Theodore’s Comments (group member since Apr 01, 2017)

Theodore’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Carole wrote: "Nah. I don't do lawsuits. Hate 'em. I'm not mad at them so much as mad at myself for not expecting it. A door closed- we gotta find a new exit. A better one.

I'm still waiting for them to get back..."

This still makes no sense at all. Amazon, through Goodreads, encourages Groups, Giveaways, Reviews, etc., etc...everything that contributes to a sense of community with the intent of selling books on their site. And yet, when robust groups spring up as a result of the platforms they themselves create, they punish the very people that have made their brands so popular. It simply defies logic...like living in a parallel universe where up is down, and everything this company does through the links it fosters now condemns you to death.

Carole wrote: "Wow. Should we tell them they missed one? lol

It must be a glitch- it says on my personal page I have no reviews posted.

As far as the books I handle, they haven't grown in reviews for over a yea..."

Something's not right. I wonder if you got a lawyer to file a "John Doe" lawsuit, seeking the name(s) and contact information of party or parties who took action(s) with the intent of depriving you of revenue (given these removals impact on your sales and income). It's possible that there is one or more persons behind this who created this situation for personal reasons, and Amazon is the unwitting accomplice. It wouldn't be the first time that a corporation has become the unwilling dupe in situations such as these.

Carole wrote: "Theodore wrote: "Carole wrote: "It's arbitrary and calculated. Sorry, I'm over it. Please don't think I'm mad. (To our friends from Europe that's pissed, not crazy).

I am working on a way to move ..."

I found one of your reviews still up for one of my books.

Carole P. Roman reviewed Wheel of Fortune (Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD, Mystery/Thriller Series Book 6)

Carole wrote: "It's arbitrary and calculated. Sorry, I'm over it. Please don't think I'm mad. (To our friends from Europe that's pissed, not crazy).

I am working on a way to move through it. I am angry at myself..."

Wow! That's unbelievable, Carole. I'm sure it's devastating, on many levels. I'm so sorry.

Dale wrote: "Theodore wrote: "I'm simply asserting that to admit any wrongdoing or error on their part (e.g., problems with their software to identify manipulators) would be to invite an investigation by one or..."

Ranking manipulation would be difficult to prove, for sure.

On a related note, I have no doubt that fans of main-stream authors, regardless of genre, are more than eager to post their reviews as soon as a new book is issued. They are virtually a cult unto themselves, and their posts are their self-proclaimed "handshakes" into the Clubs of the Anointed.

Dale wrote: "Theodore wrote: "An acknowledgement would leave them open to legal liability. The word in the business world is: never admit to anything."

I know, but . . . what legal liability? If they don't cla..."

I'm simply asserting that to admit any wrongdoing or error on their part (e.g., problems with their software to identify manipulators) would be to invite an investigation by one or more states' attorneys generals into their business practices regarding, say, the manipulation of ranking and other data, for whatever purpose might be impuned by purchasers. Say someone purchases a book with an artificially high ranking because other books in that category have had their rankings lowered or eliminated. And the book is found to be a real dud by a large number of readers. If it becomes known that Amazon manipulated the rank, in any way and for any reason, it could (emphasis on could) lead to legal problems.

That said, you do retain the rights to your reviews:

From The Conditions of Use:

REVIEWS, COMMENTS, COMMUNICATIONS, AND OTHER CONTENT

Visitors may post reviews, comments, photos, videos, and other content; send e-cards and other communications; and submit suggestions, ideas, comments, questions, or other information, so long as the content is not illegal, obscene, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights (including publicity rights), or otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable, and does not consist of or contain software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of "spam" or unsolicited commercial electronic messages. You may not use a false e-mail address, impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise mislead as to the origin of a card or other content. Amazon reserves the right (but not the obligation) to remove or edit such content, but does not regularly review posted content.

If you do post content or submit material, and unless we indicate otherwise, you grant Amazon a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, perform, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. You grant Amazon and sublicensees the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content, if they choose. You represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content that you post; that the content is accurate; that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity; and that you will indemnify Amazon for all claims resulting from content you supply. Amazon has the right but not the obligation to monitor and edit or remove any activity or content. [Emphasis added] Amazon takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content posted by you or any third party.

Copyright and property Rights remain yours when you submit reviews, comments, communications and other content.

Dale wrote: "Theodore wrote: "That some are being caught up in sweeps of searches for abuses is an "unintended consequence," and we only can hope their bots or whatever is behind these actions are "fine tuned" ..."

An acknowledgement would leave them open to legal liability. The word in the business world is: never admit to anything. Period. PERIOD!

Even Facebook is clamping down:

Facebook said it will demote posts that beg for likes or comments
The so-called "engagement bait" posts come with simple requests

— "Tag a friend who needs this!"
— in an effort to rack up engagement and game the Facebook algorithm.
Facebook said the posts are counter to the company's emphasis on authenticity, and so, starting this week, they'll be pushed lower in users' feeds.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/18/faceb...

Dale wrote: "I'm not an Amazon fan by any means. My wife and I buy from them as little as possible (which means almost never). At the same time, I suspect this review business isn't the Pure Evil that most who ..."

I agree with Dale. The whole thing makes little sense.

