Why don’t authors leave reviews for books?
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How have you all been? Spring is finally arriving to my neck of the woods – which is a good thing and a bad thing. Warmer weather is starting to appear, but we’ve had so much snow this past winter that creeks and rivers have been flooding with the snow melt. It is nice to see the end of this past winter, however…
I’ve also finished my taxes for the year…sigh…I hate doing my taxes!!
As part of all the paperwork for doing my taxes, I need to figure out how much I made from royalties.
WOW!
Thank you all very much! I sold quite a few books last year!
The whole reason for writing the books that I do, is to be helpful to as many people as I can. I hope that people have found my books helpful.
This brings me to the subject of reviews.
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If I sold thousands of books last year, why do my reviews number less than 50 for each title?
It’s true that I’ve had quite a few reviews removed from Amazon. com by Amazon. (note – the reviews have only been removed from Amazon.com, not the other Amazon platforms) The excuses vary from ‘Authors are not allowed to review other author’s books’ to ‘You have a personal relationship with the author.’
Amazon seems to apply these rules unequally, however. My co-author for one of my books and two of my siblings have reviewed my books and these reviews are still present. Clearly the ‘personal relationship’ isn’t equally applied. And since my only audience is authors, the ‘Authors are not allowed to review other author’s books’ is a bit of a problem. However, when I look at the reviews that still stand, and do a bit of research, most are from published authors. So, clearly that rule isn’t evenly enforced either.
The experts say to disconnect all your social media from Amazon…truth or wild guess?
One comment that is floating around the internet is that Amazon determines who your connections are by who follows you on various social media. The advice that is handed out is to disconnect social media from Amazon and Goodreads – in essence, hide your social media connections from Amazon. I don’t do that as I feel that removing various connections points is hindering my ability to grow and foster my online presence. To remove my connections from Amazon prevents current readers and potential readers from finding and following me. Essentially cutting off my nose to spite my face.
So I went looking – and as far as I can figure, everyone who has reviewed my books on Amazon.com follows me on one social media – most on more than one. In fact, several of my reviews are from people who I interact with regularly on social media.
And although I haven’t had any reviews taken down by Amazon in quite some time, I remember the notes that I would get from people whose reviews were taken down – the outrage! In quite a few instances, I went looking for those people on my social media streams – they weren’t there. These people didn’t follow me – and I didn’t know them from Adam.
What this all adds up to is Amazon cherry picking which review to remove and which to not. Just like the recent stories of authors having their accounts shut down for alleged manipulation of the system – something clearly triggers an internal algorithm at Amazon and action is taken. Amazon sends the ‘offender’ a form letter that generally isn’t helpful. It is up to the ‘offender’ to follow up with Amazon. In my experience, Amazon seems to be more responsive to authors who have had their account taken down than reviewers having their reviews taken down. Perhaps understanding the difference between taking someone’s livelihood away vs removing reviews.
Are authors lazy?
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Most authors that I talk to are VERY aware of reviews – of the importance of reviews on Amazon, of the importance of reviews as social proof in various places.
That begs the question…if authors are very aware of the importance of reviews and my only audience is authors and I’ve sold thousands of books – why don’t I have a larger collection of reviews? Doing a brief scan of relevant research, I see that only 12 – 24% of purchasers leave reviews. That’s a pretty small number, yet that is from a general audience, not an educated audience – and audience that is seeking the same thing – social proof for their work.
So is it a case of authors saying “Do as I say…Not as I Do?”
What are your thoughts?
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[image error] Yes, the latest book has been released. Too much going on lately to share news properly, but anticipate an announcement mid-week. If you are interested in a sneak peek – here’s the Amazon link.
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