Indie Book Collective discussion

Amazon taking down reviews? I saw a flurry of emails from one writers site about Amazon starting to take down reviews from paid or unpaid "professionals." I must not have any "professional" reviews post on my Amazon site because my review numbers have not changed. Anyone else experiencing this move by Amazon?

Hi Mark, No I haven't had any reviews removed, but as I didn't ask for them or pay for them, I guess I'm okay.

They must consider all yours to be genuine and if you didn't pay for them they must be.

Someone on another site mentioned that the difference might be that whoever posts a review must have purchsed something on Amazon. Not necessary the book they are reviewing, but some item on Amazon in order to leave a review. This would make sense.

I agree, Mark. I had someone try to post a review that won my book on a giveaway and she wasn't able to post it because she had not purchased anything from Amazon.

Yes, I lost a review recently and checked with the reviewer to ask what happened. This particular book review website charges authors/publishers for their "express" review service. Even though mine was an unpaid review, Amazon saw fit to remove all their reviews. I don't know if the reviewers disclosed that they charged for the service in those express reviews. They're trying to square things with Amazon, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. The free review they provided for my book is still posted on their own website and on Barnes & Noble.

Walt Whitman is well known to have reviewed his own Leaves of Grass pseudonymously.

As long as we live in a capitalist society, people will seek advantage in making money within and outside of the rules, from the loaded-dicers in the alleyway to the megabanks behind the casinos.

I have written a lengthy blog post about how Amazon’s review policy contributes to a monopoly, and also compare it to DRM:

http://clothosloom.wordpress.com/2012...

Since posting the article a couple of days ago, I have confirmed from three separate reviewers that, not only have their legitimate reviews been removed, but they cannot even submit completely new reviews for the products, in strict conformity with the guidelines. In other words, Amazon is banning PEOPLE, not just REVIEWS. The business about violation of guidelines is nonsense.

I've had one of my 5 star reviews removed, and it wasn't by me and it was by someone who was paid either. It was just a review written by a reader. They are called the "five star nazi's". They go and remove 5 star reviews that they don't deem worthy and I've even had people try to give a 5 star in depth review that wasn't approved. The thing that surprises me, is that Amazon is supposed to be supporting indie authors with their Kindle KDP and all of that. I don't participate in KDP Select--maybe that's why it's happening.

Actually Cassandra, not only do I participate in KDP Select, but I was renewed because I did not UNCHECK the "automatic" box, thus obligating exclusivity for another 90 days I did not want. It's not that. Nor do they "not deem worthy" anything. The process is carried on by "robots"--mindless software. The Nazis had nothing on them.

As insane at is I have heard that is better to leave a three or four star review than a five star review, even if you believe the book worthy of a five star. Amazon needs to be more consistent. I totally understand Amazon moving against the pay for reviews, that is a good thing. To remove genuine reviews is a disgrace.

Ever since the NY Times expose of John Locke gaming the review system, Amazon has been taking a hatchet to any review they suspect as being a shill review. I've lost a number of the reviews I wrote over the past few weeks. Worse, Amazon has deleted the honest reviews of innocent readers from several of my books. It's really sad to see this especially since I have never met, nor even spoke to these readers before.

For years, many authors have been begging for Amazon to take action against fake reviews. I had always dreaded the day they would, knowing the cure would likely be worse than the disease. Time has proven me right.

It occurs to me I'll never be able to leave a "legitimate" review on Amazon as all my purchases there are through my wife's Amazon Prime account making me either a sock puppet or a competing author.

I entirely agree with the frustration expressed here.
A recent blog I read (Anne R. Allen's Blog) suggested moving elsewhere to both publish and buy your books. Smashwords was particularly recommended as a truly indie site that stocks all formats of ebook.
Perhaps if the mighty Amazon start to lose a little of the market share, they may be slightly less militant with their policing of reviews.

Even being on the receiving end of losing more than a dozen reviews for a single book in Amazon's heavy-handed attempt to bring order back to their review system, it's hard for me to point the finger at Amazon considering that, until recently, they had a hands-off approach to customer reviews. The system was (and still is) clearly being abused by a large number of authors. Truth is, Amazon knew about the abuse and with the exception of a couple of infamous cases, did delete shill reviews when it was brought to their attention. But now, they've become pro-active and it's obvious they prefer collateral damage to more claims of them being indifferent to the sock-puppetry going on.

