problems getting reviews to show up on amazon

[James]

Hi all,
I have made a habit of gifting my book to people to get reviews but recently several of those people told me that there review will not show up on amazon.
Anyone else having this problem? It is really frustrating because amazon does not say why the review was blocked.

[James]

no they have accounts - I couldn't gift them a copy if they didn't have an account. They also have done other reviews before. I am wondering if the gifting is the problem?

[M.]

Anna wrote: "Amazon has a very strict policy regarding biased reviews, aka friends and family reviewing. Could they be removing them for that reason?

Also I was told by amazon customer service to write a revie..."

To the best of my knowledge, the reviews are not being posted due to the following possible reasons:

1)The reviews are being posted way too quick. Amazon does not seem to have a fix time lapse policy but I have heard from 24 hours to weeks before a reader can actually post a review after downloading a book.
2)An account with only gifted book(s) that has no other purchase history is not allowed to post reviews until a real purchase is made and seven days waiting period elapses, which is to ensure that the reader does not just buy a book, post the review and then return the book for refund.
3)The accounts posting reviews fail the implicit background check -- the CC used in the account bear the same billing address as the author, for instance, and etc.

M. Eigh, author of the now seminal KDP's Best-Kept Secret Revealed: How to Embed Videos and Widgets in Your Book Description

[James]

ahh, this is interesting. Of the two people who reported back to me, one of them had bought tons of stuff on amazon but never reviewed anything else. He bought the book on amazon. I told him to review a couple other things also and we will see what happens.

The other person received a kindle gift from me of the book but he did not put that in the review so I think that is why that one was kicked out.

These are both people who I do not know and who are trying to help me by reviewing so it is quite straining to keep asking them to try again when amazon provides no feedback as to what is wrong.

[M.]

James wrote: "ahh, this is interesting. Of the two people who reported back to me, one of them had bought tons of stuff on amazon but never reviewed anything else. He bought the book on amazon. I told him to ..."

That is not news to me. I had one guy (a stranger) who really wanted to share his comment on my book. But he had apparently never bought anything other than getting gifted copies and free downloads. And he hit a snag with the Amazon review system for some five weeks (!) after he followed their instruction to have a real purchase under his belt.

Amazon handle such volume that virtually all things are handled by machine. Machines don't comprehend anything, they simply look for certain predefined patterns and profile people. For example, I gave Yann Martel a 5-star for Life of Pi, but the review was rejected by Amazon's automated censorship.

The review is here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

And God knows what actually triggered the ban.

My Book, Social Networking inside Your Kindle Book Descriptions is FREE for all today.

[Don]

If that were my book, even though you gave it a 5er, I would have said, no thank you very much, unless you were hitting on the truth, but then that would not have been my book, since my work is strictly my work and not part of another. Nothing of mine is borrowed or tainted. Cheers, Don :-}

[June]

bought from Amazon or not, readers let me know they reviewed on Amazon with all showing up. Any product I reviewed on Amazon always showed up, but then again, I do buy products from Amazon (not necessarily the ones I reviewed). Maybe that's why.

[M.]

Don wrote: "If that were my book, even though you gave it a 5er, I would have said, no thank you very much, unless you were hitting on the truth, but then that would not have been my book, since my work is str..."

Wow, you think Amazon's automated system picked up the nuances of that twist? I highly doubt it. I think the system scanned and found some keywords that are on the watch list.

My comment probably did not come across exactly the way I wanted. I meant to give Mr. Martel all the compliment. His statement is true in my opinion. The same story line becomes a lesser story when falling in the hands of a lesser write, while a masterful story when in the hands of a masterful writer.

He himself publicly admitted that. Alluding to the fact that he "borrowed" the underlying story line from the Portuguese writer, he said, "why ruin a good story in the hands of a lesser writer."

That said, I am not encouraging all your brilliant writers to go out and "borrow" materials from others' work. Moacyr Scliar elected not to sue Yann Martel. You may not be as lucky.

[Don]

"elected not to sue Yann Martel" You never shared this part. I would never use someone's work, making it KIND of MY OWN, even with their permission. That's why we spend years developing our own voice.

It amazes me when members of Poetry groups (Example only) post other poet's works, but have no message of their own. Where is their creativity, I ask you!

[Judy]

I've had a similar problem recently with two people I know (not related and not friends--one was my hairdresser years back) who bought my book and have been trying to post a review for it. I did notice in both cases it was the first thing they'd tried to review.

I'm thinking you have to review something else first, like a traditionally published book--that delivery idea may be the problem, because I did my first review maybe a year and a half ago, but didn't have any issues.

Thanks for the insights, M.!

[Don]

Did she buy your book at Amazon, and then later tried to do a review? I understand a purchase must be made first, and then they can review any book even without buying it. Correct me if I'm wrong. Cheers, Don

[Judy]

Yep, both people bought the book from Amazon. One was for an eBook, the other was for a print copy.