, but even so the reviewer is open about the relationship.

He seems legit, unless this page is just a pack of lies, which is quite possible I suppose: https://sagecreek.wordpress.com/about/

No he doesn't. Si Dunn only gives out 4 & 5 star reviews with the vast majority being 5 star. Si Dunn also isn't a programmer, he's a non fiction author and professional book reviewer. He's a shill, his reviews are all the same formulaic BS. He doesn't understand enough about writing code to actually review the book and instead fills space by using author quotes or lists the definitions of what the technology is.

In fairness to Si Dunn, he DOES disclaim on the linked about page: "NOTE: I am not paid by publishers to review and tout their books. And I do not guarantee to publish a review about a particular book. If I do not like a book, I will not review it here. Writing a book requires significant time, effort, and expense, and I will not trash someone else’s writing."

If only there was a way to review the reviewers...

He sells the books after reviewing them. He gets paid.

From another review of his: "I have had a long-term, love-ignore relationship with Node.js. I have taken Node classes, read Node books, and tinkered with Node programming both on Windows and Linux machines. Sometimes I have loved working with Node.js. Other times, I have ignored it for months at a stretch while I rush around trying out other choices and development distractions: Clojure, Erlang, Grails, Hadoop, and Ember.js, for example — the list goes on and on."

Sounds like he programs too.

Look, I could be wrong. I just find it very hard to believe that the man who read and understood the content of over 30 programming and web development books, has only come up with this http://www.sagecreekproductions.com as his company's web page. His github shows he started the first couple pages of a node book, but didn't get past the init commit. https://github.com/sidunn. I don't buy it, and I'm going to stop responding because there is more than enough information out there for people to make their own conclusions. But it's disingenuous at best to have this man review development books.

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