Ultimately, as long as you have reviewers popping up all over the web offering to post 5 star reviews for money, regardless of the quality of the book or if they read, this situation with Amazon is likely to get worse, not better. But as with all forms of human activity, it only takes a few unscrupulous clowns to ruin things for everyone else.

I lost one review, which wasn't paid for, but I believe it was from someone who didn't purchase my book through Amazon, they got it from me personally in a giveaway. And, it was a five star review so that is disappointing, but overall hasn't hurt me.

I lost two five star reviews. It hurt because one was from the other leading indie in my category, and I was grateful for her review.

But I understand that self-pub titles have been removed from big publisher's titles in the "also bought" section, and that is what really hit me. My sales are cut exactly in half. It's a significant loss of income.

I decided to drop out of KDP Select in response and released a new edition on Nook and iTunes. I was waiting for Amazon to take advantage of us and they did it.

I have actually had reader contact me, to inform me that Amazon will not post their review. This particular reader ended up contacting Amazon on numerous occasions in order to resolve this issue. Amazon has yet to respond to her email.

I wonder how many others have tired and been unsuccessful. This is very frustrating and I hope soon Amazon will have this resolved.

Amazon can be very annoying and frustrating. So far, I haven't had any of my reviews taken down, but I've read of other authors having this issue before. Mostly, I've had pricing issues with Amazon, among other things. Maybe if enough people write in complaining, they will fix their issues with the reviews.

Sorry to anyone who had theirs taken away.

It's not just professional reviews being taken down. I've had reviews taken down made by normal people, verified purchasers even. They were 5 stars...

Cassandra wrote: "It's not just professional reviews being taken down. I've had reviews taken down made by normal people, verified purchasers even. They were 5 stars..."

It seems it's always the five star reviews that disappear, never the one stars. If we all didn't know better, you would get the impression that there aren't any bogus one-stars reviews on Amazon. But for some reason, they never see those.

In my case, I've only had five-star reviews removed, none of the other ones. Talk about disappointing!

So far, no reviews removed either from my book or reviews I've written (ironic that they don't want authors doing reviews, as I believe when the author info when I started suggested becoming a respected reviewer as a way to get people to look at your work and get your name out there).

Some sites, such as iBooks, only let you review an item if you bought it there. Annoyingly restrictive, but effective for preventing fake reviews.

The anti-Amazon unrest has even reached the pop-culture. Last night's "Big Bang Theory" contained a pretty explicit mini-rant against them. I've written two blog posts criticizing them and one praising them (as Createspace) in the past several weeks and all three have done double the usual traffic.

Shawn wrote: "The anti-Amazon unrest has even reached the pop-culture. Last night's "Big Bang Theory" contained a pretty explicit mini-rant against them. I've written two blog posts criticizing them and one pr..."

They really are getting ridiculous. I love Createspace, and I've never had any problems with them, but Amazon for ebooks is a tough bug to deal with. It's good to see that others are speaking out too. Hopefully, they will get the hint and start changing things.

I've had reviews removed on Amazon for my books and then mysteriously had them reappear some months later. Some are still gone, floating in the ether, I guess.

I was exclusive to Amazon for a while b/c of KDP Select, but no longer. I don't think I'd ever go back given the exclusivity arrangement.

I've only been at amazon a few months. So far none of my reviews have been 'disappeared'.

@Alexandra - glad to hear of your Createspace experience. I'm in the proofing phase with my book and look forward to it getting listed.

A 5-star review, written by a fan who is also a friend, was removed. It was there for 3 days. This friend, who isn't a sock puppet nor an unscrupulous clown, has purchased items from Amazon. He doesn't have my last name, BUT, we share a postal address. Is that all it takes to be dismissed?

Fake reviews are a threat to all of us.

But if every site adopted the policy of you can't review it if you didn't buy it here, then those of us who support and use our local libraries will not be able to contribute.

Sure we can review them on our blogs but....

Hock wrote: "Sure we can review them on our blogs but.... "
Hock, don't discount the impact of blogs. Your post this week sold at least 3 books (to me) by Mo Yan.
Uke Jackson