# Lost some reviews?



## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

I clicked on one of my titles today (Sugar Daddy) and noticed a review was missing.  A few minutes later, two more were missing.  

I contacted Amazon and they stated that either the reviewer pulled them, or they violated guidelines.

Here's the thing, the reviews had been up for over a year, and I know who two of the three were (friended fans from my FB page).  I contacted them and asked them if they pulled the reviews.  They said they didn't.  I had read the reviews and know they didn't violate any guidelines.  Sadly all reviews were positive.

Anyone ever had this happen to them before?  "Sugar Daddy" has been out for over a year and a half, and these particular reviews were nearly as old  

Strange.


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## JGreen20 (Jul 10, 2012)

I can't tell you what happened, but I've read in this forum lately a thread about reviews being pulled.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback, JGreen.  It's weird.  Amazon doesn't know why it happened, and they can't do anything about it.

Oh well


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## JGreen20 (Jul 10, 2012)

Well, Amazon didn't say they didn't know. It is a big company. Someone might have considered that those reviews violated the guidelines, therefore they removed them.

It could be just a glitch. It wouldn't surprise me.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

Hope so  

Thanks again

Best

Jeff


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## RHill (Jun 9, 2012)

Jeff Menapace said:


> I clicked on one of my titles today (Sugar Daddy) and noticed a review was missing. A few minutes later, two more were missing.
> 
> I contacted Amazon and they stated that either the reviewer pulled them, or they violated guidelines.
> 
> ...


Okay, this might sound really paranoid, but a friend of mine who spends a lot of time tracking such things said some guy (he gave me the name, but I don't want to earn wrath) has been going around and getting a lot of reviews pulled from Amazon. According to my friend, this guy is just some bitter person who is kind of crazy and "false reports" to Amazon, who just pulls the books when they get a negative report. Not saying this is what happened to yours, but it's frustrating not to be able to do anything about it. I also know two other people who recently received legitimate reviews from legitimate purchasers, and the reviews never showed up on their pages. The reviewers didn't know what happened to them.


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## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

Yeah, I just noticed one of my reviews got pulled, too. I know the reviewer and none of her other reviews for my other books are gone. Kinda weird.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> Yeah, I just noticed one of my reviews got pulled, too. I know the reviewer and none of her other reviews for my other books are gone. Kinda weird.


Yup. Exactly what happened with me. The reviewers' reviews on my other titles are still there


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## purplesmurf (Mar 20, 2012)

I had the same thing happen on one of my husband's titles. The reviews had been up for almost a year and got the same response from amazon, that either they violated their TOS or the reviewer pulled the review.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

Aaaand I've now lost yet another review on a different story.  

What is going on?


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## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

I've lost at least one review from each of my books today. It was a friend of mine that reviewed each of them. But they were all verified purchases, and had been up at least a year. At least one of them was listed as the most helpful review. And now they're gone. Really, really frustrating.


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## CarlG (Sep 16, 2012)

The great god Ammy giveth and taketh away.

Hard not to get fatalistic when these things happen.

I had a relative of a friend buy my book, read it, and put up a review. It never appeared. Did she fail to press the right button to upload it or did get lost in the great algo-machinery or by the whim of law or logic? Only the Shadow knows ...

Frustrating, but one has to pick one's battles, as pursuing every little (or seemingly big) thing can be a time-suck to the detriment of writing and publishing.

Sorry to hear of everyone's reviews disappearing, though. It sucks.


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

I lost a review at the same time you did. I keep reading through them to try to remember which review I lost. I worked so hard to get these reviews and it's disappointing when they disappear like that. I hope we don't keep losing them.


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

Ammy will sometimes yank reviews if they perceive the reviewer is a mill for reviews or is receiving compensation for the review or if the IP address of the account matches anyone who has a financial interest in the book. They also don't like reviews that have also been posted elsewhere.

We've had cases here where someone logged in to a computer of a friend who had written a review and BAM, the review came down as the bots thought it was a sock puppet due to two accounts with an IP match.

But mostly, I think they back up and move databases around, and so fields can come and go depending on the status of a server.


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## AmberDa1 (Jul 23, 2012)

Had this happen to me in the past two days. Don't get it. It's hard getting reviews,if it is a glitch I hope it gets fixed soon.


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## DarkScribe (Aug 30, 2012)

Jeff Menapace said:


> I clicked on one of my titles today (Sugar Daddy) and noticed a review was missing. A few minutes later, two more were missing.
> 
> I contacted Amazon and they stated that either the reviewer pulled them, or they violated guidelines.
> 
> ...


There was a thread on another group some months back re an issue regarding reviews (unrelated to Amazon) where people who used free WiFi hotspots were getting reviews quashed as the IP address had been blacklisted for the misbehaviour of others. I have had a query email from Amazon regarding multiple accounts using the same IP address that I use when at work. We are a company in the publishing industry and more than one hundred employees share the same network and server. They were fine as soon as I pointed that out.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

Well I have now lost SIX reviews, for three of my stories.  This is getting very upsetting.  I have tried contacting Amazon, but they have all but told me they can't do anything about it; either the reviewer pulled them, or they violated terms of agreement.

What the heck is going on?  Is it possible for someone to hack in to Amazon and remove my reviews?


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

This is a long thread from last month in the Amazon forums, but it explains how a lot of reviews disappear.

http://www.amazon.com/forum/top%20reviewers/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2Z5LRXMSUDQH2&cdPage=1&cdThread=TxSTT2G20RWWXD

There's no point in reposting the review or writing Amazon. All you'll get is a vague response that implies that your review didn't meet Amazon guidelines, but they refuse to discuss it further, and they threaten to kill your posting privileges if you persist. And when they delete reviews, they don't inform the reviewer or the author/publisher.


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

That was a very interesting thread and includes a very important point. I'll summarize here so others don't have to slog through it, because the original poster of that thread over there did not seem to get it:

IF you give reviewers gift cards to buy your book or product rather than giving it to them directly, when the reviewer cashes that gift card, it will link them to you, and Amazon will consider this compensation for review, even if the gift card was only 99 cents or whatever to cover the cost of the item. Amazon will delete any of their reviews of any of your products, even if they are years old. They may also delete ALL that reviewer's reviews, for other products not related to the gift cards.

Now, Amazon has set overseas and app developers up to fail, as the gift card or gifting the app is the only way to get the product to them--it's not like a book where you can just email it. I haven't developed for the Fire, but I know iTunes has developer codes. Not sure what Amazon does for that, but it seems some companies get stuck having to do gift cards. Partly this is to get the "Verified Amazon Purchase" on there. Unfortunately, using that system also falsely elevates ranking, which Amazon isn't going to like either. So Amazon deletes the reviews.

*Coming back to the original poster, the person who wrote the reviews for you may have accepted gift cards from other manufacturers for reviews, and got all his/her reviews pulled, including yours, even though you weren't part of that. Collateral damage.*


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

Jeff Menapace said:


> I clicked on one of my titles today (Sugar Daddy) and noticed a review was missing. A few minutes later, two more were missing.
> 
> I contacted Amazon and they stated that either the reviewer pulled them, or they violated guidelines.
> 
> ...


I feel your pain. I noticed I lost 3 reviews on my second book in my series. I had 24 and now I'm down to 21 on that book. I can't tell whose reviews they were as they had been their for over 2 years. The only thing I did notice is that one of the reviewers has left reviews on all three books in the series and their review of book 1 and 3 are still up. I'm hoping they won't disappear as well.


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## NS (Jul 8, 2011)

It happens all the time and Amazon doesn't give any explanation. My friends and I also found reviews missing Yesterday. Must be season cleaning.


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## Ian Fraser (Mar 8, 2011)

Thought I'd lost a review two days back, and was doing the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth (it was a pretty good review) - then saw it had gone from the 'sidebar review excerpts' on the right hand side, to the main page itself (if you know what I mean). 
Perhaps folks should check through the reviews on their main page, just in case Amazon's done a reshuffle.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

Bah!


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

Jeff Menapace said:


> Bah!


My sentiments exactly.


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## 4eyesbooks (Jan 9, 2012)

Yes, I lost a review on one of my books too.  I guess Amazon is cleaning house.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

I've lost 3, too. Too bad none of the reviews you ever lose are one-stars, huh?


