Hater

[hailey43]

I found this book incredible, so I had to come and tell people about it!
Moody's writing style is very good and gets you to like his characters almost instantly as they are very real, every day normal people and face the challenges normal people face; difficult bosses and misbehaving children etc. But then the 'change' happens and people start killing others as the unchanged assume as Hate crime.

I don't want to give away any spoilers as I don't know whether any of you have read it or not...but it is a very good read and it goes along the lines of a zombie-esque apocalypse with a twist. Had me gripped from page 1.

If anyone has read this, I would love to know what you thought, if not...go and read it! Definitely worth it.

Hailey

[Hazel]

Hmmm. First time poster, yep. Raving about a book, yep. No 'real' details or analysis, yep. No introductory post, yep. A wealth of 5 star reviews on Amazon...nope. Hmmm. Not the usual shill posting but still not convinced.

[megustaleer]

Not recently published, either.
Maybe hailey43 has just accidentally formulated this post to look like spam. I'm prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Not my genre, anyway.

[MisterHobgoblin]

What Meg said. If I were the author looking to shill a book, I'd try shilling the most recently published one.

On the other hand, I doubt that Hailey was born in 1943 - it would be a creative name for wartime parents and at 68 years old she might be rather old for this genre. However, David Moody is 41, so if Hailey is 43 she might be a friend...

[Grammath]

Although I've never heard of David Moody, this Guardian article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/24/self-publishing-stars) suggests he does have a lot of fans.

[Jeremy DEagle]

Spam!

[lunababymoonchild]

Spam!

[Hazel]

The "had me gripped at page 1" nonsense annoyed me.

[David]

I've been having a think about this issue lately.

For those not aware (and Hayley, if she's genuine) BGO has long had a problem with thinly-disguised promotional posts where authors/friends/relatives/publicists turn up and post just the once raving about this marvellous book they've just discovered that everyone must read.

Clues are:

Just the one post
Usually vague about plot, just raves
Usually self-published book (with 5 star reviews on Amazon)
Often a friend recommended
Expression of impulse to go out and tell people
Encouragement to buy the book
Often a link to do this or go to author's site
Same post appears in multiple forums

The last is always the decider for me and guarantees deletion. I haven't seen this one elsewhere.

If I delete I always send an explanatory PM encouraging the member to particpate widely in the community, thereby demonstrating their sincerity and entitling them to re-post about the book or noting they can make an open promotion in Writers' Corner, so long as they're honest about their connection.

My most recent encounters of this nature (there have been many) involved an encouragement for me to do something to myself usually related to carpentry as well as a lengthier interchange with another protesting poster who, after a little tec work with IP addresses, turned out to live just down the road in New Jersey from the school where the self-published author was a teacher.

In short I think it's difficult to be sure in a lot of cases but I really dislike the idea of the board being exploited by people with promotional agendas. If you really like a book are you actually just going to join a group specifically to post about that one book? It doesn't feel convincing on a human level, to be honest.

[megustaleer]

It is unusual for a book promoted in that manner not to be newly published, but it is the first of a trilogy, with the third due out this year, so maybe that will be the real promo book?
I understand that the film rights to Hater have been sold, too, so perhaps we should be looking out for posts in the film forum?

I hope this is a genuine reader, as Moody is a Brummie, so I wouldn't like to think of him stooping to underhand promotions.

[hailey43]

This wasn't spam, I was genuinely impressed with the book...yes, this is my first post and I'm not entirely sure on the general way that you guys do discuss books that you'd read, as I'd mentioned in the post I didn't want to say too much on the book as I didn't know whether you guys had read it or not.

I am new to this kind of thing and I wasn't aware that I needed to do an introductory post, will do that at some point. I am sorry for any offence caused

Hailey

[David]

This wasn't spam, I was genuinely impressed with the book...
Fair enough. As I noted earlier it's difficult to be sure. Anyway, the one sure way of convincing people is to get stuck in around the board. Promoters never bother taking the time to do that.

[hailey43]

Will definitely be doing it; I'm always reading...just trying to find the time to write about all the brilliant books I've read hehe

Hailey

[Jeremy DEagle]

Hi Hailey

Apologies from me too. There has been so much spam on here recently that anything that looks slightly out of place gets me jumping on the spamwagon!

[lunababymoonchild]

Apologies from me too, Hailey. As Jeremy said, there had been so much spam recently it's very easy to assume that everything is spam and call it such.

Welcome to the board and please do get stuck in, it's just spam that we have no patience with.