[cahocking]

I have been away and wasn't checking my new book on Amazon. When I did, there were five new reviews, all 5 star. A couple of days later, all five are gone! I've received an email from Amazon stating that they don't support reviews from friends, family members or anyone who could benefit financially from the review. WTF!!! I knew one of the reviews was put up by a family member, but I know that person is a member of my family, Amazon doesn't, and it was a genuine review because that relative loved my book. They sure aren't going to make any money out of my sales.
Another review was from another author who publishes on Amazon. I had read and reviewed that author's book last year, but have never met the author. After that author's review was removed, Amazon removed MY review of that author's book!!!
The other three reviews were from unknown readers. I sent off an email asking for a reason and got a reply stating again that Amazon doesn't support reviews they consider to be in the interest of selling my books. I am totally gobsmacked!!!!
I know there has been quite a bit of discussion about reviews being removed before, but five in a row What is going on at Amazon I DON'T GET IT!!!!

 

[Ben Mathew]

Who can fathom the ways of the Zon?

I understand that they are trying to respond to the very real problem of fake reviews. But there's collateral damage to people who haven't done anything wrong. Seems to me they should go for a lighter touch.

 

[gregm]

Kinda scary just how much information they store on us isn't it?

The link in this thread http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,143735.0.html kind of explains what they are up against.

Yeah, using a nuke to remove a rabbit might be overkill.

 

[AshMP]

i can't tell you how Amazon knew ... only that sometimes they feel like the almighty Oz. We see this happen, we scratch our heads, we make educated (and not-so-educated) guesses ... but truly, we just don't know.

I have never had reviews yanked, but I can certainly understand your frustration and I'm sorry this happened.  It's terrible and totally unfair when true reviews get pulled, especially while other blatantly fake reviews, on other books, stand.  And while this probably won't make you feel any better *right now*, I believe that if your book received 5-stars before, certainly it will out earn those 5-stars again.  

 

[George Applegate]

That's pretty creepy.    It sounds like because you ran afoul of their rules, they deleted all your reviews.  I wonder if they will delete future reviews as well.

I can see them watching for authors exchanging reviews since there is an opportunity for abuse there.  They don't allow reviews that contain "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)"  But most authors will have reviewed an Amazon book at one time or other, perhaps even before they became a Kindle author.  If authors are forbidden to ever have reviewed a book, they should say so.  Do authors have to delete all book reviews they have ever written in case the author of one of those books reviews yours?

The family connection is even more worrisome.  They could possibly look for wish lists that have been viewed, mailing addresses used for either billing or to send a gift.

Many people feel it is unethical to allow friends to write reviews, but that would seem impossible to control and even define.  If you worked in a large company, were part of some other group or have a fan base, there might be hundreds of people who would want to read and review your work.  Some of those people may consider you a friend.  How can you control that?

I would definitely appeal and try to get some specifics about what rule(s) were violated.

 

[Burrito Fart]

Big Brother is watching 

 

[Katy]

So sorry you lost all those reviews!
For them to tell you they don't allow reviews from family is just an excuse. And a bit of a lie.

My dear father-in-law, who takes joy in breaking rules, reviewed one of my books after I told the whole extended family not to. Same name as mine and everything. *MORTIFIED* I immediately emailed my editor (at 47N, a Zon imprint) to let them know it happened and to have them remove it (so I could avoid familial discord).
Editor contacted the review team. They didn't care.
In spite of my insistence, they refused to remove it. Word I got from my editor is "it doesn't violate any guidelines."

Now, I know others have had family reviews removed. Why the heck won't they remove my FIL's review when I WANT them to

It all makes no sense.
I've emailed all sorts of concerns about the whole review debacle. The folks at 47N say they are always glad to receive valid feedback, and will pass it along to the review team.

Huh.

 

[cahocking]

Kinda scary just how much information they store on us isn't it?

The link in this thread http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,143735.0.html kind of explains what they are up against.

Yeah, using a nuke to remove a rabbit might be overkill.

Thanks for that link Gregm. I suddenly feel like a very very very small fish in a big dirty pond. Kinda glad that I don't know what goes on out there. If I've been caught in the fallout, then I'll just swim around in circles for awhile until it passes and wait for some reviews that Amazon deigns to leave intact. In the meantime, my new book just made it into the top 10 in its genre, so there, Amazon! I'm selling books despite them!
Now, back to work on my next book. I won't get so excited by good reviews any more. Diminished expectations. One lives and learns.

