Over the last six to eight months, there has been a lot of chatter across the social, cyber, air-waves in the reading / writing community over Amazon’s new, heavy-handed approach to deleting customer reviews on the books they are selling. They are also blocking people from leaving reviews – as I found out last night!
I’ve recently read a lovely book called ‘The Song of Us’ – the debut novel by Emma Cooper. I enjoyed this book greatly and wished to reward the hard work of the author by leaving her a review. Instead, this is what happened when I tried to do so:
Sorry, we are unable to accept your review of this product.
Your previous review of this product did not comply with our Customer Reviews Guidelines. Amazon does not
permit reviews from customers whose relationship to the product or seller may be perceived as biased.
So, we will ignore the obviously, glaring error in the first sentence – ‘previous review of this product’? – and move on to the issue of the relationship. Yes, I do know Emma Cooper through the on-line book club we are both members of but we have never met in real life and we have never shared our deepest darkest secrets with each other. If she has a penchant for jumping off wardrobes as part of her ‘bedroom fun-time’, I do not know about it! We are, in effect, merely two people who work in the same field and who have a professional respect for each other. When the review failed to go through, I tried to leave one for ‘The Toymakers’ by Robert Dinsdale but received the same feedback. I’ve never spoken to, or written a word to, this author in my life!
This second review failure led me to do some investigating and it was then that I discovered every book review I have ever left on Amazon has been removed.
Even those from long before I took up writing.
Thus far, all we authors and book bloggers have been able to glean is that Amazon thinks everyone in the writing community are best buddies and ‘big each other up’! They do not credit us with having any kind of integrity and clearly believe that we will award five, glorious, shining, stars to every single book on their list. Most writers are also readers but we are no longer allowed to voice our opinion because we ‘may’ happen to ‘know’ the author. Using the Amazon rule of thumb, this would suggest that anyone who works in Tesco is not allowed to shop elsewhere and, if they do, they are not allowed to share their opinion on the level of service, quality of product or overall efficiency of other stores. If an employee of a certain large American fast-food chain should happen to eat in the new, French, restaurant in town, they are not permitted to advise anyone else if it is worth taking out a second mortgage to eat there because they, themselves, work in the food industry. Now, herein lies the irony – there is no harsher critic of your work than your peers. Writers will immediately spot the typing errors, the poor grammar and the plot holes and they will judge your book on these issues. A writer will present a fully honest review of any novel they read because they have very little time to indulge in this past-time and so every minute is precious.
Now, I am not the first reviewer to have their reviews removed. It has been occurring with greater frequency since last year and Amazon are failing to provide reasonable reasons for their decisions. It is no secret that there has been issues with people paying for fake reviews but it should not be difficult to ascertain that reviewers who are leaving four or five reviews per day are the reviewers Amazon need to be targeting, not those who review every other day or, in my case, every other month.
And yet… Here we have another glitch in their system. Amazon have a programme called Vine which reviewers may join and where publishers pay to have the books in their stable reviewed. There is another pay-for-reviews facility called Kirkus. The idea is that these reviewers will leave honest reviews of the product. The problem is, that as soon as money exchanges hands for a service, the person providing those funds expects a good service in return. We do not take our cars to the garage and expect it to come back minus the wheels or engine. We do not pay a hit man to take out our mortal enemy, for him to return having just removed a little finger! No! When we pay money, we expect something good in return! Therefore, having paid review services seriously undermines the whole objective of reviewing and gives the consumer false information.
Another small point of note – authors are ACTIVELY encouraged to have a social media presence. We are told by all and sundry that we must build a following over Twitter and Facebook. We must have a website where we can engage with our readers. Amazon even have Author Pages on their sites for fans to ‘follow’ their favourite writers. By doing this, however, we only give Amazon even more of an opportunity to remove reviews because someone who is a fan – and therefore biased – has left it. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t!
What started off as ‘chatter’ on social media is growing into a roar and it is becoming clear that Amazon appear to be playing outside of the rules. How much longer can they be allowed to do so?