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## Josh Handrich (Jul 8, 2011)

This is so stupid. I've lost one review, for my novella ranked around 500K. Why the hell do they care about my obscure story? Of course, it's one of my 5-star reviews. What BS. 

It's times like this that I'm trying to decide if I want to use Createspace for hard copies of my upcoming novel. They take a 40% cut on top of printing costs. I'll go with a local publisher to get my books on shelves, thank you very much.


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## Shelley K (Sep 19, 2011)

I lost a 4-star and a 5-star, each by a different person on a different title, put up at different times over the last several months. Poof. 

I only noticed because those were the only reviews those two titles had. :\

The good news is that having them and not having them didn't affect sales one way or the other.


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Yes I've lost several. I have no idea why.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Same here. I lost one on two different novels for no obvious reason. They seemed to be perfectly ordinary reviews. They are suddenly gone.

ETA:Yep, it's never the 1-star reviews or the ones that look like they might be sockpuppet reviews.


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## HAGrant (Jul 17, 2011)

They deleted a review off all my books this week.

What really shocked me: yesterday they deleted a review I wrote for a book that I bought and loved -- the review was polite and I don't know the author at all. When I wrote to them to ask WHY they pulled it, they said I had an account related to somebody else who reviewed the book -- but I DO NOT! I am steaming mad about it. I should be able to place a polite review for a product I bought.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

In the last couple of months, Amazon has deleted about twenty of my reviews. They don't inform you of this at the time, and if you notice it and repost it, you get a very nasty email from them that threatens to kill your review privileges. At most, they give you some vague reason and say that they won't discuss it. I know some top reviewers have just given up and have written in their profile why they're not reviewing any more.

In the worst case of mine, they deleted 14 reviews for the Grabarchuk puzzlebooks. I had been sent gift certificates for $0.99 or $1.99 for 6 of those, but I purchased the other 8 with my own credit card. But when they started deleting, they took a meat cleaver and killed every one of them, including the ones where Amazon's own records show that I bought them.

I was so p*ssed that I wrote a snail mail letter to Jeff Bezos, and eventually I got a snotty email from some flunky at Amazon that just repeated the snotty email that I got from a cube dweller in India when I first complained and asked about the deleted reviews.

All they've done is discourage a lot of good reviewers from caring about reviewing as much. It's weird how a company known for good customer service acts so unbelievably crappy toward reviewers.


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

I've been concerned about the IP address issue because I run an indie writing group and we regularly get together with laptops and log in to accounts to help each other upload or troubleshoot. I'm quite sure doing this means Amazon is starting to link our accounts. Eventually it will be 50 Shades of "whoever's cozied up to TexasGirl's laptop" and Amazon will assume we're bumping uglies and have prurient interest, or financial interest, or whatever.

It's an imperfect world. I don't pay much attention to my reviews other than when I'm trying to do promotions that require certain standards. At least Amazon does hire people to look at review complaints (I know this because my friend used to do it, and quit in frustration.) At BN little trolls run amok and have 40-review conversations of LOL and WTF and no one interferes. If you're lucky, they do their little runs with 5 stars. If it's one stars, not so much luck.


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## CarlG (Sep 16, 2012)

Okay, fine. I won't leave any reviews for any of Amazon's products from here on in. They love to send emails inviting me to do so whenever I buy, but those will be deleted on sight.

And I have NO idea how to solicit, encourage, or even accept honest reviews from friends, friends of friends, or total strangers. And any reviews that appear I will consider temporary. At this point I do not care if my book or future books get ANY reviews at all on Amazon.

Their system is broke.


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

CarlG said:


> Okay, fine. I won't leave any reviews for any of Amazon's products from here on in.


Great point. I agree. I lost one review. What I want to know is why? Why so many of us? Ugh.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Same here. I lost one on two different novels for no obvious reason. They seemed to be perfectly ordinary reviews. They are suddenly gone.
> 
> ETA:Yep, it's never the 1-star reviews or the ones that look like they might be sockpuppet reviews.


Yup. All of my missing reviews were 4 and 5 stars. Of course my 1-stars that have that sock drawer musk remain firmly planted.


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## That one girl (Apr 12, 2011)

HAGrant said:


> What really shocked me: yesterday they deleted a review I wrote for a book that I bought and loved -- the review was polite and I don't know the author at all. When I wrote to them to ask WHY they pulled it, they said I had an account related to somebody else who reviewed the book -- but I DO NOT! I am steaming mad about it. I should be able to place a polite review for a product I bought.


Wow... I guess that's the answer right there. They're deleting reviews they think are "related" to other reviewers, not necessarily related to the author. That's strange. I guess that's their way of determining whether the author is getting multiple reviews from a "coalition" of reviewers?


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

TexasGirl said:


> I've been concerned about the IP address issue because I run an indie writing group and we regularly get together with laptops and log in to accounts to help each other upload or troubleshoot. I'm quite sure doing this means Amazon is starting to link our accounts. Eventually it will be 50 Shades of "whoever's cozied up to TexasGirl's laptop" and Amazon will assume we're bumping uglies and have prurient interest, or financial interest, or whatever.
> 
> It's an imperfect world. I don't pay much attention to my reviews other than when I'm trying to do promotions that require certain standards. At least Amazon does hire people to look at review complaints (I know this because my friend used to do it, and quit in frustration.) At BN little trolls run amok and have 40-review conversations of LOL and WTF and no one interferes. If you're lucky, they do their little runs with 5 stars. If it's one stars, not so much luck.


Same thing happened to me, TexasGirl: sharing IPs with laptops. Hard lesson learned. No shady doings whatsoever, but my 4 and 5 star reviews are still vanishing. I've got my first of three novels set to debut soon (up until now I've done fairly well with novella's and shorts) and all of this is causing more than a little stress about what might lay ahead.


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## DarkScribe (Aug 30, 2012)

I have a question for those who lost reviews that they had written - not those who lost reviews from others. 

Do you have a fixed IP address? 

I have had some reviews removed but only those where I had used a cable internet access that didn't have a fixed IP address - in this case our holiday home where I only use cable broadband. The IP address will also change for many who use a pocket/portable WiFi hotspot.  I am wondering whether Amazon has introduced software that is assuming that all posts from the same address (possibly from an address pool) are from the same person but using socks. Many people do not have a fixed IP address but quite often the address will not change until they shut their modem down and re-start it. In the case of a portable hotspot, each time you turn it on it will select another address from the available pool (unless your service provider allows a permanent address - unusual for portable broadband.) 

Amazon is not in the business of shooting themselves in the feet, so I guess that whatever is happening is an unexpected response to them tightening the review system. Very likely auto software that does not allow for innocent use of the same IP address.


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## HAGrant (Jul 17, 2011)

DarkScribe said:


> I have a question for those who lost reviews that they had written - not those who lost reviews from others.
> 
> Do you have a fixed IP address?
> 
> ...


The IP shouldn't matter because I log into my account before I post a review. That way it shows my verified purchase. I use my laptop at home 95 percent of the time. I log into my Amazon account once in a while at work and once in a while in a coffee shop.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

I think it's stoking the paranoia of all the indie authors. Just read this today on the site that shall not be named: http://stopthegrbullies.com/2012/10/18/what-do-you-think/

I do worry about making Amazon mad at me. That's why I have only emailed once about a technical glitch. Mostly I just try to sit it out for fear of getting on a poo list.


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## DarkScribe (Aug 30, 2012)

HAGrant said:


> The IP shouldn't matter because I log into my account before I post a review. That way it shows my verified purchase. I use my laptop at home 95 percent of the time. I log into my Amazon account once in a while at work and once in a while in a coffee shop.


It shouldn't but apparently does. As I posted yesterday, I had a query letter from Amazon some time back suspending several accounts and asking why a number of people - all with Amazon accounts - were using the same IP address - in this case my company's network. Once I explained that it was a was a publisher's corporate network with more than one hundred employees they re-instated all accounts. If they have now instituted software monitoring to search for duplicate address use it might explain things. It is unlikely that they will be introducing policies that will have a negative effect on them - it has to be an error of some type.