Amazon is in the business (in our case) of selling books. They help us by providing what literally are free Kindle and paperback publication services (KDP and CreateSpace, respectively). Imagine, even if you don't want to release a book to the public but, say, simply want to 'publish' 20 copies of a book (e.g., memoir) for your friends and relatives, you can do so by submitting your manuscript to CreateSpace four times and ordering five proofs on each go-around at a price significantly lower than what that order would cost to print, for example, at Sir Speedy . . . hundreds of dollars lower.

As far as KDP is concerned, it might cost you hundreds of dollars to have a manuscript converted to mobi by a commercial digital conversion house whereas it's done in two minutes by submitting your Word document to the KDP site--FREE. And you get to proof it online in three different Kindle formats. Plus, if you're going to release the book within 90 days, you can put the book on pre-release, on Amazon.com, immediately.

So, it makes no sense for Amazon to purposely go out of their way to inhibit indie sales. That some are being caught up in sweeps of searches for abuses is an "unintended consequence," and we only can hope their bots or whatever is behind these actions are "fine tuned" at the earliest possible time.

Finally, I would tell you something my father told me many (MANY!) years ago: you don't have to like someone to make money with them. Amazon, for all its faults, has much to offer the indie community. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Ted

R.L. wrote: "It is. It’s all authors have been talking about on Facebook for months. If your book gets a sudden jolt from Bookbub they’re shutting you down in suspicion of click farming. And now some are afraid..."

I don't see how they can withhold royalties. A valid transaction was conducted. A book for which you hold the copyright was sold by them under a contract which requires they convey to you a specified royalty. They may alter or delete the rank, but to withhold the royalty is a criminal act and amounts to fraud.

Actually, the only reason I belong to KDP is to run discount sales in conjunction with ENT promotions. If Amazon is going to punish authors for running promotions, I'll pull all my books from KDP and just use their publication services as I need them. It's not going to change my life one bit.

"They have also closed down Author accounts and kept the royalties generated from Bookbub and other promo sites."

Is this true?

Carole wrote: "Nope, not a wink. It's those damn squirrels. I've named them Amazon, KDP, and Kindle. They kept me up all night.

It's not as if this is sudden. I have built a huge list (now useless) of reviewers..."

Truly a sad state of affairs. It was bad enough when they deleted professional reviews, but this smacks of Big Brother is Watching You. Truly reprehensible.

Dale wrote: "You beat me again, Ted. Congratulations! I don't know how you do it. I flog my FB contacts, and fight for every vote and always am running about 8 votes behind you. Although, I just found out that ..."

Thanks, Dale! I have a significant following, and I alert them every week. I will tell you, they do NOT always vote for my story (they have told me), so you shouldn't think they vote in lockstep. Some do read the other submissions. Building an e-mail list of followers, as Carole often has urged, is vital for any number of reasons.

And yes, I don't know how any class in creative writing can be taught without photo prompts, now that I see the Indies Unlimited weekly competitions. Congrats to your student. Who knows; he might win an Editor's Choice Award (isn't that what we all seek?).

Ted

Carole wrote: "Congrats, Ted!!"

Thanks, Carole.

Theodore Jerome Cohen Wins Flash Fiction Challenge

https://www.indiesunlimited.com/2017/...

Thanks, Gang! Your support is always appreciated.

Alyssa tells me she's already posted a story for next week.

If you're out and about this weekend, please drive carefully.

Ted

C.L. wrote: "I am not a fast writer. I love to write but I love to prune even more and I spend waaaaay too much time trying to turn my imperfect thing into something better.

So I finally published my sequel. I..."

Mazol Tov!

Carole wrote: "Please share folks- I am giving away five kindles books that anyone chooses from our advent calendar.

https://us15.campaign-archive.com/?u=..."

Will do!

Ted

Benjamin wrote: "Judy and Denise,
I'm curious how their promotion at the Frankfort Book Fair works. Do they charge a significant amount beyond the membership fee to have your book displayed there? Judy, did you hav..."

I paid to have my YA book displayed at one show (I saw a picture of the booth, and sure enough, the book was there), but it didn't even result in one inquiry. My advice: don't waste you money. The only way it might "work" for you is if you plan to attend and can be in the booth to "meet and greet" people and discuss your book. Otherwise, fugetabout.

Carole wrote: "Okay- Here's Goodreads response- Do you understand what they are saying'cause I don't.

Hi Carole,

Thank you for your response, though we're sorry for the confusion. As we mentioned in our last e..."

"... incentivized reviews of any kind are prohibited on the site ..."

So, let me get this straight...Amazon Goodreads, which runs Giveaways for the purpose (ostensibly) of encouraging winners to post reviews of the books they win, is basically against winners posting reviews of books won on giveaways because being incentivized to write such reviews in the first place is a violation of Amazon Goodreads' Terms of Service.

Okay, I think I have it now. If you win a giveaway, under no circumstances are you to post a review of the book. And authors: if you are found to be entering your books in Goodreads' Giveaways with the intent to incentivizing winners to post reviews of your books, you may be banned not only from future Giveaway participation, but also, the site. (;>)

Now, it finally makes sense to me. That's what I got from their response. These corporate types are masters at communications, which is why I have such high hopes for today's college graduates.