Vanishing Reviews on Amazon: A Threat to Authors, Reviewers, and Readers

When I first joined Facebook and Twitter as Sue Lyndon a little over a year ago, I didn't have much to say.  I had a few stories under contract that weren't yet published, but I knew it was important to get my feet wet in social networking.  Since I'm an avid reader, I decided to start reviewing all those books I was reading.  I'm sure I talked about other things, but what I remember most was reviewing books and getting to know other authors and readers with similar interests. 

Eventually I started to receive review requests from authors.  I was floored!  Of course I didn't review every book sent my way.  If the book wasn't up my alley or I read it and couldn't get into it, I politely declined the review request.  As an almost published author, it didn't feel right to leave a scathing review for a book I didn't enjoy.  So I focused on the books I enjoyed, those worthy of 4 and 5 stars in my opinion.

After my first ebooks were published and I was officially an author, I continued to write reviews of the books I read and enjoyed.  I try to post my reviews on Amazon, Amazon UK, B&N, and Goodreads.  If an author requests I post a review on another site, I'm always happy to do it.  After all, it's important we support each other, right?  I certainly believe so.  But according to Amazon, I've been a very naughty girl.  You see, Amazon thinks it's a conflict of interest for me to write a book review because according to them I'm a direct competitor to other authors since I'm also an author.  The reviews I've written could be deleted at any time without warning.  At least that's one theory I read about in this LA Times article that's been tweeted like crazy for the past two days:  Why is Amazon deleting writers' reviews of other authors' books?

As a reviewer, I haven't lost any of the ninety reviews I've left on Amazon so far.  I've been checking every day and I'm totally paranoid that one day I'll wake up to find all the honest reviews I took the time to write have vanished.  The account I write book reviews under is the same account I use to purchase Kindle books, but it's also an Amazon author account.  If that's not a red flag according to the rules they have recently decided to enforce, I don't know what is.  Frankly, I'm surprised my reviews haven't been deleted yet, especially since I'm also an Amazon top reviewer.  My only hope as a reviewer is that since the majority of the ebooks I review are "verified purchases" and I also review products occasionally, maybe they won't delete the reviews I've written.  Time will tell.  As I said before, I'm quite paranoid.  Big Brother is watching.

As an author, I have lost four reviews on my ebooks during the last two weeks.  Three reviews were deleted from A Firm Husband and one review was deleted from Tessa's Submission.  Guess what?  I didn't solicit a single review for either of those books and I had no clue who the readers were who left the destined-to-be-deleted reviews, yet for some reason Amazon chose to delete those reviews.  After I noticed the missing reviews, I found many authors, mostly indie authors, discussing the topic of vanishing reviews in an Amazon author forum.  I realized I wasn't alone and eventually came across the LA Times article two days ago.

Now I'll admit that I've seen fishy reviews left on Amazon before.  I'm talking about reviews that were written by family members of the author, or even by the author himself under numerous accounts.  That isn't cool.  If a book has dozens of five star reviews and not a single four, three, two, or one star, alarm bells ring in my head.  Those are the reviews that should truly be deleted because they are indeed biased.

Amazon, please don't delete the honest reviews I've written.  Yes, I am a direct competitor to the authors whose books I've reviewed, but I don't review books as a writer.  I review books as a reader.  Authors work hard at their job and if I want to leave a review for a book I liked or didn't like, then I should be able to do it under the pseudonym I've been using.  What you are doing right now, Amazon, feels a bit like a witch hunt.

Amazon, please implement a better system for locating and deleting suspect reviews.  A lot of authors, especially indie authors, are losing valid reviews and getting burned.  I've seen many authors complaining that with vanishing reviews, their book sales are dropping.  If the deleted reviews in these cases were indeed valid, this is unacceptable.

Lastly, Amazon, please don't screw readers out of the ability to read valid reviews.

I'd love to hear other opinions about this topic, including any personal experiences.  Please feel free chime in with a comment below!  :)