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## HAGrant (Jul 17, 2011)

DarkScribe said:


> It shouldn't but apparently does. As I posted yesterday, I had a query letter from Amazon some time back suspending several accounts and asking why a number of people - all with Amazon accounts - were using the same IP address - in this case my company's network. Once I explained that it was a was a publisher's corporate network with more than one hundred employees they re-instated all accounts. If they have now instituted software monitoring to search for duplicate address use it might explain things. It is unlikely that they will be introducing policies that will have a negative effect on them - it has to be an error of some type.


DarkScribe, I understand what you are saying... but the one review I wrote that they deleted this week I wrote from my laptop at home... not from an office with a shared IP address. There was no reason on the face of the earth for them to delete it. They told me that they removed it because I have a related account with another reviewer -- but I don't! I also understand what Dalya is saying, but at this point I don't care if they put me on a poo list.

Their email to me below:

Your review on ******** was removed because your account is related to another reviewer of this title. I'm sorry for any frustrations this may cause but our guidelines prohibit related accounts from submitting reviews on the same items.

One of our goals with Customer Reviews is to provide other customers with unbiased reviews so they can make informed buying choices. We appreciate your understanding.

I hope this information helps! We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thank you for your inquiry. Did I solve your problem?


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## DarkScribe (Aug 30, 2012)

Dalya said:


> I think it's stoking the paranoia of all the indie authors. Just read this today on the site that shall not be named: http://stopthegrbullies.com/2012/10/18/what-do-you-think/
> 
> I do worry about making Amazon mad at me. That's why I have only emailed once about a technical glitch. Mostly I just try to sit it out for fear of getting on a poo list.


Paranoia is right. To suggest that one of the "big six" would place a saboteur in Amazon and that person would waste time sabotaging a book with a handful of sales is pure reason-overwhelming paranoia. It is more likely that either Amazon uses a triage based priority system or some employees are inept or lazy and as a result fail to do their job well.


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## DarkScribe (Aug 30, 2012)

HAGrant said:


> DarkScribe, I understand what you are saying... but the one review I wrote that they deleted this week I wrote from my laptop at home... not from an office with a shared IP address. There was no reason on the face of the earth for them to delete it. They told me that they removed it because I have a related account with another reviewer -- but I don't!


This is exactly what I am suggesting. If your home account does not have a fixed IP address - usually something that you pay more for - you could easily have been allocated a number from the pool that had been used by another Amazon user. If you do not have a fixed IP address then each time your modem is turned off it and restarted it will select a new address from the pool of available addresses. The same will happen if the server at your ISP is changed, updated etc.


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## HAGrant (Jul 17, 2011)

DarkScribe said:


> This is exactly what I am suggesting. If your home account does not have a fixed IP address - usually something that you pay more for - you could easily have been allocated a number from the pool that had been used by another Amazon user. If you do not have a fixed IP address then each time your modem is turned off it and restarted it will select a new address from the pool of available addresses. The same will happen if the server at your ISP is changed, updated etc.


I subscribed to Comcast, cancelled my internet for about 3 months, then restarted it a month ago... I just assumed my IP address was the same. I will call Comcast right now and ask them about it.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

DarkScribe said:


> Paranoia is right. To suggest that one of the "big six" would place a saboteur in Amazon and that person would waste time sabotaging a book with a handful of sales is pure reason-overwhelming paranoia. It is more likely that either Amazon uses a triage based priority system or some employees are inept or lazy and as a result fail to do their job well.


Some of the conspiracy theories are more, uh, creative than others.


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## TLH (Jan 20, 2011)

Yup, I had one disappear yesterday as well.


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

No shared IPs and such for me and I've still got all my reviews. Misanthropy finally pays off...


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## 25803 (Oct 24, 2010)

I had four reviews disappear yesterday or today (not sure when). I'm not sure who the reviewer/s were; I just saw that the total number of reviews had changed. I have no idea why they would disappear and likely never will.

I recently changed from a fixed IP address to another iNet provider and I've seen that on my stat reports I show up as being from all over the greater Tampa area, with different IP addresses (probably at reboot). Is it possible someone else with the same extremely large broadband provider posted a review? Very odd if this is what Amazon is looking at! Especially since I'd expect readers in my area would be more likely to read and post a review.


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## Al Dente (Sep 3, 2012)

Winter's Plague once had a total of 5 reviews. One of them disappeared last month and two more disappeared yesterday. I'm down to 2 reviews on that book now. I don't know what's gotten into Amazon lately.


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## cdvsmx5 (May 23, 2012)

While Amazon might have legitimate concerns with a large number of accounts using the same IP address, most addresses are randomly assigned by the provider as needed to serve demand.  You might not know this or understand the reasons for it, but Amazon does.

If Amazon asserts a relationship between accounts, it would be based on more obvious information; physical and email addresses, and financial info, like bank and credit cards.


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## HAGrant (Jul 17, 2011)

cdvsmx5 said:


> While Amazon might have legitimate concerns with a large number of accounts using the same IP address, most addresses are randomly assigned by the provider as needed to serve demand. You might not know this or understand the reasons for it, but Amazon does.
> 
> If Amazon asserts a relationship between accounts, it would be based on more obvious information; physical and email addresses, and financial info, like bank and credit cards.


"If Amazon asserts a relationship between accounts, it would be based on more obvious information; physical and email addresses, and financial info, like bank and credit cards."

You would think so, but that is not what happened to me.

(correcting what I wrote after I reread Amazon's email)

I reviewed a book I bought. Months later, this week, Amazon deleted the review. The review was polite and favorable. I don't know the author. Nobody paid me or asked me to review the book. I don't belong to a review service or a blog that reviews.

I asked Amazon why they pulled it. They asserted a relationship between my account and another reviewer on the book, without giving me any details, which made no sense. I am not related to the other reviewers or the author. I don't share Amazon accounts, bank accounts, computers, IP addresses, or anything else. Amazon pulled a valid review for absolutely no reason. This seriously erodes my trust in them.


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## DarkScribe (Aug 30, 2012)

cdvsmx5 said:


> While Amazon might have legitimate concerns with a large number of accounts using the same IP address, most addresses are randomly assigned by the provider as needed to serve demand. You might not know this or understand the reasons for it, but Amazon does.
> 
> If Amazon asserts a relationship between accounts, it would be based on more obvious information; physical and email addresses, and financial info, like bank and credit cards.


Not so. Amazon queried me based on nothing more than a common IP address. Nothing else was common. We have possibly a dozen staff who hold Amazon accounts, nothing is shared other than the same IP address when at work.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

Brian Spangler said:


> I'm hoping it is just a system issue and the reviews will be put back.


I'm afraid that the reviews are gone permanently. And if the reviewer reposts their reviews, within a few hours, they'll get a really nasty email from Amazon.

I don't know why Amazon has gone berserk over this, but it's not just a temporary glitch in their system.


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## Judy Powell (Sep 25, 2011)

I'm in the same boat.  Lost 2 reviews on a book but have no idea which reviews disappeared.  I can only say it was probably 4 or 5 stars because my average  has gone down.  Why doesn't Amazon remove the 1 star reviews as well?  They seem determined to target the good reviews.  When our books sell they also benefit so why make things harder for authors/publishers?  I thought we were one the same team.  I don't get it...


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## cdvsmx5 (May 23, 2012)

Were the missing reviews written by other authors?


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

JimC1946 said:


> I don't know why Amazon has gone berserk over this, but it's not just a temporary glitch in their system.


I'll wager a guess it's John Locke backlash. Amazon wants to be able to say they're patrolling the system.


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

tkkenyon said:


> I'm going to make a sock puppet and give all my own books 1-star reviews, just so I'm relieved when they disappear!
> 
> TK Kenyon


  Good idea.

I figured out why the three I lost were deleted -- one I was perfectly happy to lose. It was on my first book published in paperback (and since in digital) in 2006. At the time I was an idiot and I used the review page to comment on something and it showed up as a review. I had added a comment that I was trying to delete it but couldn't and they finally deleted it for me (after 6 years) so that is good. The second one was a review posted by an author whose book I had designed. He gave me 5-stars but it was pretty obvious he was only plugging his own book so that is gone.

The third one is upsetting, but probably my own fault. I got a stellar review from a well-known writer so I used part of the review as a blurb when I redesigned the cover. Apparently this somehow violated Amazon's TOS and they deleted it. Luckily I had posted it on my blog so I can go back there and read it whenever I am feeling untalented and useless.


