THE Group for Authors! discussion
Writer's Circle
>
Lost 2 more reviews on Amazon
date
newest »
newest »
S. Jackson wrote: "A few months ago, I lost 2 reviews because Amazon decided that since I friended on Facebook,2 fans who contacted me after reading my books, that I KNOW the reviewer. Today, 2 more reviews disappear..."One thing you need to check. Are your Facebook pages disconnected from Amazon? It's easy to check. Here's a link telling you how.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/help/id=2...
Sandra wrote: "S. Jackson wrote: "A few months ago, I lost 2 reviews because Amazon decided that since I friended on Facebook,2 fans who contacted me after reading my books, that I KNOW the reviewer. Today, 2 mor..."That sounded like a great suggestion so I followed the link. It says I'm not connected, so that is not the problem. Wishing it could have been so simple.
Wish it could have been, also. Sorry. :-)
Sandra wrote: "Wish it could have been, also. Sorry. :-)"Me too. Thanks for the idea.
The sad thing is those are your fans and you need to add fans so you can build your base. Don't worry be happy. They are worried that the big publishers will not want to pay extra for the middle shelf at the book store. I say book store, meaning one, since that is all that is left. I also heard; and I could be wrong, but Amazon bought goodreads???
About 2 1/2 years ago now, Amazon bought GoodReads. End of March, 2013, I think.
I'm not sure disconnecting Facebook page would help. An author usually wants their social media, blog, author pages/profiles and other web presences public -- Amazon could find Facebook page even if not connected (unless pseudonym used not that hard to find personal pages as well as professional ones). Not letting fans like/follow an indie author on social media is somewhat equivalent to a brick-and-mortar business not listing phone number and address.
I'm always amazed that people even notice this sort of thing. Who has the time to count and double check reviews on a daily basis, to see if any go missing?
A.W. wrote: "I'm always amazed that people even notice this sort of thing. Who has the time to count and double check reviews on a daily basis, to see if any go missing?"Authorgraph sends me an email everyday that shows my rating and what my review count is. Great service, and it's not hard when you go from only 22 to 20.
S. Jackson wrote: "A.W. wrote: "I'm always amazed that people even notice this sort of thing. Who has the time to count and double check reviews on a daily basis, to see if any go missing?"Authorgraph sends me an e..."
How do you know that the reviewers didn't delete their reviews themselves, or deleted their accounts, or their accounts got deleted by Amazon due to reasons not related to your book?
I guess that is a possibility, but last time, I asked one of the ones who friended me on FB and she denied deleting hers. Another one of the 4 missing is still showing up on Amazon UK. Go figure.
Sandra wrote: "S. Jackson wrote: "A few months ago, I lost 2 reviews because Amazon decided that since I friended on Facebook,2 fans who contacted me after reading my books, that I KNOW the reviewer. Today, 2 mor..."Thanks for this info!
S. Jackson wrote: "...Another one of the 4 missing is still showing up on Amazon UK. Go figure."Possibly the "connection" part of Amazon.com policy and U.S. consumer laws aren't the same or considered applicable to the U.K. site?
(I do think it's going too far if reviews are being removed solely because of a friending/following on social media deemed "review from a fan" as only reason. Not if other undisclosed connections are the reason.)
It could be worse...you could have my problem...I've had my one book's e-book format banned in the UK...not the physical books, only the e-book.Christianity: Myths and Legends...it's available EVERYWHERE...accept for the e-book at Amazon UK...I've tried repeatedly to get an explanation...
My book is a critic of the Old Testament...according to them, my book is based on a book in the public domain, so my book cannot be sold in the UK...huh? lol
Stanley wrote: "...My book is a critic of the Old Testament...according to them, my book is based on a book in the public domain, so my book cannot be sold in the UK...huh? lol ..."Oh good grief! That's so censorious and hypocritical unless they are also banning Bible Study books, devotionals and Bible guides. And banning all books based on public domain like Pride and Prejudice: The Wild and Wanton Edition or Sherlock Holmes: Zombie Slayer #2: The Ugly Experiment. Not to mention the hundreds and thousands of for sale outright reprints of public domain books.
Probably a staff member was personally offended so dropped the sledgehammer. I remember that happening before with another author where the mildest, least offensive volume of a long book series was removed while all the other volumes were deemed acceptable.
D.A. wrote "Probably a staff member was personally offended so dropped the sledgehammer."I did try to use it to my benefit. I ran into some post about Banned Book Week or something...so I asked if mine counted as a banned book, and left a post to Amazon UK e-books, where it's not listed...hey, "someone gives you lemons, you got something to throw at them."(Draco, my dragon):D
D.A.—Shelf! Shelf! Shelf! wrote: "S. Jackson wrote: "...Another one of the 4 missing is still showing up on Amazon UK. Go figure."Possibly the "connection" part of Amazon.com policy and U.S. consumer laws aren't the same or consi..."
