My Issue With #Amazon. #FeedbackWelcome #LGBT #MathHelp

Amazon is absolutely amazing. It has allowed me to sell my books to the world. The Indie World gave me a great opportunity to have my books read. For that, I'm grateful. So, I don't want to sound whiny. I'm just frustrated because no one is listening to me.

Amazon never listens to me over certain issues, mainly reviews. They politely ignore me. I get the ever irritating response—

 We appreciate your understanding and patience in this case.

So what is my problem? I have a couple of issues with reviews.

Last week, I put Framed on discount. The last time I looked, the rating was over 4, and now it's at 3.9. Having only 14 reviews, the rating was pretty easy to calculate on my own if I'm not doing my math wrong. This is what I wrote Amazon:

I'm talking about Framed B01JJ4J508 under my penname Colleen Connally. I hadn't look at the book in ages but decided to put it up at $0.99 this Christmas. The rating caught my eye. The last time I saw it, it was over 4. Now it's at 3.9 despite it having only one negative review. It doesn't have many reviews. So, it was easy to see that there is an error.

 

4- 4 stars

9- 5 stars

1- 1 star

 

Even if you only took the US rating, it should be 4.3 with 6- 5 stars, 4- 4 stars, and 1-1 star. It looks like you took all the reviews (14) and only divided it into the US reviews.

First of all, am I doing my math wrong? I'm a writer, not a mathematician. Maybe I'm doing the math wrong. I use a calculator. They have their computer program. So, I have to be wrong...but am I?

They got back to me and told me to look at the guidelines. Not that I'm a math idiot if I was doing it wrong. It would be pretty simple to tell me if I miscalculated. But I feel its telling that they gave me the standard line, look at the guidelines. In translation, your issue isn't worth dealing with.

The second issue is with negative #LGBT reviews. My books don't have an over abundance of gay characters in them, but as in life, some do. Amazon leaves the negative reviews up, saying they are within guidelines...but are they? 

Are they leaving them up as a warning? Is it a policy to have to state you have gay characters in a book? Is it necessary? It just doesn't feel right, but hey, it is their policy. It's just something that bothers me because it isn't about the book, but the way the reviewer feels about gays.

Here are a couple of examples.

Julia

 

1.0 out of 5 stars Blindsided by homosexuality!

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2019

Verified Purchase

I read 3/4 of an otherwise interesting book when the author decided to interject homosexuality. If I wanted to read about homosexuals, I'd look for a book in that genre. So disgusted by authors who trick people into reading this trash and I won't read this author again. Just be honest and people will trust you, I certainly don't now. Bye.

 

lucy carl

2.0 out of 5 stars Seemed interesting at first...

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2020

Verified Purchase

The plot seemed very interesting and I was all set to dig in. But then the homosexual character was introduced and I shut this down. I don't read books of that nature - I really wish it had been disclosed in the description so that I wouldn't have wasted my time.

I'm not under the illusion that I will to change Amazon's mind by writing this blog.  I'm just saying they aren't listening to what I'm saying.

To Amazon, their computer program doesn't make mistakes...

But does it????