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

Another one bites the dust for me. All I can tell is that it was a four-star review. I'm going to print out all the reviews now so when they disappear I'll be able to tell which one vanished. Then maybe I can figure out why they're being removed. This really stinks. I'm suspicious it was a book blogger. I really hope I don't lose any of my sequel since it's slated for a ENT bargain book day in November. If it goes under ten reviews I wonder if they'll pull the feature.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

tkkenyon said:


> I'm going to make a sock puppet and give all my own books 1-star reviews, just so I'm relieved when they disappear!
> 
> TK Kenyon


Tempting! But sadly, all of my 1-star socks have stuck fast, while I have now lost nine 4 and 5 star reviews. Is there an emoticon here for a fist smashing into a computer screen?


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

tkkenyon said:


> I'm going to make a sock puppet and give all my own books 1-star reviews, just so I'm relieved when they disappear!
> 
> TK Kenyon


Nope. Doesn't work. They leave alone the 1-star review which I"ve always been convinced was a sockpuppet review (other bad reviews are legitimate but I am convinced that one isn't) but target 4 and 5 star reviews.

I have come to the conclusion they are targetting reviews that are from the same IP address. Apparently if 2 people in the same family review the same book, Amazon decides they're not legitimate. Admittedly, it's only a guess, but I know the reviews that disappeared were all three verified purchases and don't *think* they were from other authors although I'm not for sure, of course.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

I've lost two four-star reviews over the past two days, and I have no idea why. 

There are some certainties, however. Common sense tells us that no team individuals at Amazon can possibly be patrolling all the millions of reviews and making individual decisions. Changes this widespread must be automated, governed by some computer program. That's why requests for explanations in specific cases are getting generic replies: The program, not individuals, is making these decisions, and once made, there may be no way for individuals at Amazon to know exactly why in any given instance. 

So, blame the programmers: Like Procrustes, the program they developed is indiscriminately chopping reviews to fit into some set of screening parameters that have not been devised to be sufficiently discriminating to separate wheat from chaff. Or, to switch metaphors, lots of perfectly healthy babies are being tossed out with the dirty bathwater.

Based on everyone's comments, I think there are probably multiple programming issues responsible for these deleted reviews. Shared IP addresses are possibly one parameter; gift certificates another; being the author of a book in the same genre as the reviewer may be another; etc. It is ham-handed programming, no doubt done by computer geeks unaware of the nuances of indie marketing and reviewing. And I don't know what can be done about it. No company has enough employees to give individual attention to this many complaints.


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## 25803 (Oct 24, 2010)

I just saw that another one of my reviews disappeared between yesterday and now. It was from a major review site. I think the repetition of reviews across multiple sites maybe another reason for removals right now.


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## jewishwriter (May 13, 2011)

I noticed yesterday that a five-star review, up for ages,  is missing.

Months ago I learned about screenshots or is it snapshots here, and sent it along to Amazon asking how come one got removed...

Now that I read these posts, seems there's no reason and nothing to do. It's sad especially if you only have a few reviews and need them to get ads, etc. But realizing it's happening to so many of us, makes it less of a mystery.


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

After figuring out one of the reviews I lost was a four-star review I got from reader (I didn't gift him, I didn't know him, he had only a couple reviews under his belt, and he wasn't an author, and I sure didn't pay for it. He was critical and detailed) I can't see how they flagged him for anything. 

I'm going to send an email (it might be good if you all write one) just letting Amazon know that their recent action to clean up sock puppets doesn't seem to be effective and it just might keep readers from leaving reviews all together if their hard work is just going to disappear. It's important to tell them that it's not working. It's the only thing we can do.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

> It is ham-handed programming, no doubt done by computer geeks unaware of the nuances of indie marketing and reviewing. And I don't know what can be done about it.


It's possible they are very aware of the nuances, and realize the nuances can't be programmed. I doubt the objective is to keep authors or reviewers happy. Their history suggests they are trying to keep customers happy so they spend more money.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> It's possible they are very aware of the nuances, and realize the nuances can't be programmed. I doubt the objective is to keep authors or reviewers happy. Their history suggests they are trying to keep customers happy so they spend more money.


But if 4 and 5 stars are being removed, yet 1-star socks are staying, wouldn't this affect the author's sales, and thus Amazon's sales?


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

> But if 4 and 5 stars are being removed, yet 1-star socks are staying, wouldn't this affect the author's sales, and thus Amazon's sales?


I doubt it. A lost sale for an author doesn't mean a lost sale for Amazon. A consumer just buys another book using whatever standards he chooses.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> I doubt it. A lost sale for an author doesn't mean a lost sale for Amazon. A consumer just buys another book using whatever standards he chooses.


Good (but sad) point.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Eric C said:


> I'll wager a guess it's John Locke backlash. Amazon wants to be able to say they're patrolling the system.


Ain't he just the gift that keeps on giving?


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

There are obviously a lot of different Amazon Bot criteria for removing reviews. I don't know what an IP address is? Is it a server address, or unique to your computer. 

The reason I ask this is that on the authonomy writers site you are only allowed 2 accounts from the same computer. One I imagine is for yourself and the other for say your wife. If you attempt to set up a third account, then you are blocked out. I know this because when I decided to change my real name to the pen name I use now, I recieved a message, "Too many aplications from this computer." I could only set up a new account after an exchange of emails.

Authonomy do this to prevent sock accounts, however it doesn't stop this happening as the sock armys have found a way around their barrier. Basically I am saying there is obviously a way for Amazon to detect reviews sent from the same computer. I assume the computer will have a signature other than an IP. If that is the IP covers a set area and not the individiual computer. 

Just sayin'


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I've seen various statements saying that honest reviews are being removed -and then when the reviewer tries to put the review back, they get a nastygram.  Just out of curiosity, how do you know this is happening?

It would seem to me that in order to have seen this pattern, one would have to be the reviewer or know the reviewer.  Not one of my 123 reviews have been removed so I have no first hand knowledge.  But, it seems there are those here who do.  So, what's the story?


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

Not glad to see this happening, but glad I'm not alone as I've lost 5 reviews across my books within the past week, all legitimate and from genuine readers/purchasers of my work. One reader had bought and read all of my books and reviewed each one, so it was easy to spot when Amazon deleted all his reviews. Not happy at all. Reviews are not easy to come by and it's unsettling to see genuine ones deleted like this.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> I've seen various statements saying that honest reviews are being removed -and then when the reviewer tries to put the review back, they get a nastygram. Just out of curiosity, how do you know this is happening?


I know it's happening because I got one of the "nastygrams" when I reposted some of my reviews that had been deleted. I received no notification of any kind when the reviews were deleted, but when I reposted the reviews, I received this email:

_Some of your recent reviews were removed because you received compensation for writing the review. The only form of compensation that Amazon allows is a free copy of the product (provided up front) in exchange for an unbiased review. Refunding of a product or providing funds to purchase the product are considered compensation and not allowed.

In order to help our customers make informed choices, we encourage them to review the product and information related to it. However, reviews which violate our guidelines or conditions of use will be removed. If this continues, we'll remove your reviewing privileges from your account in accordance with our Conditions of Use. Please take a look at our guidelines before submitting a review again:

http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines/

Thanks for your understanding in this matter.

Best Regards,

Lance F._

For the record, most of my reviews that were deleted were for products purchased with my own credit card, and were not gifts.


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## cdvsmx5 (May 23, 2012)

JimC1946 said:


> ...
> 
> _Some of your recent reviews were removed because you received compensation for writing the review. .._


This^^^ Using the broadest definition of compensation, true or false?


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

cdvsmx5 said:


> This^^^ Using the broadest definition of compensation, true or false?


Some of each. Some of the books were by gift certificate for $0.99 or $1.99 from the publisher that were used to purchase the book. Most, however, were purchased with my own credit card, and Amazon's records would show that.


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## martyinmaui (Mar 31, 2012)

Yup, a couple of months ago I lost one review on one of my books and two on the other - both were completely legit and very positive. Never got a clear answer why they disappeared - in the end just let it go and went to work getting more.


