Issue with Amazon reviews disappearing?

[Randy]

I had an Amazon book review disappear from a Goodreads reader who posted her review on both sites. I notified the reader of the deleted review shortly after it vanished and she resubmitted it over three weeks ago. It never made it back to the Amazon sales page and as of now it is still missing in action. Amazon would not give reasons for the deletion when contacted was contacted. The review fell well within Amazon's guidelines. Very strange.

[Valerie]

By any chance are you posting a product link at the bottom of your review? I recently received an e-mail from Amazon telling me that my review would be deleted if I didn't remove the product link in my signature line. I only pass this along because I didn't realize this was a violation (and, in fact, several of my past reviews had included product links). Seemed a bit inconsistent, but I removed the links, and the reviews are still there. Just a thought.

[Steve]

Amazon took down two out of seven reviews for my book...

Travel To the G-Spot -- The Guide Book

They were five-star reviews, too! I talked to them and ended up in the same loop of nice chat on the phone followed by emails threatening to remove my book from the site if I persist in questioning their authority. I'm a little scared to even post this here....

Anyone want to read and review it, here's where it can be found....

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007JPR40S

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/trave...

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/trave...

http://www.smashwords.com/b/140923

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

https://www.facebook.com/TravelToTheG...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/9... (Author Interview)

http://www.activetravels.com/blog/ (“Active Travels” Review)

[Miles]

Not sure if this article helps, but it was sent to me through an AIA (Association of Independent Authors) newsletter.

Disappearing Reviews at Amazon?

[Joanne]

J.L. wrote: "I've been working with Amazon tech support for a number of days regarding an issue with reviews I've posted for some fellow Gooodreads authors - apparently they have been spontaneously deleted and ..."

I may take some heat for this, but as an online seller, I doubt Amazon is under any obligation to publish all customer reviews of its products; it is an online retailer, not a member of the fourth estate, and I never mix my Goodreads posts about what I've read with my reviews at Amazon, aside from which, I make no pretense of analyzing an author's work at the level of Publisher's Weekly, so Amazon is entirely free to not retain my post content, just as I am free to submit better written reviews to periodicals for publication.

[David]

I'm not sure what your point is, Joanne. Corporations generally can do what they want, but that doesn't make it fair or right to do so. In some cases, if they are behaving in a prejudicial fashion towards a certain racial group for example, that would very likely be illegal. It may not be illegal to decide to target some individual for whatever reason (could be that a computer algorithm finds some random correlation it doesn't like), but that doesn't make it reasonable.

If you were an author with a book on Amazon, and one day you found that Amazon's computers "didn't like" your book's reviews and deleted all your 5 star reviews, you might not feel so blase about it. Or, if you were an author who likes to exchange books with other authors that are compatible with your genre and interests, and suddenly Amazon no longer accepted your reviews and wouldn't explain why, then that actually interferes with your ability to promote your own book even if you didn't do anything that violates their terms of service. Don't you think that might be very frustrating and seem unfair, to be targeted by Amazon and no longer permitted to post reviews, again, without any explanation of why?

[Marjorie]

Well said, David!

I have about a million gripes with Amazon, starting with review management and ending with non-payment of royalties, touching on "doctoring" of royalty reports throughout the last 3 months on a daily basis in between. Amazon is hardly doing business in a forthright, or "fair" or even "customer-oriented" manner.

Let's not forget, the Indie Authors are actually still providing the BULK of the content to the Kindle store. Not the traditional publishers (half of whom are still waving their arms about the "sky falling" with the advent of eBooks and piracy without DRM making the end of the publishing world draw nigh!!) but the Indie Authors. We are Amazon's CONTENT PROVIDERS; as such, we are "customers" of their storefront services.

If they aren't going to treat us fairly, then why would we give them priority over say, Smashwords? I should note that the contrast in the way Smashwords treats their Author customers versus the way Amazon treats their Author customers is incredibly sharp these past six (6) months ever since Amazon started the "KDP Select" program. I guess at Amazon, either you enroll in Select or you're out (like Heidi Klum says on Project Runway) Funny, but I thought a content provider was kind of critical to a storefront's ability to present a diverse and comprehensive selection to their worldwide market base of customers. Silly me, thinking like a businesswoman again. I should just keep thinking like a stupid artiste, huh?

Ugh.

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

[Joanne]

Marjorie wrote: "Well said, David!

