ALERT TO AUTHORS! Have You Also Seen Book Reviews By Fellow Authors Vanish From Your Amazon Account?

 

Two articles by J.A, Konrath and the Los Angeles Times are drawing attention to what seems to be Amazon new book review policy, namely, banning authors from reviewing other authors. The LA Times mention the fate of an author, Steve Weddle, who saw many of his book review vanish overnight. His enquiry with Amazon yielded the following response:

“We have removed your review from Karma Backlash. We do not allow reviews on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product. This includes authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product. As a result, we’ve removed your reviews for this title.”

A quick look at Amazon’s current Review Creation Guidelines, copied below and added here as a print-screen in case Amazon modifies them at a later stage, clearly shows that authors and artists might have been added by amazon as parties with a financial interest or competing with the product but this was not specified in the guidelines at the time they removed the “offending” reviews.

 • Sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product (including reviews by publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product)
• Reviews written for any form of compensation other than a free copy of the product. This includes reviews that are a part of a paid publicity package

This knee jerk reaction by Amazon stems from the scandal around paid reviews that raged a few weeks ago and led about 400 authors be among the signatory crowd to the No Sock Puppets Here Please petition.

As Amazon is not answering either Konrath or Weddle about their inquiries  maybe it is time for us authors to act and sign the counter petition to restore our right to review other authors books, as the vast majority of us do so honestly and we are all being punished for the sin of tiny minority.

AUTHORS UNITE! Sign the petition!

Read here for tips and tool about finding Amazon Book Reviewers who provide their contact details