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## MT Berlyn (Mar 27, 2012)

So, if a reviewer lives in the same city or state or has the same internet provider, purchased the book or received a gift certificate, left the same review on his/her own blog and crossed it over to Amazon or works in or near the same building, the review is suspect and will be deleted?  In other words, if you live and write in Philadelphia and since you know each and every person who lives in Philadelphia, do you put a disclaimer on your book that anyone who lives in Philadelphia or in or near the state of Pennsylvania, please refrain from reviewing this book?  

I know it is facetious, but that is what it is starting to sound like.

It is disturbing, but I agree that it is best to just let it go.


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Another one of mine just disappeared. It's all very mysterious - I have no idea what is going on....


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

Ugh! I lost another one! I hate checking now, every time I look another one is gone. This time it's the one I can't stand to lose too many from for my promo coming up. Again, this review is one I got upon my release and it was from ARC reviewer where I gave them a Smashwords coupon so no gift card there.

I wrote them an email just telling them that their attempt to clean up paid reviewers seems to be catching legitimate reviews in the crossfire.

This was their reply:

"Hello,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

However, I can tell you that reviews are removed from the Amazon.com website for three reasons:

1. The review conflicted with the posted guidelines, found here: http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines/
2. The review was removed at the request of the customer who submitted the review
3. We discovered that multiple items were linked together on our website incorrectly. Reviews that were posted on those pages were removed when the items were separated on the site

Further, we're unable to provide further details about why these specific reviews were removed from Amazon.com; we can only discuss that with the person who wrote the reviews.

I hope this information helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP."

1. No
2. No
3. Huh?


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Geoffrey said:


> I've seen various statements saying that honest reviews are being removed -and then when the reviewer tries to put the review back, they get a nastygram. Just out of curiosity, how do you know this is happening?
> 
> It would seem to me that in order to have seen this pattern, one would have to be the reviewer or know the reviewer. Not one of my 123 reviews have been removed so I have no first hand knowledge. But, it seems there are those here who do. So, what's the story?


Geoffrey, most of us aren't that hard to contact by reviewers. All a reviewer who wants to tell me about something has to do is go to my blog to find my email address. Several of us have heard from reviewers. That is really anecdotal evidence. We don't know how widespread the pattern is but they seem to be using an algorithm to target reviews and it may well be a faulty one. I assure you that I don't appreciate an assumption of guilt.

ETA: I have probably a hundred or so reviews when you total all of my novels. As of today, I had a fourth one removed by Amazon, it looks like. That's not going to do me a lot of damage--or make much difference one way or the other--but I know one reviewer who had reviewed three of my novels (two of the reviews were pulled) was very annoyed.

Another addition: Amazon has a history of going through these fits of removing reviews. I've known them to decide to pull hundreds that were published elsewhere as violating copyrights. Then they stop usually. I rather assume this will all blow over and I'm not going to get too upset about even though it's annoying. I assume that complaining to Amazon isn't worth the time and they already know that authors aren't happy. It's the rather rude reply to the reviewer (who you can bet isn't likely to do another Amazon review) that kind of gets to me though. People who will do reviews aren't all that common to treat them like that.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

lewaters said:


> Further, we're unable to provide further details about why these specific reviews were removed from Amazon.com; we can only discuss that with the person who wrote the reviews.


That's really just BS. They won't tell the reviewer anything either.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

This style of answering writers and reviewers reminds me of the kind of answers people used to get from MySpace.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

What I still don't get:

If you have reviews from bloggers  and professional reviewers on Amazon, is it therefore not allowed to copy and paste some of those same reviews on your personal website in order to promote your work?  Is this a violation?  Please, someone tell me it isn't.


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Happened to me too.  A review by a beta reader, positive, but not over the top.  No explanation by Big Az.  But they won't pull the obvious sock-puppet reviews, the one-star drive by poo-flinging variety.  The ones written by folks who say things like, the writing was 'bad,' and the book was 'offensive,' without saying what was offensive about it.  The ones written by mysterious beings who  rise up out of nowhere, post one nasty, spiteful review of my book, and then disappear forever.  No, Amazon won't remove them.  But hey, I'm not bitter.


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## cdvsmx5 (May 23, 2012)

I expect Amazon is most reluctant to remove reviews posted by profitable customers, quick to remove any reviews profitable customers object to.

An author's view of valuable and legitimate and Amazon's are likely different in many cases.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

cdvsmx5 said:


> I expect Amazon is most reluctant to remove reviews posted by profitable customers, quick to remove any reviews profitable customers object to.
> 
> An author's view of valuable and legitimate and Amazon's are likely different in many cases.


I find it very hard to believe that the reviews that were removed were something that someone objected to. There was nothing particularly remarkable about them, just ordinary reviews from VERIFIED purchases which means they were profitable. Nothing in them would seem to be anything anyone would object to.

I just don't think that is any explanation.


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## cdvsmx5 (May 23, 2012)

JR.  Why do you always and only think something said is directed to and/or applies to you?

The rest of us all recognize you're a special case.

It remains a carefully considered general statement.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Suppose Amazon removed every review where the posting minute ends with a "5." So reviews posted at 9:05pm and 11:35am would be removed. That would get rid of appx 10% of all reviews. Anyone think that would have any effect on Amazon's total sales?

I doubt it would.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

cdvsmx5 said:


> JR. Why do you always and only think something said is directed to and/or applies to you?
> 
> The rest of us all recognize you're a special case.
> 
> It remains a carefully considered general statement.


I didn't say your comments applied to me in some special way, my dear. But we have absolutely nothing but anecdotal evidence on this which means comparing experiences. Hence, I have and will continue to share my experience on this--whether you like it or not. Your carefully considered general statement does not fit with experiences and anecdotes people, including myself, have shared in this thread.



Terrence OBrien said:


> Suppose Amazon removed every review where the posting minute ends with a "5." So reviews posted at 9:05pm and 11:35am would be removed. That would get rid of appx 10% of all reviews. Anyone think that would have any effect on Amazon's total sales?
> 
> I doubt it would.


I can't imagine it would, Terrence, although in my opinion it would make about as much sense as their current system.


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## cvwriter (May 16, 2011)

I've lost 2 5-STAR reviews within 2 days. I don't have a ton of reviews to begin with.  My rating dropped from 4.6 Stars to 4.4. Do you think it's because the same exact review is published at multiple sites like other stores, blog, etc? I know the two removed are at Goodreads.


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## NS (Jul 8, 2011)

Another one...


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## AmberC (Mar 28, 2012)

Could this just be another glitch? I saw some strange things on Zon this weekend. Strange tags pop up and disappear, pictures of animals replaced a bunch of covers at one point Saturday night. Maybe the reviews will pop back up?


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

> I can't imagine it would, Terrence, although in my opinion it would make about as much sense as their current system.


I agree. The point is Amazon can target one set of reviews for removal. But suppose the process removes twice as many. That means innocent reviews are also eliminated. Lots of collateral damage. But it won't affect Amazon's sales.

This is a case where individual authors may be harmed by losing innocent reviews, but Amazon is not harmed by the same loss of innocent reviews. Some authors are harmed, but others gain.

And the consumer? I doubt he knows or cares. He would have to be tracking the review status for a huge number of books to even be aware of the situation.



> Could this just be another glitch?


Sure it could. I lost reviews before and they wandered back after about two weeks. Leave the light on.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> I agree. The point is Amazon can target one set of reviews for removal. But suppose the process removes twice as many. That means innocent reviews are also eliminated. Lots of collateral damage. But it won't affect Amazon's sales.
> 
> This is a case where individual authors may be harmed by losing innocent reviews, but Amazon is not harmed by the same loss of innocent reviews. Some authors are harmed, but others gain.
> 
> ...


I honestly think too many have been lost by too many people for it to be a glitch. I am pretty convinced this is an algorithm they are using. I find it very unlikely they're going through reviews one by one. They've picked out some arbitrary factors (not unlike your example of using a date), and I still suspect one factor may be more than one review on a product from the same IP address, in order to pull them. That is probably why they are totally unable to tell even the reviewer why the review is pulled. Even Amazon doesn't know really if I'm guessing correctly.

Five reviews are enough to start to make me cringe, on the other hand out of the number of reviews I have and the relatively high star ranking of most of my novels, it's still not enough to do me any real harm. Heck, normally I probably wouldn't have noticed, but with a new perma-free novel I've been checking their status extremely closely the last couple of weeks. But some authors will have been hurt and a few reviewers seriously p*ssed off.

