Support for Indie Authors discussion

Looked for this topic, but couldn't find anything. I've just had my fourth review deleted by Amazon. I've mailed them about this before and got an automated reply. Two of the reviews were by friends, who'd read the book. Two of the reviews were by people I only 'met' after they read my book. When a reader connects I think its great and we become friends. Is this a mistake? Do I need to reject friendships so I won't lose my reviews?
Very frustrated about this. I'm working pretty hard to get readers and reviews...to have them deleted with no explanation is hard to take.

I've heard from another author if you friend someone on facebook who has reviewed your book, they will take the review down.

I can offer a guess, but I have not had reviews deleted before. I would imagine that if someone does not usually post reviews or creates an amazon account just to post a review for a book, it is probably flagged as suspicious ??? If neither of those situations apply, I am at a loss why they would remove them.

I have added people to facebook who did reviews for my book and their reviews are still there. I recently ordered books to be sent directly to giveaway winners, but I am paranoid that those reviews might be rejected because the addresses would be connected to my account somehow. I do not know how else Amazon would know who is who.

The topic has come up before, but it also tends to get a trifle heated at times, so some of those thread may not be around anymore. Regarding your question, if a reviewer feels their review has been wrongly deleted, they can contact Amazon and get a reason, or get it reinstated. The author will only get a generic reply.

However, this is the main point: reviews do not sell books. By that I mean that of all the factors that influence book sales, reviews and the weakest by far.

Next, when Amazon deletes a review, they are doing you a favor. They judge that review is suppressing your book's sales potential, and they know vastly more about selling books than we do. We should should trust them on this.

Finally, your book has 21 reviews on Amazon, 14 by verified purchase, and all 3 stars or better. That is really good. Your book has done a excellent job of getting positive reviews from buyers. That is something to be proud of.

Wishing you every success.

Does the same apply to Goodreads?

Just lock this thread now. It will not end well.

As far as I know (meaning I'm not 100% certain)

Amazon deletes suspicious reviews, for example from people who recently opened an account, and only purchased your book then posted a review a couple of days later. Also an caught paid reviews will be removed.

I don't know how reviews help or don't help sales. I do know however that Anne Rice, the famous author used to get terrible reviews. She still became a famous author by the same book that got terrible reviews.

In Goodreads, sometimes you get drive-by one stars. Meaning, a new account that sprung up just to rank you low. Afterwards you get a message that offers you paid promotions. Other-times the drive-by is because someone hates you.

You can be a saint, still someone will hate you. That's life. Haters will hate.

I'm not sure how deleting a well-written, highly descriptive, 5 star review, by a legitimate, previously unknown reader is 'doing me a favor'. But thank you for the well wishes.

I've heard that too, Morris. So I guess the next time a reader reaches out to me after finishing my book, I should tell them I can't talk to them because if we send each too many emails, it might risk violating amazon no friends review policies.

Apologies for the snarky tone...this has me a little worked up.

Good point Amit. cheers!