Someone told me it has something to do with cookies???
Another author on FB recently posted, asking people to unfriend her - - stating the review policies of Amazon as the reason. She has a lot more fans than I.
S. Jackson wrote: "Another author on FB recently posted, asking people to unfriend her - - stating the review policies of Amazon as the reason. She has a lot more fans than I. ..."I'm not sure if that's necessary or not because I'm not completely sure what Amazon means by their policy wording or how they are implementing. Maybe she also asked them to instead like her author page on Facebook — but, I'm also not sure how Amazon is interpreting even those likes/connections. I suspect that for fan/friend connections and social media and all kinds of reasons Amazon reviews have been deemed "connected" and removed -- not sure how widespread or how often is sole reason. I also know that many times authors and reviewers with removed reviews don't necessary know why or own up to why.
It may be unnecessary or it may be a good idea for authors to keep personal and professional/author pages on Facebook very separate — ask existing connections on personal page to instead connect to the professional pages and start pruning personal page after a decent interval.
This is a terrific article explaining how Amazon decides what reviews will be removed. The information is detailed and explains the reasons for this action:http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/2...
Christine wrote: "This is a terrific article explaining how Amazon decides what reviews will be removed. The information is detailed and explains the reasons for this action:http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/201..."
Thank you
That was really helpful, Christine, and explains why I had one customer email me to tell me that her review was not allowed even though we don't know each other. She did email me previously, because I put my email address in the back of my books and encourage readers to reach out. It's a little creepy that Amazon knows who emails me though!
S. Jackson wrote: "A few months ago, I lost 2 reviews because Amazon decided that since I friended on Facebook,2 fans who contacted me after reading my books, that I KNOW the reviewer. Today, 2 more reviews disappear..."
Remember, you are a good writer, and that is all that really matters. You will sale even if you didn't have one review. The reviews are nice, and build your confidence, but don't let these small annoyances get under your skin. You are good so the powers that be are scared; otherwise you would not be having this experience.
Christine wrote: "This is a terrific article explaining how Amazon decides what reviews will be removed. The information is detailed and explains the reasons for this action:http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/201..."
That's a very useful link, Christine, but I would advise a little caution. It is written by a marketing company who are trying to drive people to its services - including asking people to pay money in order to get reviews. They justify their services being "totally fine" because they don't interact with the reviewers.
I think this is a grey area. There is nothing wrong with paying to market a book, but I am not so sure about paying to get a guaranteed number of reviews. Whilst I agree with 95% of the article, I would be nervous about anything which involves paying for reviews, even if the company assures me it is allowed.
Most of what they say is good advice, but we can't take what they say as definitive or unbiased because they are not Amazon.
Crystal wrote: "Remember, you are a good writer, and that is all that really matters. You will sale even if you didn't have one review. The reviews are nice, and build your confidence, but don't let these small an..."It's possible I'm still not very sure about that and a few more reviews would help persuade me to believe it. ha ha
Crystal wrote: "Remember, you are a good writer, and that is all that really matters. You will sale even if you didn't have one review."Crystal - I removed the book link from the end of your post. Unfortunately self-promotion is not permitted in this group.
A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulation requires that any consumer review obtained through solicitation, purchase, swap, free book or other compensation include a disclaimer stating so. Many avid readers consider such reviews to be biased and unreliable.Very few readers ever post a formal review in a literary or commercial website. Those that do post reviews do so to share their personal opinion of a book with other readers, not the author.
Authors might achieve greater commercial success if they expended more time striving to continuously improve their technical writing and narration skills and less time obsessing over consumer reviews.
Will wrote: "Christine wrote: "This is a terrific article explaining how Amazon decides what reviews will be removed. The information is detailed and explains the reasons for this action:http://www.selfpublis..."
Those were my thoughts, too, after reading the article. Although the author of the article had some good points, it was clear that they were promoting themselves. Also, what is "totally fine" according to their site, might not be "fine" with Amazon at all. I doubt all fiverr users know authors they review for personally, and it's still not okay, because they sell reviews. So what makes the site's in the article business legit, while fiverr's is not? They don't interact with reviewers, but they must interact with authors in order to... You know what, it's sound fishy to me.
I went to read what they offer and browsed through the first 13 pages of their written reviews. On the page about the different packages they offer, it said that if you buy "this package" you get an option to approve the final review. Then I knowticed that they don't post reviews with lower ratings than 3 stars, which are few and far in between (I saw only 3 three star reviews of 13 pages of them. The rest of the reviews are 4 and 5 stars). So what exactly separates that site from fiverr?
Maybe GoodReads and Amazon should keep an eye on this site as well. The more I think about the article, the more it looks like the differents between these to sites is the clever wordplay.