But it's not going to hurt Amazon.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

I wonder if some of these disappearances can be attributed to reviewers who had several of their reviews pulled, got pissed off, and deleted all of their reviews.


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## 56139 (Jan 21, 2012)

Sorry to hear about the reviews guys - I haven't lost any.

Yet.

But one thing I did with reviewers, and I'd encourage everyone to do the same in the future, is to send reviewers the mobi file (or whatever file they need) directly to their e-mail and not use the gift cards at all.  The Fiverr people are using the gift card system and that's probably what triggered a lot of this.

Although, my mother's reviews were recently questioned, and she never does any of that stuff...so

Also, make triple sure that the reviewers are disclosing how they got the copy - i.e. gift.

Most bloggers already know this casual reviewers might not and this can be construed as paying for reviews.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

JanneCO said:


> Sorry to hear about the reviews guys - I haven't lost any.
> 
> Yet.
> 
> ...


I think there are multiple factors involved. Some may be gifted--that could be one of the things they're looking for, but I know at least a couple of the ones I lost were from Verified Purchases and gifted reviews don't show as Verified. So they are probably using several factors. That makes it harder to figure out exactly what they're targeting, of course.

I am sure Terrence is right that they're not worried about collateral damage. For example, if they are pulling reviews by different reviewers of the same book from the same IP address, they'll pull some from public IP addresses such as Starbucks. Their thinking on that is that it wouldn't happen THAT often that two people at the same Starbucks would review the same book. Sure occasionally two people in the same family will review the same book and probably have the same IP address, but again, not all that many over the whole corporation. If they lose a handful of reviews from that happening, it's not going to be enough to be a big deal to them. Not so much to the authors or reviewers, but in a huge corporation that isn't even going to be on the radar.

And swolf could be right that a few p*ssed off reviewers have pulled reviews too. I would have been tempted if I'd gotten the email that one of my reviewers said he got.

ETA: I'm sure that some of the reviews being pulled should be pulled. What we are seeing here is the collateral damage. I just hope that it isn't something that Amazon is going to do forever.

I am not publishing the correspondence I've had with a reviewer since the reviewer would prefer that I didn't but here is a link to an author who has:

http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2012/10/et-tu-amazon.html#.UIWDrYY4Kdm

There is some evidence filtering through that Amazon thinks that sending someone a gift card establishes a fiduciary relationship and that means their reviews of your work will be targeted. I would mind all this less_ if they would simply tell us_. Some people are saying that reviewing in "too many genres" (whatever that is) will get your reviews targeted. Or reviewing too soon after you receive the novel -- woe betide us fast readers.


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## NS (Jul 8, 2011)

JimC1946 said:


> This is a long thread from last month in the Amazon forums, but it explains how a lot of reviews disappear.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/forum/top%20reviewers/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2Z5LRXMSUDQH2&cdPage=1&cdThread=TxSTT2G20RWWXD
> 
> There's no point in reposting the review or writing Amazon. All you'll get is a vague response that implies that your review didn't meet Amazon guidelines, but they refuse to discuss it further, and they threaten to kill your posting privileges if you persist. And when they delete reviews, they don't inform the reviewer or the author/publisher.


Well, I don't think we'll see many reviews after that.


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## Pearson Moore (Mar 14, 2011)

I've lost three 4- and 5-star reviews. Two were from family and friends, the third one from an unknown reader.

I'm more upset about the problem Amazon is allowing to continue: malicious 1-star reviews by people who haven't read the book. Imagine you write romance novels. You get a 1-star review from someone who writes, "Didn't read it, wouldn't read it. Romance novels? Yuck!" The reviewer could have chosen any romance novel, but for some reason chose yours. She didn't read it, she just wanted to vent about hating romance novels.

I write about television shows. I am famous for my LOST books, but I tried to break into Game of Thrones. Hundreds of television guide books are available at Amazon. "Kristy" decided to single out my book, _Direwolves and Dragons_, for her disdain. The phrase "trusted interpreter of television drama" is from the blurb, not from the book. Her review was titled "Seriously?":

Seriously?
What is the world coming to? A "trusted interpreter of television drama"...Not only can the masses not appreciate literature now, but they need Cliff's notes for television? Yikes. 

She did not purchase the book at Amazon. The text of the "review" makes clear that she did not read any more than a few lines of the blurb before issuing her "review." I've complained to Amazon, the gist of the argument being "shouldn't reviewers use a product before reviewing?" Amazon's response: The review adheres to Amazon guidelines, so it will not be removed.

Sales of _Direwolves and Dragons_ went from 70+ copies last month to 3 so far this month. Thanks, Amazon.


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## btsc99 (Oct 12, 2012)

Natasha A. Salnikova said:


> Well, I don't think we'll see many reviews after that.


I only read the first page, but this one seemed to sum it up :-



> Janet Boyer says:
> It's not just you. I'm having my review of the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot systematically removed from Amazon--6 times in the last 48 hours! Here's the latest email, basically saying that the review is now there (it is NOT) and that they can't help me anymore:
> 
> Hello Janet,
> ...


In short Amazon appears to be saying "Here are the rules ......", "Thank you for abiding by our rules ..........", "We have posted your review ......", "We won't tell you why we deleted it". Fact does indeed appear to be stranger than fiction.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

I've lost three reviews in the last few days. All three were for the same book. Two were five-stars, one was a one-star.

One of the five-stars was from an author I don't know. Prior to this, I'm not sure we've even spoken.

One of the five-stars was from an author I do know. It wasn't a part of any logrolling or mutual backscratching, but judge that as you will. They're a pretty ethical person. I believe their review was legit.

The one-star was from a Vine reviewer, comically enough. I assume it was just as legit as the other two. No idea whether they're also an author.

I mention this to add to the general data. The book had 73 reviews prior to this, and its rating has actually improved by a very small fraction as a result of the removals.. so thanks, I guess? I'm not sure what Amazon thinks they're accomplishing with this. At the very least, a lot of innocent reviews are getting snatched up alongside the not-so-innocent ones. I think they need clearer rules and a more precise enforcement of those rules.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

> I think they need clearer rules and a more precise enforcement of those rules.


Could be. But I'd ask how those clearer rules and enforcement will make more money for Amazon? That's what I always ask. Can't help it.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Fair enough, but how does it make Amazon money to whack reviews based on a system of poorly-targeted algorithms?


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

They may conclude that getting rid of X undesirable reviews plus X innocent reviews will increase sales. This would be a long term objective aimed at making Amazon the center for reviews. 

Amazon knows much more about reviews than I do. I don't know how many people read them. Does anyone? Nor do I know what percentage of sales come from people who do read them. Anyone know?

The X innocent reviews become collateral damage that does not adversely affect sales.

An overall constraint on this type of program would be holding down costs and management resources. The resources necessary to ensure that innocent reviews are safe may not be worth the effort.

I think there is a general tendency for some authors to presume what is in the authors' interests is also in Amazon's. That's always worth a check.

And this is all speculation, since I don't know what Amazon is up to.


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## btsc99 (Oct 12, 2012)

GOVERNMENT AMAZON WARNING

Reviewing can seriously damage your wealth.


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

Terrence OBrien said:


> Amazon knows much more about reviews than I do. I don't know how many people read them. Does anyone? Nor do I know what percentage of sales come from people who do read them. Anyone know?


I know of this study of about 4,500 books sold on Amazon during 2005 in which a regression model found that two-thirds of the variation in sales were explained by consumer reviews: http://dblab.mgt.ncu.edu.tw/%E6%95%99%E6%9D%90/2012_SNM/34.pdf


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## Nathan Lowell (Dec 11, 2010)

Eric C said:


> I know of this study of about 4,500 books sold on Amazon during 2005 in which a regression model found that two-thirds of the variation in sales were explained by consumer reviews: http://dblab.mgt.ncu.edu.tw/%E6%95%99%E6%9D%90/2012_SNM/34.pdf


This study has two problems.

1. It's old and the market has changed radically since 2005. (The fact that it took until 2011 to get this published is a red flag. Either these researchers weren't trying or they had to shop it around a while to find somebody who thought it was actually significant.)

