Where Are Amazon Book Reviews Going?

looking for amazon reviews binoculars-2194228_960_720If you’ve read this article from Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader  or any of the other articles going around, threads on forums, or whispers in the gossip mill, you might be under the impression that Amazon is doing something different with reviews, specifically those reviews that are written by people who didn’t buy the product being reviewed from Amazon. There is enough smoke for me to assume there must be a bit of a fire. But from what I can tell, there isn’t any reason to panic. Here’s my take. Continue reading “Where Are Amazon Book Reviews Going?”

Self-Publishing Questions and Answers, Round Two

self publishing question-1500086_960_720I wrote a post back in March answering some of the questions I most often see asked in writing groups and discussion forums. It seemed to be helpful, so after coming across more questions with iffy answers, I thought I should go for round two.

The first question is one I actually addressed in a post about book formatting back in May of 2016, but I’ve seen it asked so much lately, I thought it couldn’t hurt to repeat it.

Q.  No matter how many times I accept track changes in Word (or remove my header/footer), everything is still there when I upload to KDP. Do I have to retype the whole thing? Continue reading “Self-Publishing Questions and Answers, Round Two”

Are There More Amazon Review Deletions to Come?

amazon is ready for battle carnival-787071_640
Amazon is ready for battle. Image courtesy of Pixabay

Yeah, I know. That’s a clickbait title and possibly this article will end up looking like clickbait as well. Only time will tell. But I have a theory that the deletion of book reviews by Amazon might turn even more serious for some authors. Let me explain why.

I first became aware of bunches of reviews being deleted at least a couple of years ago. It happened sporadically; the authors of the books in question were never sure what happened or why. Usually some of the reviewers were identifiable as other authors, but only some. Inquiries to Amazon went nowhere. Continue reading “Are There More Amazon Review Deletions to Come?”

Amazon Steps in as Big Brother

Amazon.comGuest Post
by Brenda Perlin

Even though I am an author, I still love reading books of my choice and enjoy the luxury of being able to leave an appropriate review. I know how nice it feels to receive a positive one myself. More than that I do feel good writing should be rewarded. You can see this by my Amazon top reviewer raking which is 1,746 at the moment. Seems I have left 633 reviews on Amazon since June 27, 2012.

Last month while I was trying to leave a review for a smashing new release, one that I paid for and indeed read, I was told by Amazon via email that my review was removed because it didn’t follow the Amazon guidelines. I scratched my head. Did I use any strong language? Give away too much information? I couldn’t imagine what I did wrong until the Amazon review moderator got back to me via email explaining that as a reviewer you must NOT know the author. They stated that, and I quote, “We are unable to post your review because your account activity indicates that you know the author. We encourage family and friends to share their enthusiasm for the book through our Customer Discussions feature or Editorial Reviews feature.” That blew me away. I mean, most of us indie authors know each other in one form or another. Mostly we know each other from social media. I mean, isn’t that why SOCIAL MEDIA got its name? Continue reading “Amazon Steps in as Big Brother”