I have about a million gripes with Amazon, starting with review management and ending with non-payment of royalties, touching on "doctoring" of royalty reports throughout the l..."

David wrote: "I'm not sure what your point is, Joanne. Corporations generally can do what they want, but that doesn't make it fair or right to do so. In some cases, if they are behaving in a prejudicial fashion ..."

I came up through the small presses, and digital indie may be fashionable, but rag tag is not new, one, and two, most non-agented indie titles are crap because they are not vetted by even a mid-list publisher or editor, which is why I am not self-publishing any of my collections, but will go through digital publishers. I'm old school.

I have edited my reviews on Amazon due to the infamous products in a series flag; no big deal. This is a tough business. Amazon is conservative; they like brands, they like genre, but they will not front some titles, circumvent it, get an agent. I do not think whining will make Jeff Bezos lose any sleep.

[David]

This thread has been a discussion of Amazon deleting reviews for inexplicable reasons and their poor customer service and inability to justify their actions. I do not see how that has anything to do with being indie or not indie. Suddenly, you've turned it into an attack on self-publishing versus large press publishing? I don't see the connection.I wonder where your off-topic hostility is coming from. You do realize that you just insulted off-handedly 99% of the people in this group?

There's a lot of indie crap. There's also a lot of major press published crap. 50 Shades of Crap, i might say. The publishing industry is going through major upheavals, and old models are not going to be successful for much longer.

But don't listen to me. How about listen to world-class fantasy novelist Charles de Lint, in his blog here: http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2011/cdl110...

de Lint says: One of the biggest myths still prevalent in publishing is that if a book is self-published, it wasn’t good enough to be put out by a “real” publisher. Sometimes, that’s exactly the case. Sometimes the book in question is awkward, the prose is clumsy, the plot is convoluted or non-existent. But sometimes a book simply doesn’t fit into how the publisher perceives the marketplace. In their eyes, it’s unpublishable, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. If it’s ever going to reach readers, the writer has to publish it and promote it himself.

Lastly, I have no idea what this means: I have edited my reviews on Amazon due to the infamous products in a series flag; no big deal. This is a tough business. Amazon is conservative; they like brands, they like genre, but they will not front some titles, circumvent it, get an agent. I do not think whining will make Jeff Bezos lose any sleep. Again, i don't see what it has to do with J.L.'s reviews for books and appliances and garden hoses and baby clothes being deleted without any rhyme or reason.

[Joanne]

David wrote: "This thread has been a discussion of Amazon deleting reviews for inexplicable reasons and their poor customer service and inability to justify their actions. I do not see how that has anything to d..."

Okay. Try rewriting your review without linking or comparing products in a series, or mentioning Goodreads, but it is important to remember that online corporate giants are not beholden to the 1st Amendment, and just as a physical bookstore is not going to typeset your blurb to a book jacket, Amazon is not required to tolerate the level of personal expression that it indulges as is, and since it is just a retailer, I think it cuts us all a great deal of latitude; those bashing the company over free speech aren't versed in the law, and could readily educate themselves.

[David]

We speak different languages. None of these suggestions are relevant.

[Steve]

Hey Gang,

Amazon's at it again! Pulled down three out of four new five-star reviews. One was rewritten and resubmitted and they pulled it down again. No human response to a request for an explanation. I read the guidelines around a hundred times and can't find any conflict. The reviews were from book buyers, too, actual Amazon customers.

They said they'll give an explanation to the reviewer who wrote the review they pulled down. Problem is, I don't know one of the reviewers and the other two sell books on Amazon. They're afraid to confront the behemoth.

It's very Kafka.

[David]

That really stinks, Steve. I have heard I resolution or elucidation why this is happening.

[Virginia]

A review from a distaff relative with the same surname stayed up. Also a review from someone who stated he only read the sample stayed up. One book says two reviews but there is only one review. Apple shows a few written reviews but shows fifty ratings. I actually only know of four definitely removed but there may be more because I don't check often.Amazon also took down my reviews if I put in more than one product link and clearly said you may include"one". They have posted free sales when I had no freebies and in one case, a specific book rose 300,000 in rank when there was no sale recorded in the time frame. It is so arbitrary, don't pay attention to the process. Just count your money.

[David]

I've been seeing more articles on the web recently about Amazon deleting reviews. It seems like they are randomly choosing certain authors and deleting there reviews of other authors' books with no proof of inauthenticity.