2. While the R-coefficients on the average rating were touted as explaining the majority of the variance in sales rank on paperback books sold in July 2005, they neglected to report on the stronger correlation with number of reviews. The way *I* read the data, the *big* news is that it wasn't as important to have *good* reviews as it was to have *more* reviews.

The thing to remember here is the old axiom, "Correlation is not causation." The use of linear regression modeling would have been strengthened had they used a more appropriate tool like structural equation modeling to establish relevant vectors.

The whole study is suspect because it ignores visibility as a factor. As a snap shot it's looking at factors to predict variability in sales rank without considering what effect an earlier sales rank may have had in promoting additional sales.

Restated:

Is it a best seller because it has a lot of (good) reviews?

Or is it a best seller today because it was a best seller yesterday?

That's a problem.


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## Vegasgyrl007 (May 11, 2011)

I was in their first wave of review pulls several months ago. I had two pulled from one book and three pulled from another. Just so happened they weren't paid but I did a blog tour and the copies of my book the bloggers involved received were sent to me by them (in ePub, mobi, PDF). No money exchanged hands except to my blog tour operator and no explanation was given. I was peeved but what can you do?

Unfortunately, Amazon is still the biggest game in town. I was angry of course (two of the reviews pulled from a book with only six reviews drove my star  ranking down to 3.7), but at the end of the day, what can you do? I know it isn't fair but that's how the cookie crumbles. Obviously, it makes us all a little bit afraid because any of us could be next but the fact is, if we don't like how the game is played, we can always take our ball(s) to another court. The problem is we won't make nearly as much money and there isn't ONE other e-book company with the strength and pull as Amazon so in other words, we are all screwed.

P.S. This happened to a Montlake author I know so this isn't just an indie thing. What would they have to gain by pulling her reviews when they are making money off her books since she is signed under their publishing company?


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

Thanks for your fine assessment on that study, Nathan. I'm afraid beggars can't be choosy when it comes to studies on Amazon book sales. Not much out there.



Nathan Lowell said:


> The way *I* read the data, the *big* news is that it wasn't as important to have *good* reviews as it was to have *more* reviews.


Given that #reviews correlates highly with #sales, the big news is, it's important to have more sales to have more sales.


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## christopherruz (May 5, 2012)

One of my best reviews (a 4 star, but very detailed and illuminating) just vanished. I'm pissed too.


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## mestrin (Aug 27, 2012)

It doesn't seem like there's a clear answer on this stuff. But here are three threads from Amazon KDP support that are relevant to this topic.
https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=332355&#332355
https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=348690&#348690
https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=351174&#351174


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Jeff Menapace said:


> What I still don't get:
> 
> If you have reviews from bloggers and professional reviewers on Amazon, is it therefore not allowed to copy and paste some of those same reviews on your personal website in order to promote your work? Is this a violation? Please, someone tell me it isn't.


Apparently this is a problem for Amazon. I used blurbs from reviews on the covers when I redesigned them and Amazon then deleted the reviews - some of which were quite extensive. I also saw that they deleted MY reviews of some other author's works. I have no idea what they are doing but I've lost 7 reviews so far this week and they've deleted half a dozen of the ones I wrote. Why bother writing reviews if this is what s going to happen?


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Perhaps a review can't appear anywhere other than on the Amazon page? Any copyright experts here? If Amazon publishes a review that was previously published on XYZ site, are they potentially violating XYZ's copyright?

That would imply I can't write a review and post it on both XYZ and Amazon.

Disclaimer: I know squat about copyright.


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## jewishwriter (May 13, 2011)

I've just lost an amazing five-star review for my memoir....this one hurts...Previously I lost one for my cat book.

This is such an awful thing to do to writers. Now I don't qualify to take out ads, etc.

Maybe this should get to the media.


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## MT Berlyn (Mar 27, 2012)

mestrin said:


> It doesn't seem like there's a clear answer on this stuff. But here are three threads from Amazon KDP support that are relevant to this topic.
> https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=332355&#332355
> https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=348690&#348690
> https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=351174&#351174


In reading these links, this thread and other relevant discussions on blogs, it just comes down to a corporation doing what it will, spurred, it is safe to assume, by recent articles on faux and paid reviews. So, Amazon declares war to save its reputation and in making drone strikes by way of unclear data, the innocent go down with the guilty. Nothing to do, but bury your dead because the larger beast cannot be conquered if one is to survive.

There are going to be some who defend Amazon, because they defend authority as a sort of demi-god that, in its infinite power, knows the wisdom of its ways. There are going to be those who attempt to fight, even to understand, but the defense has already been put in place, submission or banishment. There are those who are going to be pained, having thought the proverbial frozen snake would not strike them when it thawed. So, the happy medium appears to be to keep writing, publishing the best product you can and if the stars align, become to some degree successful...but don't expect Amazon to be grateful.

Good luck to everyone.


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## NS (Jul 8, 2011)

What I don't understand is why should we try to guess? There have to be clear guidelines. Accusing people who wasn't paid for reviews in being financially compensated is unethical. Innocent until proved guilty or not? This is wrong.


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## Jeff Menapace (Mar 5, 2011)

> There are going to be some who defend Amazon, because they defend authority as a sort of demi-god that, in its infinite power, knows the wisdom of its ways. There are going to be those who attempt to fight, even to understand, but the defense has already been put in place, submission or banishment. There are those who are going to be pained, having thought the proverbial frozen snake would not strike them when it thawed. So, the happy medium appears to be to keep writing, publishing the best product you can and if the stars align, become to some degree successful...but don't expect Amazon to be grateful.


Wow. That was not only well-said, but incredibly well-written, Thayer. I might just wander over to your Amazon page now


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

Just lost a 4-star for Volcano Watch; a recent review. No relation to or knowledge of the reviewer.

One more data point for the thread.


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## Shana Norris (May 31, 2011)

I lost a review a couple months ago, but I couldn't tell which one it was. This morning I've lost another, but I knew right away which it was because it was the top review on my book. Sigh. It was a five star review from a book blogger that I had sent the book to last year. It wasn't a paid review. I don't know the blogger at all, I found her blog and then sent her an email offering to send her a review copy in exchange for an honest review if she was interested. The reviewer's account is still there and I can see other reviews she's posted, but the one for my book has disappeared.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

genevieveaclark said:


> Honest question: has John Locke lost any reviews? I'm not sure I'd know how to go and check that; cursory glance suggests that he has on "Saving Rachel," which I think was the most flagrant offender? But it still has 400+ reviews; I'm guessing he lost some 5-stars because it's only got a 3-star rating. And yet his most recent books...
> 
> I'm wondering if Amazon's reaction to that scandal managed to hit a bunch of innocent people and leave the actual offenders who paid for hundreds of reviews relatively unscathed, if only because the paid for patterns wouldn't get caught up in an IP sweep or even a search for bloggers or whatever. The most prolific paid shills would probably be easily detected, but not all.


I can tell you that, two days ago, _Saving Rachel_ had 481 reviews. Today, it has 481 reviews. It hasn't had a new review posted in that span.

I don't know what if anything happened with it before that.


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## EmilyG (Jan 31, 2010)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> I can tell you that, two days ago, _Saving Rachel_ had 481 reviews. Today, it has 481 reviews. It hasn't had a new review posted in that span.
> 
> I don't know what if anything happened with it before that.


The Google cached page from 10/15 shows 485 reviews - 173 five stars. _Saving Rachel_ now has 169 five star reviews. So he did lose some.

Here's his Amazon author page.

And here is the google cache of that page dated 10/16. Check the date at the top as it can change anytime.

You can see that he has lost reviews in most of his books.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Shana Norris said:


> I lost a review a couple months ago, but I couldn't tell which one it was. This morning I've lost another, but I knew right away which it was because it was the top review on my book. Sigh. It was a five star review from a book blogger that I had sent the book to last year. It wasn't a paid review. I don't know the blogger at all, I found her blog and then sent her an email offering to send her a review copy in exchange for an honest review if she was interested. The reviewer's account is still there and I can see other reviews she's posted, but the one for my book has disappeared.


Totally baffling.



ejg said:


> The Google cached page from 10/15 shows 485 reviews - 173 five stars. _Saving Rachel_ now has 169 five star reviews. So he did lose some.
> 
> Here's his Amazon author page.
> 
> ...