I am loosing reviews as well. I wonder what we can do to make a difference, any ideas? some of my readers are struggling to republish their reviews as well. x
I am hoping to find a way to resolve this issue (Both Amazon and Audible) but I am also really upset and furious because every review that I have ever left for anything (that’s over years, and was hours of typing) I am completely shocked and have been completely stonewalled by Amazon and Audible when I spoke to them via their chat facility and then through a callback. We cannot contact the people that deal with this but we can sit around for 48 hours on the off chance that they do as I have been promised and email me . The message that was displayed when you tried to leave a message is the exact one I got yesterday (on .co.uk) Coincidentally my Audible account will not display my reviews either tho both halves of the company (Amazon/Audible) tell me they are independent of each other.
I’ve lost a review for my book, when you are just starting out with your first book and only have 9 reviews losing one hurts a lot. I hope this matter gets resolved for all of us, authors, reviewers and bloggers, because it’s going to seriously hinder our already limited profitability ☹ xx
I too hav had reviews removed on my books from genuine fans who made verified purchases but also when a genuine fan recommended my books to her friends Amazon removed them accusing me of knowing the reviewer. I did not. But even if I had, my relationship would have been forged as a result of my writing. So are not fans allowed to enthuse about books and develop relationships with authors? The whole thing is absurd. It was Amazon uk who were at fault but when I tried to complain to the CEO and to Bezos himself I had no joy. If anything I alerted Amazon.com. You are completely right to question that they are in breach of our privacy and am glad you have called it out. We shouldn’t be afraid to speak out. We are their customers and can vote with our feet. Neither Apple nor Google nor Kobo act in this high handed way. Anyone can leave a review and it’s no big deal. Let Amazon come on and defend what they’re doing and see the response they’ll get. But they won’t because they can’t
I absolutely agree Kate. Their behaviour is beyond unreasonable and the fact they refuse to even discuss the issue with us speaks volumes! I believe it may also be an infraction of our Consumer Rights because we should be allowed to express our opinions on the products we purchase without any reservations over their validity!
Thank you for giving this issue some profile. I was aware Amazon often remove reviews where they see them as potential ‘you scratch my back’ exchanges (as well as those from people with family and friends links). Problem is, as you suggest, reviews between authors does not mean the reviews are not genuine. Consider the fact that mainstream publishers seek reviews from other writers, often from within their own ‘stable’ of authors, and stick these onto front and inside covers. I think we assume these reviewing writers don’t want their name under a positive review unless they genuinely admire the work. But why should that be any different for e-books? And writers are likely to be big readers.
I am not a successful writer, but since trying my hand at e-book publishing, I am more likely to leave reviews out of empathy – these are only ever honest reviews, though true I am more likely to review something I have enjoyed. I’d be angry if these were removed – but we’re a small voice.
Indeed. Amazon needs the reviews on their products to help them to sell so there is no logic to this heavy handed approach they are taking. xx
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Very brave post and sadly you are not alone! I hope more people will speak up about this topic. Something has to change!
Thank you. Change is very much needed – their draconian approach is ruffling more feathers than they are smoothing.
A huge topic, bravely approached. I hope you find out how this happened as it is simply unfair that they have removed ALL your reviews..
Thank you Viola. It’s going to be interesting to see where this leads…
Only you could have put something so murky and underhand so eloquently. It is scary how much data they obviously have and the power they wield over their customers and book industry.
When I first bought an e-reader I vowed never to be sucked in by them and bought a Kobo but when I was failed by their product and customer service I was lured in by their products and offers. Now as a reader and aspiring writer I am trapped in their web of deceit.
Off to check my reviews because – eek I talk to authors online about their books and I blog reviews so probably have a black mark on my name too.
Thank you Kate. It would appear they are sweeping through everyone because my reviewing is very low level due to having so little time to read these days so I would love to know what on earth made them target me. xx