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FREE Reviews with Authors' Exchange plus low-cost book promotion tools -
see www.e-bookpromotions.com
see www.e-bookpromotions.com
You are correct, I didn't review your method. Upon doing so, I think the matter is even worse.catconnection said:Hi, Thanks for a well thought out post, but I think you did not review how our method works.
Amazon's review guidelines prohibit this. In fact, Amazon doesn't even want authors reviewing other authors "competing" works.In your review of other books, you could also insert a plug for your own - something like "As an author (The Cat Connection on Amazon), I thought this book was..."
There have been a lot of threads here recently with Amazon deleting reviews that they believe are quid pro quo or done for promotional purposes. And nothing will rile up certain sectors of the Amazon community like an author plugging his or her own book in the review of someone else's.Promotional content:
• Advertisements, promotional material or repeated posts that make the same point excessively
• Sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product (including reviews by publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product)
• Reviews written for any form of compensation other than a free copy of the product. This includes reviews that are a part of a paid publicity package
Because authors have to review six books in order to get six reviews, this policy will force authors to rate everything four or five stars by default. This is a system destined for abuse, even inadvertently, because authors will need to leave four or five star reviews in order to get reviews of their own books. It encourages people to inflate their reviews.If your Review is below a 4, do not publish it on the book sales page. Instead, send your comments to the author (and please include some positive suggestions).
While I hate bad reviews, I think it would be worse knowing I had reviews that were fake--and no matter how you spin it, that is what is going to happen. People aren't going to bother actually reading a book when the goal is receiving a certain number of reviews. I would always wonder, 'Did I earn that 5-star?" No thanks. One of the pleasures of writing is getting reviews from real readers--even though some of them are sucky reviews.catconnection said:FREE Reviews with Authors' Exchange plus low-cost book promotion tools -
see www.e-bookpromotions.com
The thing is, readers are not stupid. They will look at your book with all 5-star reviews, and see what else the person has reviewed. When they see that the person has only reviewed that one book--and that everyone who has reviewed the book has only reviewed that one--they will call you on it. The will say the reviews are sock puppets or shills.catconnection said:Thanks, Julie, your suggestions are well taken. We will change our offer and solicit reviews from readers. We really did not anticipate such abuse from people being less than honest. Does this mean that, as an author (and a prolific reader), I don't dare review anyone else's book for fear that they will then review mine and someone will accuse us of collusion? What a sad state!
It's complicated. And I agree that it is a sad situation, but unfortunately the Amazon review system has been abused a lot over the years.catconnection said:Thanks, *****, your suggestions are well taken. We will change our offer and solicit reviews from readers. We really did not anticipate such abuse from people being less than honest. Does this mean that, as an author (and a prolific reader), I don't dare review anyone else's book for fear that they will then review mine and someone will accuse us of collusion? What a sad state!