Amazon removing reviews

[PennLady]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/t...in-a-purge-aimed-at-manipulation.html?hp&_r=0

This is the first I've heard of it. Anyone else have experience with it?

(Sorry if the link doesn't work. I think reading at the NY Times requires a registration, and the first ten or so articles are free, as is the registration, or at least it was when I registered.)

 

[glynndah]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/t...in-a-purge-aimed-at-manipulation.html?hp&_r=0

This is the first I've heard of it. Anyone else have experience with it?

(Sorry if the link doesn't work. I think reading at the NY Times requires a registration, and the first ten or so articles are free, as is the registration, or at least it was when I registered.)

The link worked fine for me.

 

[lovecraft68]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/t...in-a-purge-aimed-at-manipulation.html?hp&_r=0

This is the first I've heard of it. Anyone else have experience with it?

(Sorry if the link doesn't work. I think reading at the NY Times requires a registration, and the first ten or so articles are free, as is the registration, or at least it was when I registered.)

PL,

this has been going on for awhile and it has happened to me. I lost a perfectly legit 5 star review yet a two star review that right in it the reviewer mentions he only read the preview cannot be removed. also they can word it however they want, they are deliberately sniping at indy authors only. If I buy your book and review it its my business and I bought the book.

There has been several threads started in the amazon forums about this. It really seems the reviews are only being removed for Independent authors and only good reviews.

Meantime the big six and other major publishers flood their books with paid reviews that are ridiculously over the top and of course they remain.

There are many theories that amazon is under pressure from the big six to push indy authors behind them in the searches and to do anything they can to get rid of us. The reviews are one of the tactics and many indy's are claiming their books are not being ranked properly and are showing up behind the major releases.

I am not sure if that is true or paranoia but the review thing is legit and I'm glad they're going to get negative press over it.

Amazon gave indy's a great opportunity to make money, but lets face it, we also filled up their kindle library to the point the major players are squirming and now looking to amazon to kiss their ass. It seems they are doing so.

In one of the threads in their community a person claims that when they contacted KDP about missing 5 star reviews he was told no indy book deserves a 5 star review. I am not sure on believing this as several people asked him to post the e-mail and he did not

I am also dealing with another game. A book of mine has 5 reviews 4 5-star 1- 2 star(with one 5 star removed)

on the books page it has a spot for most recent review. The review they show is the 2 star which is from 3 months ago all the 5 stars are newer. I have asked several times for this to be fixed and get "we're looking into it"

All I can say is I think amazon is going to end up regretting being this petty and stupid. Money is money no matter who makes it for you. If they lose indy authors they not only lose money, but hand it to B&N and smashwords and apple and everyone else, they also will damage their reputation with the public by screwing the little guy.

Be interesting to see if they ever respond to this. so far their MO is to acknowledge nothing.

If anyone wants to see what hs been going on here is the link to the account issues part of the forum

https://kdp.amazon.com/community/forum.jspa?forumID=7

Thank you for posting this PL because I am going to post it over there.

 

[3113]

Well, my high stars reviews for "Black Lion" are still up (For now? Knock wood)--maybe they're not worried about short stories, just novels? That, after all, is what would really threaten the publishers. A good short story is nothing. But a best selling novel that they can't make money on....

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I write bogus reviews for writers I know. My reviews are generally so toxic that my 5 star reviews are accepted without question.

 

[sr71plt]

The biggest gripe I have heard about this new system (which, yes, I knew about) was not permitting authors to review the books of other authors. Authors read too, the argument goes. None of my reviews are being removed because I review in pen name just like I write in pen name . (No, I don't review my own books.)

 

[lovecraft68]

Pilot's post about the "author's buy books too" brought that back to me. Of course we do. In fact I hazard to say that many of us started writing through our love of reading.

First what amazon is doing is taking the not very successful route of e-bay where they are kissing buyer ass to the point the sellers are getting fed up. Their argument is if a 5 star review is "biased" then some poor soul bought this book and was screwed out of their money.

Most indy books(because let's face it it is okay to mislead buyers into spending $20 on a new release hardcover from the big six) are very cheap most in the $2.99-4.99 range so boo-fucking-hoo someone "wasted $3

also amazon has a very unfair return policy of 7 days people buy a book read it and can hand it back, but that's okay because it benefits the buyer.

another thing is okay so let's say Pennlady-or "eve"" buys one of my books and reviews it then I buy one of hers and do the same.

One point is that if I spend the money then I have a right to review the book. And why do they doubt its worth the 5 stars? But my second point here is that what do they do? Do they cross reference every review by every author and every purchase to say okay Eve and LL Craft once reviewed each other's books so lets get rid of them.

They are donating that much time to this in "buyer interest" and I would be okay with it if they made a similar effort to remove 1 star bombs buy revewiers who don;t purchase a book and troll it

even better is when you click on a one star reviewers "other reviews" and see they are a serial troll who runs up and down the kindle store not buying, but blasting every book they feel like. That's okay. That's just fine.

In the end their "caring" about the buyer is a badly disguised ploy to stick it to indy writers while the big six grossly mislead people with dozens (and in the case of 50 shades) hundreds of bogus glowing reviews.