Will wrote: "Most of what they say is good advice, but we can't take what they say as definitive or unbiased because they are not Amazon. ..."You are correct and I cannot agree with paid reviews. Their premise is solid in theory, but I've heard in other discussions (not on GR) some of these sites only allowing reviewers to do 4 or 5 star reviews - anything less is not permitted.
I forwarded this article because of some of the ridiculous accusations I've heard against Amazon. Their analysis is in line with the Amazon policies - that was the point. I was not endorsing the site.
Will wrote: "...even if the company says it is allowed..."Well, I doubt said company sets Amazon policy, goodreads policy or federal consumer endorsement/fraud laws.
I'm pretty sure Amazon would allow authors to quote those paid reviews in editorial, depending on if the company words the reprint permissions in their terms where authors have permission to quote.
I ran a KDP free day and one of my twitter followers emailed me saying that Amazon won't allow reviews from people who got their book for Free. Has anyone else had this happen? I thought this was the point for the free days?
J. wrote: "I ran a KDP free day and one of my twitter followers emailed me saying that Amazon won't allow reviews from people who got their book for Free. Has anyone else had this happen? I thought this was t..."I don't believe that's true. I tried and was able to review a free book.
Possibly some wording of their review was unacceptable (I don't mean offensive, but there are some things that might sound like pricing or directing to other sites that can cause issues).
I think the Twitter or other connections issue is happening after reviews post then Amazon might be removing as too connected (unless had previous reviews removed for same reason where that particular account no longer allowed to review any of your books). I don't think the connections are something Amazon checks before letting a review post.
Probably best to ask Amazon about that one. To my knowledge, the only difference between how Amazon treats free books and fee books is that downloading free ones doesn't change book's rankings in some of the Amazon sales categories.
Thanks for the response D.A., I do appreciate it. I'm glade to hear that they can do reviews for free downloads. Like you said, maybe his review had something that they didn't approve. I sometimes don't like twitter cause it seems like everyone is advertising something, I kind of wonder if he was trying to self-promote something of his own in the review, which I would not like to see.Thanks again for the response, and I hope you have a Great weekend!
Crystal wrote: "Remember, you are a good writer, and that is all that really matters. You will sale even if you didn't have one review. The reviews are nice, and build your confidence, but don't let these small an..."That actually doesn't work for indie writers on Amazon because reviews and then positive reviews enable Amazon to throw your book in front of readers with similar previous purchases or searches - which in turn increases sales and more reviews (good and bad).
And it's in Amazon's interest to see you successful because they get a profit on every cent you make.
That don't seem hardly fair, even if the person who reviewed your book, and you friend them on Facebook, doesn't mean the review they gave is not an honest review. I have friends that I know and I read their books and like them. I hope things get better. I need to see what you what you wrote, I have made some really good friends on good reads as well. I hope you have a great day. And I will look for your book.
I just had a positive review removed from Amazon. I have not gone out and solicited, I don't know most of the people but now I'm penalized. I only had 17, now 16. I don't understand!!!!!
It is important to remember that the vast majority of avid readers never post a review in a literary or commercial vendor's website. Aside from that, a review is merely a personal opinion, so readers seldom allow a review - positive, negative or indifferent - to be a deciding factor in their purchasing decision.A book's commercial success is determined by the number of copies sold and amount earned by the author in royalties, not the number of reviews posted.
I would have to beg to differ to a small degree. If Amazon wipes out all your reviews then how do you get noticed? A person at a book signing came up to me and told me she bought my book because of the positive ratings.
Linda - Amazon are trying to clean up the reviews so that customers can trust them more. There must have been something about that review that triggered them to delete it. It is hard for us to know what it is. Look at it this way. If Amazon do clean-up the system, you will have 16 reviews that readers will trust as opposed to 17 reviews that they might think could be faked.
Reviews on sites like goodreads that get shared out to friends and followers can increase your book's discoverability. It's not exactly uncommon that the reason a reader follows another reader's reviews (or friends them) is because of shared reading tastes.
Word of mouth versus often fake-sounding stranger reviews on retail sites or presumably paid ads ...
S. Jackson wrote: "Sandra wrote: "S. Jackson wrote: "A few months ago, I lost 2 reviews because Amazon decided that since I friended on Facebook,2 fans who contacted me after reading my books, that I KNOW the reviewe..."The person doing the review would have needed to disconnect the facebook too.
THE Group for Authors!
Books mentioned in this topic
Pride and Prejudice: The Wild and Wanton Edition (other topics)Sherlock Holmes: Zombie Slayer #2: The Ugly Experiment (other topics)
They are shooting us indie authors in the foot. We don't have the big publishing house resources to market our books. Social media is pretty much the only means we have, but using it also hurts us because of Amazon's policies about reviews. So frustrating!