[Jill]

Wow, Glad I found this.. I've had reviews disappear as well. I'm an indie-author and I've been contacted by several people with verified purchases (whom I DON'T KNOW) saying they can't post reviews or their reviews are gone.

I was sent a canned email from Amazon. No help there.
Someone gave me these links. They helped a bit.

http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/...
http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/...

SOOOO Very frustrating.

[David]

great articles. Thanks for the links, Jill!

[N.R.]

Slave To Marshmallows: A Steampunk Fairy Tale

I had someone email me and tell me they loved my book, but their review hadn't been posted. It's been days now...like 3-4 days, yet it hasn't come up on my listing. I thought Amazon had a filter, since once person I know thought since they used the word "member" they took it as something suggestive. :)

I have had my reviews taken off too...like they are live and then a few weeks later, they are gone. Can anyone explain that to me?

[David]

It's Amazon profiling people as fake reviewers. It's probably an algorithm. In other words, some computer program is tagging you as a likely fake reviewer and deleting your reviews. But we should probably not talk about that since big brother now owns us, right? ;-S

[N.R.]

I know Amazon owns me. They are sending me two Dyson vacuums for free. I love Big Brother!

It's weird because I see so many reviews that look non-legit. Two lines...the same author will have 5-10 of these saying about the same thing, but not too close for it to be copied...yet my review from a real person isn't posted? Odd.

[David]

You know they bought goodreads? !!! Maybe they'll start deleting these reviews, too.

[Yawatta]

I'm a book reviewer, and some of the authors have told me that my reviews have been taken off of Amazon. And this was when I was just a reader and hadn't even published anything yet. Now, I don't even post book reviews on there anymore. Not worth the hassle.

[David]

That's too bad, Yawatta.

[Tracy]

Here's a question. Do you think it's possible that some reviews don't ever see the page to begin with? (Most likely my readers aren't "reviewers") I've got 6 great reviews so far on the US site, but I've been selling about 3-4 copies a day since the ebook was published in early April. I'm thinking if Amazon can take down reviews, they can also NOT post reviews in the first place. Thoughts?

[Tracy]

Of course, you'd think that reviews help sales. So why would they be doing this anyways??

[David]

Sure, Amazon blocks reviews right now for obscenities and they can block them for any reason they want. If their algorithm tags an individual as a potential fake reviewer it could reject reviews before they even go live.

I think they have been doing this as over-compensation due to all the bad press they got regarding fake (company bought or fake identity) reviews. So now they would rather kill a bunch of real reviews if it means they catch a few phonies along the way.

[Michael]

They are arrogant, dismissive, abusive, and callous. I sold 700 books in my first few months and reviews kept disappearing. Last week two disappeared and I questioned and complained. Response? They nuked three more in retribution. They offer ZERO due process and are begging for a class action suit. Their enforcement is destructive to the author and to their interests as a seller. I'm seriously considering bailing on KDP Select and selling elsewhere because of their attitudes towards honest self published authors.

[Luke]

It's a private company. They can do what they want. I'm not saying you are wrong or anything. Just not worth getting too upset over a giant like Amazon. Most of what you are dealing with are automated systems and low level people.

[Luke]

Michael. I looked at your page on amazon. You are doing great with reviews and whatnot. Do you know what reviews were pulled? Do you happen to have copies you could post?

[Michael]

Luke, no, I'm afraid I wasn't copying them - until today. I've lost so many I started printing copies of the review pages this afternoon so I can better pinpoint future removals. But arguing or discussing it with them is literally impossible, they won't discuss any specifics whatsoever. It's like dealing with heavy handed mods at some kiddie video game message board.

BTW considering I ran my book three times through Story Cartel early on, and have sold over 700 copies, 20 reviews is pretty weak IMHO. Of course it should be 25+ if Amazon hadn't kept nuking reviews. The frustrating part is their actions hurt both me and them through retarding sales as positive review totals are a significant buyer influence.

[Luke]

It would be interesting to copy and track our reviews and maybe as a group try and determine what is getting the reviews pulled. Amazon is only doing it (I assume) for a logical reason. They have no reason to want to hurt your sales. Still frustrating know.