 

[Guest]

Quote:

"Amazon doesn't support reviews they consider to be in the interest of selling my books"

WTF

Then what is the purpose of posting reviews if not an effort to sell books?
Is Amazon in the BUSINESS of selling books, or what.

If Amazon really doesn't want to try to sell our books, it's time to spread our eggs to all the baskets we can find.

 

[cahocking]

So sorry you lost all those reviews!
For them to tell you they don't allow reviews from family is just an excuse. And a bit of a lie.

My dear father-in-law, who takes joy in breaking rules, reviewed one of my books after I told the whole extended family not to. Same name as mine and everything. *MORTIFIED* I immediately emailed my editor (at 47N, a Zon imprint) to let them know it happened and to have them remove it (so I could avoid familial discord).
Editor contacted the review team. They didn't care.
In spite of my insistence, they refused to remove it. Word I got from my editor is "it doesn't violate any guidelines."

Now, I know others have had family reviews removed. Why the heck won't they remove my FIL's review when I WANT them to

It all makes no sense.
I've emailed all sorts of concerns about the whole review debacle. The folks at 47N say they are always glad to receive valid feedback, and will pass it along to the review team.

Huh.

Wow, Katy, you have to wonder WHO is sitting at the other end, making all these decisions. Like I said before, I don't get it.

 

[cahocking]

Quote:

"Amazon doesn't support reviews they consider to be in the interest of selling my books"

WTF

Then what is the purpose of posting reviews if not an effort to sell books?
Is Amazon in the BUSINESS of selling books, or what.

If Amazon really doesn't want to try to sell our books, it's time to spread our eggs to all the baskets we can find.

I have already come to that conclusion, Okey Dokey. I had removed my books from Smashwords to take advantage of the Free Promos and KOLL on Amazon, but will be removing Amazon's exclusivity and republishing on Smashwords as well.
Hhmmm, wonder if Amazon is reading this post right now....

 

[Soothesayer]

Don't just stop at Smashwords (which is the worst of the lot), but opt for Lulu, Kobo, Createspace, Draft2 and every offline outlet you can.

Amazon has been Google for a good while now. Just when I think they can't get any worse, this happens.

 

[Monique]

Quote:

"Amazon doesn't support reviews they consider to be in the interest of selling my books"

WTF

Then what is the purpose of posting reviews if not an effort to sell books?
Is Amazon in the BUSINESS of selling books, or what.

If Amazon really doesn't want to try to sell our books, it's time to spread our eggs to all the baskets we can find.

Amazon wants to sell your books (and mine) because that's how they make money. I think the email from CS was perhaps referring to the reviews that act as ads in some way for *another* book. OP, did you mention you were an author or your book in the review that you wrote?

Now, CS's emails don't always make sense. Honestly, more often than not they don't. But, Amazon definitely wants to sell your books.

There's a lot of shoot first, don't bother asking questions later going on with review purges. Dolphins are definitely caught in the tuna nets, but it's a little over the top to think that remark from CS means Amazon doesn't want to sell your books.

 

[Guest]

DUH!

Of course reviews serve as ads.

We are trying to SELL books.
Amazon should be trying to SELL our books.

 

[Amanda Brice]

I knew one of the reviews was put up by a family member, but I know that person is a member of my family, Amazon doesn't, and it was a genuine review because that relative loved my book. They sure aren't going to make any money out of my sales.

They may not be making money off your sales, but there's still a connection and that is enough to get it removed. As for how they know that person is a family member -- have you ever sent that person a present through Amazon? Gifted them something through Kindle? They can draw connections of a relationship of some sort that way.

Another review was from another author who publishes on Amazon. I had read and reviewed that author's book last year, but have never met the author. After that author's review was removed, Amazon removed MY review of that author's book!!!

Hardly surprising that they would remove the review. I'm going to give you both the benefit of the doubt that it wasn't a review exchange but was just done because you both happened to enjoy each other's book, but they can track the accounts and it looks like tit for tat.

