Warning: there is somebody selling books on Amazon under the name "Stephen King" but he's not THE

[raccoon]

Stephen King.

I thought it was weird when I saw all these "Stephen King" books that I've never heard of.

Thanks to the reviews, I was warned off (plus I rarely buy books).

Just a warning....

[valerief]

1. Ha! I found his page.

http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-King/e/B01B3DA5TI/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_7?qid=1466040710&sr=1-7

[mainer]

2. How the hell can Amazon allow this?

Now it's time for me to sell books under the name James Patterson.

[SheilaT]

3. Anyone can publish under any name they want.

It's dishonest, in my opinion, to use the name of someone so incredibly well known and successful, but Amazon has no control over the name the author is using.

Notice that all of these are self-published digital, which, quite frankly, is by itself an indication that they probably aren't worth reading no matter what author name was used.

It's highly possible that the writer's name really is Stephen King -- there are probably many thousands of guys in this country with that specific name, and thought it would be cute not to use a middle initial or another name entirely. Clearly, there's an intention to cash in on the famous name, but looking at the reviews, the vast majority are one stars, and the only good reviews seem to be from people who didn't notice and didn't care that this is the same SK. Or who perhaps are related to the author.

I generally take a look at reviews of books before I decide to purchase. I've more or less figured out how to spot the phony reviews from the real ones. And I can't give you a formula, just that once I've read through a bunch of positive and negative reviews for the same work, I can generally figure out if it's worth my time to read.