[Tracy]

That's why I like Goodreads! I've signed up for the R2Rs a few times. (Great way to get a bunch of reviews quickly) Readers leave their reviews on Goodreads first, then copy and paste them to Amazon or other places. So at least you've still got your GR reviews if you get screwed over by Amazon!

[Luke]

coooool

[Luke]

what's the best place for me to sign up for a R2R with a zombie novel?

[Tracy]

Most groups have R2R threads where you sign up and they put you on a schedule. I would pick a few (not too many at once, it's too much to keep track of) and sign up. Are you in any zombie or thriller-type groups? That's where I'd start. Oh and pick groups that are both huge and small. The large groups take longer to get on a schedule cuz you're competing with other authors, and the smaller ones are faster. Maybe you won't get a ton of readers like you might in the larger groups, but if you got a few groups going at once, that helps.

[Yawatta]

Good luck Luke. When I've signed up for R2R, I haven't gotten any readers interested. Maybe I was in large groups--I'm not sure.

[Jacqueline]

I'm glad I'm not the only one having this problem. I just lost my third review, and let me tell you, as a new indie author, I don't have too many to spare. What I really don't understand is why Amazon is so anti-review. Reviews, in theory, equal more book sales. More book sales equals more profit FOR THEM. I'm really not seeing the problem.

[Michael]

Things have been pretty stable for awhile, so I'm now up to 41 reviews on a couple of thousand sales.

Getting people to post reviews after purchasing your work is incredibly difficult, that's a surprisingly small percentage (around 2%) in my opinion.

What annoys me the most is when I complained, in addition to receiving the boiler plate privacy form email with no explanation of value, they manually went over my remaining reviews and pulled even more - like spiteful children. IMHO they owe their authors an explanation as to why a review is pulled, I see no privacy violation in that, only honest transparency.

[[deleted user]]

Yay for amazon deleting four of my eight 5 Star reviews for my first self published book! Made my day a whole lot better, and was super encouraging. I can't wait to see if they will delete the other four! =D *Yes, this is sarcasm, and in case you can't tell, I'm very upset. Thank you for letting me vent my frustration.*

[Lance]

Just so you know: in addition to Amazon perhaps acting randomly, you may be losing reviews to one or more Goodreads members who have been waging a jihad against fake reviews, which to them means any five-star review of any indie book. Various among them have said in so many words that they don't believe good reviews, only bad ones.

As if marketing isn't bad enough already...

[Maria]

Amazon & 6 degrees of seperation

I know very well what you are all saying about Amazon 'disappearing' reviews. Being at the receiving end of Amazon's new (seemingly wildly arbitrary culling strategy), I've been reading around on this issue, and have come to the conclusion that:if Amazon suspect that there is even the remotest/bitziest chance that there is a connection between a reveiw/stars of your book and YOU, the author - then, they will take it down. Absolutely.

Now, if there is a tenuous link between say, a friend on facebook and their friends and their friends etc- well, it seems to me that this is when Amazon will perform Jihad on Indie authors!!

Therefore, if this is how Amazon are justifying their culling or reviews, I would just like to remind them that apparently, there is only ever six degrees of seperation between the author and every other person on the planet - So, please Amazon, stop this crazy JIHAD, Now!

Yours Miss L. Aneous

[Drew]

Amazon.com used to allow polite political comments on books and arguments with the paid shills that are teeming all across the internet. Not anymore. All the righteous inconvenient truth is not only attacked by numerous shills, but also deleted by Amazon.com (deleted by Amazon without the .com in it!) within hours. Example:

[Deleted by Amazon 3 hours ago]
Your post, in reply to an earlier post on Dec 27, 2014 1:49:37 AM PST

I am now boycotting Amazon.com and all the other large corporations, which are teeming in the Evil Empire (USA).

[Justin]

If Reviews don't go through on Amazon it's probably due to two things.

One, you wrote it and hit publish but the site just never got it and it didn't go through.

Or two, your review was deemed inappropriate and taken down in regards to violation or you know the author personally and they doing consider it to be a credible review.

[M.T.]

Interesting to see I'm not the only one with magically disappearing reviews. I did receive an email that indicated my reviews by a family member (same last name) were not allowed, as they might be biased. I do know that Amazon is currently suing over 1,000 people for "false" reviews.

[Justin]

Yeah Amazon has been cracking down on it a lot lately. They are doing it even more now that they made an announcement about those 1,000+ fake reviews on the site.