How to deal with honest, privately gifted review taken down from Amazon?

[Katja]

Hi all,

I don't understand this policy, it's like punishing indie authors, and definitely not helping sales, but, so, I gifted my doodle book privately as PDF,( freakin' expensive otherwise) for an honest review on Amazon.uk and they removed the review.. great.
I know they frown on swaps- but I find it strange of no networking and communicating with other authors.
So how to go about this? Do I or the review writer contact them? Any other tips?

Thank you!

[Riley, Viking Extraordinaire]

You can try to contact them, but this is why we suggest you Do Not gift books. Amazon's algo, for some reason, flags it as suspicious. This is why we suggest you send Mobi, Epub, or Pdf directly to the reviewer, and ask them to put *I received a free copy of this book for ab honest review.*

[Tony]

Gifting has always ended up as a takedown for me. Riley's advice is the answer. Not once have I had a review taken down when done as Riley stated.

[Owen]

Just seconding (third-ing?) Riley's advice here. Amazon has a number of ways they establish a "relationship" between the reviewers and the authors, and they may also trip over the wording in a review, if it implies the book was received for free. Stating "I received a free copy of this book for an honest review" -- if that was the purpose -- is a matter of FFC compliance, which is why it's in Amazon TOS.

I once used unclear wording in a review that Amazon interpreted as my having received the book as an undisclosed gift and they pulled my review. I contacted Amazon and asked them to read the review (which was probably flagged by a bot) and if I needed to clarify my wording. They wrote back saying that on review, my review was OK and had been pulled by mistake. My review then went back up.

So mistakes do happen, and when they do, Amazon will correct them. It might be worth having the reviewer contact Amazon and ask why the review was pulled and explain the situation. If they are polite about it, and the review complies (or is made to comply) with the TOS, Amazon might allow it.

[[deleted user]]

Once again, the "old hands" here have good advice.
So I'll ask a question myself: What if someone sends me an Amazon "gift" e-book with the message, "No strings attached. Hope you enjoy the book." Should I post "ABC gifted me an e-book with no strings attached. This gift did not affect my opinion of the book, or the content of my review."

[G.G.]

I don't get this. I've received amazon gifted books for which I left reviews and the reviews never were brought down. There must be something else than just the gifted books for them to remove a review.

I remember one of them was a real mess. I had bought the book when the author send me the gift. Not wanting to get it to waste since she already had spent the money, I returned my purchase, got the free book, and then turned around and gifted the book to my sister in law so the author wouldn't lose her sale on my account.

Anyway, what a bad way to bring attention to my review. Amazon had to have noticed the brouhaha around the book, but as I said, the review was accepted and is still there.

[Wally]

Charles wrote: "Once again, the "old hands" here have good advice.
So I'll ask a question myself: What if someone sends me an Amazon "gift" e-book with the message, "No strings attached. Hope you enjoy the book."..."

Yes. Always acknowledge that you received a free book. No matter the level of the review.

[Lavern]

My policy for reviews that are requested is, if the book is available on KU that is where I'll get it. Otherwise send me a mobi copy. Don't gift me the book through Amazon to prevent the possibility of having the review taken down.

[Ai]

Is it required to put *I received a free copy of this book for ab honest review.*

If it's not put, will it make it automatically removed? Or does putting it flag the amazon bot to remove it?

[Lavern]

I'm not sure the answer to Ai's question, but if you get a free copy and review it then the review doesn't show up as a confirmed purchase.

[Riley, Viking Extraordinaire]

Lavern wrote: "I'm not sure the answer to Ai's question, but if you get a free copy and review it then the review doesn't show up as a confirmed purchase."

And that's the rough part. I know verified reviews are sought after more, but unless you follow the steps Amazon requires with it, to the letter!, they can pull it down.

Ai wrote: "Is it required to put *I received a free copy of this book for ab honest review.*

If it's not put, will it make it automatically removed? Or does putting it flag the amazon bot to remove it?"

Yes, according to tge FCC if you get a free book from an author to review it should have the free copy blah blah.

[Christina]

I can't speak for Amazon UK, but here in the states, so any review posted to the .com store, Amazin will remove gifted books due to FTC compliance issues if the wording isn't specific. From what I gather, and I am NOT a lawyer or givernment official, so take that as you will, gifting a book for review is some sort of double dip in which the authir gets a review and a ranking bump, which can be seen as a violation by the FTC. Now, loads if people receive gift copies as prizes, and I see disclaimers that say 'I won this book in a giveaway/promotion/sweepstakes/etc' and those seem to be fine. So it seems that intent must be clear.

[Katja]

Thanks everyone!

Yes, the 'Phrase'( I received...) I had already heard, but was forgotten by the reviewer.
BUT it's nonsense actually, these categories, since in the end what is the difference between gifting officially through Amazon and sending it as PDF- both are gifts!

That's actually what I had done in this case, sending a PDF, so maybe there's hope. I thought I'd save in postage, because this book is only in paperback. I thought the exactly opposite- that when you gift the review stays there for sure...