Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion
II. Publishing & Marketing Tips
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Amazon Question
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Just so I'm sure I understand this right-- I don't have to buy the book that I want to review, I'll just have to have bought something? That makes sense. I haven't bought anything with my Amazon account. So I guess that's why I'm having some problems.

Thanks, Linda, I didn't know about that little wrinkle.

Just so I'm sure I understand this right-- I don't have to buy the book that I want to review, I'l..."
What Linda's saying makes sense here.

Linda has it correct. I post most of my books on Amazon, except for the ones with potty words that won't fly by their censors and I don't care to rework them to make them fit. Same as with spoiler tags that I have here at GR and not at Amazon.
I pick up books at library sales, used book stores and newer ones from the library. I've never had a review kicked back for that reason. If I bought the book (used or new) on Amazon, it shows the verified purchase tag. For the newer books I get from the library, I'll just make a note in the review as to source, like I would for the few review books I still accept.
I vaguely recall there being a waiting period after the first review I posted, but it's been a while and my memory is poor.

Authors get paid by the pages read. The amount per page depends on the amount of money Amazon got from the subscriptions on said month. I don't know where the people took the idea authors were not being paid.

It used to be you get paid a fixed price per book picked up by a reader (whether it was read or not) so authors who wrote 10 short stories of 10 pages each were paid ten times more than an author with one story of 100 pages.
Now you don't get paid unless the pages are read and by page read, so the same two authors mentioned in my example would end up getting the same pay if the books were actually read.

Authors get paid by the pages read. Th..."
That is so cool :)

So I still don't have the answer to the question, I'm afraid. :( Sorry.

From what I understand, downloading a free book on Amazon also counts as a purchase.


If you write a review on a book you downloaded for free, it should show Verified Purchase. However, from a friend's experience, if you only downloaded free things but never actually paid for anything, you cannot review. You have to have made at least one purchase. (I can't verify this since though. I've been an Amazon customer since the late 1990s.)
Okay, my Amazon question has me a bit puzzled. I can't review books on Amazon if I've never bought the book. I guess that's the same for other users? The confusion comes in when I asked two reviewers to read/review my book and they had no trouble posting their Amazon reviews. I know they didn't buy my book because I emailed them the copy for free. So did they have a special bypass? Maybe I'm doing something wrong here?
I like helping out fellow authors when I read their books and reviewing on their Amazon pages would help them. So, yup, that is what's on my mind.
Stay warm and thank you :)