Suspense Magazine November 2012

C r e d i t s
John Raab
President & Chairman
Shannon Raab
Creative Director
Romaine Reeves
CFO
Starr Gardinier Reina
Executive Editor
Terri Ann Armstrong
Executive Editor
Jim Thomsen
Copy Editor
Contributors
Donald Allen Kirch
Mark P. Sadler
Susan Santangelo
DJ Weaver
CK Webb
Kiki Howell
Kaye George
Weldon Burge
Ashley Wintters
Scott Pearson
D.P. Lyle M.D.
Claudia Mosley
Christopher Nadeau
Kathleen Heady
Stephen Brayton
Brian Blocker
Andrew MacRae
Val Conrad
Laura Alden
Melissa Dalton
Elliott Capon
J.M. LeDuc
Holly Price
Kari Wainwright
David Ingram
Bill Craig
Jodi Hanson
Amy Lignor
Susan May
J.S. McCormick
Kestrel T. Andersen
Cassandra McNeil
Jenny Hilborne
Tanya Contois
Sharon Salonen
Anthony J. Franze
Jeanine Elizalde
Kristin Centorcelli
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We all know that writing a book is very difficult,
but marketing and getting it sold to readers is an
even more treacherous road to travel. With that said,
I’m sure you have seen in the news the last couple
of months, that some authors—and I won’t name
names here—have decided that shortcuts are the
way to go. Well, it has worked to make some very
mediocre authors a lot of money, along with some
companies.
The term that has been thrown around is sockpuppeting.
Now I don’t know about you, but when I
hear sock-puppeting, I think of a young child putting a sock on his hand, drawing a couple
of eyes and using his hand to make the puppet talk. But in this case, sock-puppeting is
when someone creates a fake account or accounts, and begins to use that account to either
talk back and forth to oneself, or simply put out fake reviews under a false name. Now,
in my book, that is simply fraud. On our radio show we were going to have one of those
authors, but they got caught in this fraud and we cancelled them because I simply don’t
think they should get any media time.
Readers and fans need to know that when they go on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
to buy books and look at reviews, they should feel confident they are getting accurate ones
and not fake ones. What is worse than that however, is hiring people to write bad reviews
against other authors, simply so they won’t sell books. This to me should be a criminal
offense. It is no different than slander or liable and those authors should be sued, exposed,
and basically raked over the coals for trying to sabotage someone else’s hard work.
Our readers that have been with us for a while should notice that our magazine will
never publish a negative review. I’ve never explained this stance, but I will now. Suspense
Magazine is in the business of being positive and not trashing someone’s work simply
because one of our reviewers didn’t care for it. That being said, all reviews in the magazine
are true with every word. We receive over three thousand books each year and simply
can’t review them all because of time and just not having enough eyes to read them. We do
get books that our reviewers do not like for whatever reason. If that is the case, we might
send it over to another reviewer to see their opinion, or simply stop reading it and move
along. We tell the author and the publisher that we simply can’t review the book and give
our reasons.
Keeping this in mind, the books we do review in the magazine are ones that we stand
behind and think readers will enjoy within the genre. We are in the business of covering
the genre and the news that comes along with it, but we want to stay positive and not get
caught up into the negative simply to be controversial, which some news outlets do.
All this being said, let me wrap this up, since I could probably go on for much longer,
but my staff only gives me one page to write and if you
meet me you will know that one page is not long enough
for me. Readers and authors need to beware, because
fraud is all around us. How long has it been going on,
that I don’t know, but I do know that it is spreading like a
bad disease. Stay with sites and magazines that have been
solid for years when looking for new authors or reviews
on your favorite ones. It is a tough world out, there so
keep your eyes and ears open.
John Raab
CEO/Publisher
Suspense Magazine
From the Editor
“Reviews within this magazine are the opinions of the individual reviewers and are provided solely to provide readers assistance
in determining another's thoughts on the book under discussion and shall not be interpreted as professional advice or the opinion
of any other than the individual reviewer. The following reviewers who may appear in this magazine are also individual clients
of Suspense Publishing, an imprint of Suspense Magazine: Mark P. Sadler, Starr Gardinier Reina, Ashley Dawn (Wintters),
DJ Weaver, CK Webb, Elliott Capon, J.M. LeDuc, and Terri Ann Armstrong.”
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