Take a look at shades its first wave of reviews were ridiculously "best thing ever" once it caught fire the average review isn't even a three. But amazon had no qualms with Random house putting up fraudulent reviews and costing people money and Shades is a "full priced" book.

but let's watch out for those sneaky indy's trying to bilk someone out of $2.99-that they can easily get back anyway within 7 days.

As I posted earlier there are people blogging all over the place about Amazon's recent push against indy authors and there is a "kindlegate" website that is gaining a lot of momentum, there are people speaking of class action law suits(doubt that will happen) and its a matter of time before someone in the media looking for something juicy is going to take this to a national level.

So for anyone out there publishing if you're putting all your eggs in amazon's basket, get your ass over to B&N Apple, Smashwords and anywhere else, because I think what they're ultimately going to do is blame the authors for all their issues and the kindle store will just be major published books.

I'm sure none of the sites I just mentioned will mind in the least.

 

[Handley_Page]

The following may be of interest.
Here.

It seems that you no longer "own" what you have purchased.
Personally, I think it is so very wrong, and convinces me that "the clouds" are no place for a book.

 

[3113]

You make some very good points, especially if Amazon is being wildly uneven in regards to policing indy books vs. big publications, and if Amazon isn't dealing with trolls in regards to indy book reviews, only focusing on the five stars. And, of course, it makes no sense to suspect more bias from an author-to-author review than from someone's mom or boyfriend. If it's open to all, then it's open to lies and bias.

Which is to say, I agree, all this certainly sounds like Amazon has created an excuse to erase the high ratings from Indies, while looking the other way when it comes to faux high ratings to boost the output from big publishers. On a more general note, however, I do wonder about this....

another thing is okay so let's say Pennlady-or "eve"" buys one of my books and reviews it then I buy one of hers and do the same....One point is that if I spend the money then I have a right to review the book. And why do they doubt its worth the 5 stars?

Ignoring for a moment that Amazon is using this as a way to stack the deck worse than any Vegas Casino...what about the practice of writers reviewing writers?

On the one hand, this was and still is the norm. Stephen King reviews a new horror writer and so gets that writer readers who think he must be good because Stephen King likes him. This, in fact, has been one of the jobs of any author in good standing--to review other books and give them a sales blurb. He is obligated to keep the publishing machine that feeds him alive and humming by supporting new authors that could bring in more money. But is this honest?

Though it might be naive, readers do feel that respected authors, at least, are not only going to know what they're talking about in a review but be honest. Like the celebrity food critics and chefs that judge Food Network game shows, why would a viewer trust judges of said food if they hadn't any valid qualifications themselves? The viewer has to feel they not only know what tastes good, but whether the contestants did something culinarily right or wrong.

But doesn't this make Indie writer on Indie writer a bit off? The way it usually works is that a qualified, established author critiques the new person--like offering an introduction to them. We trust the qualifications of a Stephen King to judge a horror story as good or bad, and so introduce us to some unknown who is worthy of our time and money. But if I've never read either Pennlady or Lovecraft, why should I trust either's assessment of the other? That both are erotica authors doesn't let me know how qualified they are to judge good erotica.

Mind you, I'm not trying to justify Amazon here--or the big publishers who also stack the deck--I'm just thinking aloud. It seems to me that this fiasco is opening up a very interesting can of worms. The whole norm of publishing and reviewing is being called into question, and I wonder how it's going to shake out in the end.

.

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, Amazon is pushing out the "Indie" books in favor of mainstream in the e-book field--they aren't just doing it with screwing around with their program mixes; they also are becoming increasingly hard to engage in Indie customer support, both in Kindle and CreateSpace. (And you never did "own" an e-book bought from them. You owned access to the file). The push is natural. They only needed to offer Indie e-books to provide an instant library for the Kindles they were getting established. The mainstream publishers are now on the e-book bandwagon, so Amazon (and other major e-book distributors) don't need the Indie books anymore. And, overall, they have found them an embarrassment (most not fully baked) and a headache (fraught with copyright problems and, in erotica sense, a can of objectionable--by someone--worms).

It has been a trend wave. We could already be on the backend of that wave.

I've seen my sales shift in emphasis from Amazon to other distributors (Kobo at the moment) for a good six months.

If you are in the e-book sales market, you need to broaden your distributor offerings--starting, like, four months ago. And you need to be prepared to experience the bottom slowly dropping out of the one-by-one self-publishing market and hope for a greater rise in publishers and packagers dealing in what you write rather than self-publishing directly.

 

[StrokerChase]

Mostly I have found it has to do with Amazon removing reviews from other authors. It's a shame though since some of them are legitimate. And with it becoming even easier for people to self publish, everyone you know will soon be an author.

 

[sr71plt]

Mostly I have found it has to do with Amazon removing reviews from other authors. It's a shame though since some of them are legitimate. And with it becoming even easier for people to self publish, everyone you know will soon be an author.

As I noted above, part of Amazon's trend is (already is being) to make it harder for a self-published e-book author to find a major distributor.