[/quote]

 

[Andrea Harding]

If you have any fans who have read most of your books and rated/reviewed them on goodreads, they might not be adverse to you asking if they'd mind posting/re-posting their reviews on amazon - though I'd read their profiles carefully first as some don't like unsolicited mail from authors!

 

[TexasGirl]

Reviews sometimes return, btw. It has been mentioned here.

After having almost my entire backlist of romance novel reviews going back ten years removed, I really looked into this. I think after my experiences and the experiences of my close friends, author friends, and students that I teach about publishing (I teach on a college campus via SCBWI), I have it down.

First, an autobot makes some sort of match on your book and triggers an audit. Usually it's one of two matches:

1. Gift card match. You gave a gift card to someone, say a fan who won it during a promotion, and that fan wrote a review of your book later. It could also have been a gift card to a friend or family member who later wrote a review. It reads to the autobots as a payment for a review. They nix the review and it triggers an audit of your reviews.

or

2. IP address match. Some are simple. Your sister comes to visit and makes some purchases on Amazon while at your house. Now her Amazon account has been associated with your home IP address, where you upload your books. A year later she tries to be helpful and writes a review of your book. It reads to the autobots that she is family. (Same thing if you go visit her and log in at her house.) This triggers an audit.

The IP address gets worse if like me, you teach in a big public environment and log into KDP to show students how to navigate the reports. Of COURSE your students immediately log into KDP to follow along on their own reports. Now we're all one big incestuous family. Even if the student later thinks--hey, I'm going to read one of the books by this teacher, and reviews it, it reads as family/friends to the auto bought. And an audit is triggered.

The audit goes much deeper, and starts catching reviews by other authors, and you may not even know those reviewers were also authors. It will also catch if you have purposefully or inadvertently reviewed someone who has also reviewed you. I'm actually sort of sad when an author I love reviews me, as I know I can never, ever review them back. This happens on KB regularly--I love you guys, but I have to love you from afar once you've touched my forbidden fruit review page

When my account was audited, I got super screwed, because since I teach, tons of people I didn't really know, who had just been to book events or heard me teach, got reviews deleted--even old ones, from before they met me. On what I call "Doomsday," about 100 of my own reviews on Amazon, and about 50 reviews of my works were deleted.

I caught it in the middle of it happening, and quickly printed out what I had left. When more were taken down, I examined closely some of them -- far flung locations that couldn't have met me or shared an IP. I can only guess that they are also authors in my genre under another name, accounts Amazon has already associated.

I would not say my sales were harmed by this because truly, sales rise about 20% for me every month, but a couple books had to build reviews back up before I could do promos with them again. Jinnie Wishmaker was the hardest hit because so many SCBWI members from class had bought it and reviewed it, which I had not asked for or encouraged, but I guess they wanted to check it out. It went from 16 reviews to 2 and has not recovered.

My advice if you love a book by another author and want to review it: offer a blurb review instead. If the author wants to use it, they can put it in the editorial section as an endorsement. Many KBers could use editorial endorsements in that section of their pages. Even if customers think they are not affected by those, their eyes still skim it and it makes an impression as they scroll. My bestselling books are always the ones with editorial reviews, as it just makes the page look more pro.

 

[George Applegate]

Now we're all one big incestuous family.

That is worrying. I used to be in management at a 9000 employee organization that used a single IP address for the internet, and I have logged into Amazon (years ago) using that IP address. There are hundreds of people there who know me, and some will purchase and review my books. I have yet to publish, but I am concerned that those people will trigger the autobot and I will never be allowed to have Amazon reviews.

Do I have to use a pseudonym and lie to my friends and family that I have published the books? (Three people can keep a secret only if two of them are dead.) Or do I simply have to write off Amazon as a sales channel?

 

[TexasGirl]

There is no reason to write them off. If things go well, you should not be relying on anyone who has had personal contact with you to sell your book. Your book will sell itself to strangers.

Like I said, mass review removal has had no effect on my sales whatsoever.

And reviews are the issue du jour due to bad press. Tomorrow they may not even police it anymore.

 

[George Applegate]

Like I said, mass review removal has had no effect on my sales whatsoever.

I hope that's true.

You say that after the wholesale removal, others were still able to leave reviews, but it sounds like just one more review by a questionable account and it starts all over again.

Using Select with it exclusivity now seems like a very poor option.