Writing reviews on Amazon if you're an author

[[deleted user]]

I've been reading about Amazon's review policy, and how they've been removing reviews from people's books lately, and I'm really confused. Someone on Goodreads offered to review my book, and she writes in the same genre as me. It's not a review swap, though. I said I didn't think she could post the review on Amazon because we write in the same genre, but she could post the review on other places.

Is this correct? I don't want to lose out on an Amazon review, even if it's negative, but I've read the below article and think that Amazon will just delete the review.

http://www.latimes.com/features/books...

The article said Amazon said to someone in an email:

"We do not allow reviews on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product. This includes authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product. As a result, we've removed your reviews for this title."

Amazon's review guidelines state a similar thing, without directly saying "authors."

What about you guys that are authors? Do you post reviews for books on Amazon, if they are in the same genre that you write? Have any of the reviews been pulled? I'd love your thoughts.

Thanks, Mona

[Danielle]

From what I've been able to figure out, you can not post book reviews from your amazon account that is linked to your author account. Amazon will automatically delete it. If you pester or continue reposting the review, they will be vague in email responses and eventually threaten to remove the author book from the site.

If you have two amazon accounts, you can post from your personal account.

[[deleted user]]

Thanks, Danielle, that makes sense. It's horrible that they could threaten to remove the book from the site! But obviously someone can't keep reposting a review once Amazon has removed it. I'll let people know about Amazon's rule if they're an author who wants to review for me, and I'll just have to accept they won't t be able to post the review on Amazon unless they have a personal account.

[A.L.]

Well that rules me out, I use my main account.

Not that I review much on Amazon anyway.

[Danielle]

Well, you can always get another account (i.e. cheat, mwahaha).

[A.L.]

Na, not that bothered. I am rubbish at reviews anyway. Most of the stuff I read is from here.

[[deleted user]]

I don't have exactly the problem you all are talking about, but I noticed just recently that both my five-star reviews on Amazon are missing... and I know for a fact that the people who gave the reviews weren't authors. Granted, I know them, and their reviews were most likely a little biased, but since when it that Amazon's business, and how did Amazon know anyway that I knew them and that they weren't just some random people who really liked my book? Anybody know what's going on?

[J.D.]

Michayla wrote: "I don't have exactly the problem you all are talking about, but I noticed just recently that both my five-star reviews on Amazon are missing... and I know for a fact that the people who gave the reviews weren't authors. Granted, I know them, and their reviews were most likely a little biased, but since when it that Amazon's business, and how did Amazon know anyway that I knew them and that they weren't just some random people who really liked my book? Anybody know what's going on?
..."

I have been told that Amazon is checking IP addresses, and deleting reviews from people who have ever logged in from the same computer as the author, asserting that these people are either sock puppets or people who have a financial interest in the book or are acting on behalf of the author.

[[deleted user]]

Ok, that makes a little more sense now. Still rather annoying, but thanks for clarifying...

[Eric]

I use my personal account as my author account, and none of my reviews have been taken down.
IP checking makes sense.

[A.L.]

Well I think you should certainly have to have purchased the item to review it. As for an author reviewing another author I think it should depend on the genre and the actual review. I write Fantasy so I can see that if I give fantasy author Bob Robertson a crappy review because I want extra sales or he is "taking" my sales then sure pull it. If I say, "Oh yes Bob Robertson, he is awesome" how does that hurt either of us. I don't know Bob Robertson and he does not know me. Or if I review his historical romance how is that bad?

Oh well I guess you have to have the same rules for everyone.

[[deleted user]]

Eric wrote: "I use my personal account as my author account, and none of my reviews have been taken down.
IP checking makes sense."

But are these reviews for books in the same genre as yours, Eric? That's where I get stuck. Can an author review books on Amazon if it's not their genre? If not, that's extremely restrictive.

[Mia]

I don't think genre matters, and I have posted reviews with my author account that have not been taken down. I think the IP thing makes more sense. Or just paranoia of authors trying to bolster their own works.

[A.L.]

Well I have no reviews anyway:)

[[deleted user]]

Lol now I am confused :) Maybe it is just the IP address thing. You guys are right - that does make more sense, but I understand what Danielle's saying, too. I'm probably over thinking it - if I'm lucky enough to get a review and the person wants to post it on Amazon, great. If Amazon take it down, they take it down.

[A.L.]

Yeah.

[[deleted user]]

Me either! :)

[Danielle]

Michayla wrote: "I don't have exactly the problem you all are talking about, but I noticed just recently that both my five-star reviews on Amazon are missing... and I know for a fact that the people who gave the re..."

Amazon will also remove older reviews if they are not negative (though why they don't remove the negative reviews, I have no clue. An author I know was asking for reviews because all of her older positive reviews were being removed (or maybe Amazon considers it archiving?) and made her book look really bad.

And on the IP thing, how are they supposed to check IPs? Unless you are using the computer on the same session, the IPs will be different. Time Warner (you can insert pretty much any ISP here) resets your IP lease every 24 hours. This means that you may or may not have the same IP address from day to day. Also, I have five different devices at my house that access my wifi. They are all me. Does that mean I could switch devices and still be able to review? IP checking only works for static IP addresses, which are really only used in servers, that I know of. Dynamic IP addresses change and thus are not accurate at determining what computer was used. Generally, only a MAC address (the address assigned to your hardware) stays static and even that can change (wireless card dies so your replace it). I don't think that can be accessed beyond your own personal network. I was networking consultant for three years. I'm a little rusty but that should all be accurate (and don't you just hate when TWC treats you like an idiot when you have nearly as much technical expertise as their technicians).

[Eric]

Regarding the IP issue.
Amazon tracks all of its customers. Seems like it wouldn't be beyond them to identify computers. Maybe its not an IP issue, but a tracking issue.

[Inma]

Danielle wrote: "Michayla wrote: "I don't have exactly the problem you all are talking about, but I noticed just recently that both my five-star reviews on Amazon are missing... and I know for a fact that the peopl..."

If you are in a network, all your devices are going to have the same IP I believe. The one having the IP is the router not the devices.

Regarding the IPs changing, it's true they change from day to day, but every Internet provider has a set number of IPs on a static basis and they assign those IPs to their customers. So even if you don't have the same IP from day to day, you are going to have one very close to the one you use the previous day. You will also have the same location and Internet provider and even if Amazon can't know for sure it's you they can make a guess about whether it's you or not. Probability say they might be right most of the times.

Obviously they can make a mistake, this not 100% reliable but the guess they make it's quite good.

[Phoenix]

I was just reading a discussion on Linkedin. A writer insisted Amazon give her an answer to "Just because I'm an author, are you trying to barr me from reading? They wrote back that they just don't want the author to plug their own book in the review. Since, I am an author and love to read and do reviews, this helped. I went in and took out any self-promotion in my own reviews, like the signature line: Phoenix, Author of Blah, Blah.

[A.L.]

I doubt anyone knows my real name from what I post as. I don't post as an author. It does seem a bit harsh to say author's can't post, we are readers and customers too:)

[Eric]

I can see a positive side to Amazon blocking authors from reviewing books; I've heard of groups on the Amazon forums (usually authors) who have launched campaigns to destroy other authors by spamming them with negative reviews.