Amazon’s Review Purge
It has been a worrying week for authors, what with Amazon’s ongoing Stalinesque review purge. Many authors have had reviews removed for their books, and some have lost all their reviews. For authors who have spent in many instances years gathering reviews, this is deeply distressing. The #giveourreviewsback hashtag has been trending on Twitter.
Amazon’s review writing rules change periodically. They now forbid anyone connected to the author (i.e. family members) writing a review. In addition they don’t permit review exchange services, and those who want to leave a review have to have spent x amount on the regional Amazon concerned. I think $50. Whilst this is fair enough many authors have complained they are having ‘genuine’ reviews removed.
To date (cue touch wood), I have only had a handful of reviews removed. My concern and many others is that Amazon has now frozen our accounts, meaning we cannot receive reviews in the future. I am suspicious about the absence of new reviews for the first two instalments in my Necropolis trilogy. I am currently awaiting a response from Amazon about this. Fingers crossed it is okay because the alternative does not bear thinking about.
Here is a picture of my dog. Something outside had caught his attention. Either a bird or the Amazon delivery man. As I heard footsteps approaching I told myself, It’s not the Amazon delivery man’s fault.
I hope you are all enjoying the World Cup. I just got this Panini World Cup Italia 90 inspired mug from Sainsbury’s. It is bringing back a lot of childhood memories.
If you are looking for reading recommendations might I suggest you check out the book review section of my blog. You will find 131 of my reviews there.
Nice mug and dog. I just looked at the twitter #. It’s a glitch I guess. They’ll sort it out. Writers have to think about other avenues to sell their books.
That is true, Trina.
That’s quite worrying, Guy. I must have had my head buried in the sand because I’ve heard nothing about his although I don’t go on Twitter as much as I used to do so that’s perhaps why. I hope things get sorted out as it doesn’t seem fair for authors to lose genuine reviews. 🙂
Future reviews being blocked is what I am concerned about. But I guess if one builds on another man’s land, this is the risk one takes. Have a good weekend, Heather. Hope your writing and promotions are going well. I just received your newsletter.
I lost a bunch on My GRL. As far as I can tell they were all legitamate. I hate the idea of readers having to spend a certain amount to be able to post a review.
I believe you are correct John. My concern now is future reviews. Have a good weekend.
Do you know if I can see if any of my reviews have been removed? Almost a kind of censorship of the reviewer. It is bizarre how little amazon care about these things.
Yours are okay, Jason. Let’s see what happens. Have a good weekend.