That is good to hear. I do blame Locke for some of this mess and although he won't be hurt by losing a few reviews at this point, at least he should also lose some. I just wish I knew what the heck they target. Frankly, in my case the few reviews they pulled were what I would consider the least suspicious (being verified, named reviewer, details of the book, etc)


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

I got nailed today. Lost three, all Austin people, so I'm guessing an IP address issue. One was a good friend whose KDP I logged into once because he was confused about reports. Fair enough. One was someone who used to be in my critique group. Not sure how they connected us, but okay. We did used to do demos at a coffee shop, so maybe we both logged in there.

Last one is anyone's guess. But I do know that when I teach classes on indie publishing, I log into KDP using the local connection. So if any of my students log into KDP while taking my class, it will be an IP match. Another casualty. Thanks, Amazon, for complicating how I teach. I'll warn them not to log in on campus anymore until all this blows over.

I no longer write reviews for anyone. And I no longer buy Amazon gift cards for anyone, even my kids (who have a book out...my mini sock puppets!   )


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

Well, I've lost 2 five-star reviews over the last few days. I know this because I had exactly 100 reviews for my books in total. I counted and found only 99. I went to author central -- which updates slowly, sometimes taking a day or two to add new reviews -- and found the missing review (count there still 100).

In truth, it did not bother me too much, as this was my only review from a friend. Though this friend did love the book and posted a positive review, it was a decent review, commenting on what elements I did well. This review was posted in July 2010. I also understand what may have been the cause of the removal. Some 6 or 7 months later while on holiday, I uploaded and published a book from my friend's Internet access. Though we live a continent apart, that would link us.

As soon as I discovered the missing review, I copied and pasted all my 100 reviews from Author Central to a word-processing document. The next day, my Author Central count went from 100 to 99 and my friend's review disappeared.

Yesterday I noticed that one of my books had lost a review. I tracked it down to a 5-star review for my free book. I have no idea who this reviewer is. Still, I lost a very nice review.

Now it gets strange. The review was made by someone who went by a series of letters and numbers -- like abcde22. I quickly went to my Author Central account (before it got deleted from there) to see if I could find out if his other reviews (if he had any) remained. The review remained in my Author Central account, but was now under a name, starting with an initial -- like jdoe. I clicked on the pop-up box next to the name to find that jdoe has 0 reviews. I suspect that this review will disappear from my Author Central account soon and my count will drop to 98.

I find the name change weird. What is _that_ all about?

Anyway, that's my contribution to the 'Missing Reviews' thread. I was so pleased to have made it to 100 reviews after 27 months ... and now depression sets in. Alas. Naturally, my 1- and 2-star reviews remain. But I don't mind that, really -- they are legit reviews by people who truly seem to dislike the books for whatever reason.


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## MJWare (Jun 25, 2010)

Put me down for 1. And I also remembered that I lost one a few weeks ago, but just figured one of my recent controversial posts caused a KB member to remove a review they'd given me and didn't think much of it.
I guess that makes two.


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## MJWare (Jun 25, 2010)

I just lost one more--same book. 5-stars; it just popped up less that 24 hours ago and is already gone. I didn't even get a chance to read it (which really upsets me).

When this first happened I figured it would suck but be a short lived thing--looks like it might not be so short lived.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Check again later to make sure that one's really gone, M. In the last day, recent reviews have been disappearing, only to come back (and, apparently, stay back) a short time later.


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## James Bruno (Mar 15, 2011)

I join the growing roster of the royally p***ed. So far, Amazon has removed one review from each of two of my books. Call me naive. Call me Dudley Doright. But I never engage in sock puppetry. All of my reviews are genuine from real live people, most of whom I don't know from Adam. I view them as hard earned, especially those from Amazon Top Reviewers and from respected book review websites. What gives? This underscores just how much we indie authors are at the mercy of Big Brother Zon. It's one reason I'm dropping out of Select.


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## Consuelo Saah Baehr (Aug 27, 2010)

I've lost two reviews.  One had been up for a year and a half and was the most helpful 28 out of 29 votes.  Gone with the same explanation given elsewhere.
I lost another review but could not determine which one it was.  Why don't they take down one or two star reviews.  It's always the 5 stars.  Frustrating.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

TexasGirl said:


> I got nailed today. Lost three, all Austin people, so I'm guessing an IP address issue. One was a good friend whose KDP I logged into once because he was confused about reports. Fair enough. One was someone who used to be in my critique group. Not sure how they connected us, but okay. We did used to do demos at a coffee shop, so maybe we both logged in there.
> 
> Last one is anyone's guess. But I do know that when I teach classes on indie publishing, I log into KDP using the local connection. So if any of my students log into KDP while taking my class, it will be an IP match. Another casualty. Thanks, Amazon, for complicating how I teach. I'll warn them not to log in on campus anymore until all this blows over.
> 
> I no longer write reviews for anyone. And I no longer buy Amazon gift cards for anyone, even my kids (who have a book out...my mini sock puppets!  )


I do think that IP addresses seems to be the issue. I *think* that the four (I'm not for sure, but what was said in an email makes me think so) reviews that were pulled were by someone in the family of another reviewer. Is there anythingn surprising in people in the same family recommending a book and having the same IP address. We may be lucky it was so few.


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## MJWare (Jun 25, 2010)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> Check again later to make sure that one's really gone, M. In the last day, recent reviews have been disappearing, only to come back (and, apparently, stay back) a short time later.


Hasn't come back yet; but I'll post if it does.


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## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

They're not just using IP addresses. My mom has reviewed every one of my books (she's my biggest fan, or so she claims...  ) and they've been picking hers off one by one, book by book over the last few days. I live in Minnesota, she's in Florida. It's not really a big deal for me, but she bought the books, she's read them all, she has opinions on them...probably not totally impartial, but... *shrugs*. Amazon will do as they will do. I've got tons of reviews from people unrelated to me, so it matters less than none to me because the books I would promote still have above the average needed (not that I'm going to, but I could), but I feel bad for folks who want to promote and are getting hit by this unnecessarily.


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

Robert, did you ever buy anything on your Amazon account or look at your KDP while you were visiting?

Or, maybe they hired a MOM to find all the MOMS. Because moms know everything.


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## Alex Owens (Mar 24, 2011)

I lost a 5 star review on Kill Me recently. I know it was a 5 because my rating went from a 4.3 down to a 4.1, but I have no idea which one they zapped. I only had 11, so down to 10 now. That's frustrating because if I lose anymore I won't meet most site requirements. Sigh.

And since I known NONE of the reviewers personally and I know there was no IP address conflict, it makes it feel more random and pointless. Boo!


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## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

TexasGirl said:


> Robert, did you ever buy anything on your Amazon account or look at your KDP while you were visiting?


Good point. More likely she bought something while at my house; she's been on a roll since I got her a Kindle.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> They're not just using IP addresses. My mom has reviewed every one of my books (she's my biggest fan, or so she claims... ) and they've been picking hers off one by one, book by book over the last few days. I live in Minnesota, she's in Florida. It's not really a big deal for me, but she bought the books, she's read them all, she has opinions on them...probably not totally impartial, but... *shrugs*. Amazon will do as they will do. I've got tons of reviews from people unrelated to me, so it matters less than none to me because the books I would promote still have above the average needed (not that I'm going to, but I could), but I feel bad for folks who want to promote and are getting hit by this unnecessarily.


I'm pretty sure you're right that IP addresses is only one of the factors. What the others are... no clue.

Funnily enough (or not funny if you're me) my family doesn't read my books or review them, but I suspect there are a few reviewers who have been hit by that if they review the same books as other people in their family. It doesn't have to be the _author's_ IP address to cause a problem. Some people think it is also reviewing in "too many" genres (whatever too many may be) and reviewing "too soon" after purchase (also whatever "too soon" may be).


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## James Bruno (Mar 15, 2011)

Reading all of these posts leads me to conclude that this is just outrageous. I propose that each of us send Amazon via Author Central a firm letter of protest, calling to their attention the arbitrary manner in which they're pulling reviews. I'm sending mine right now. . .


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

James Bruno said:


> Reading all of these posts leads me to conclude that this is just outrageous. I propose that each of us send Amazon via Author Central a firm letter of protest, calling to their attention the arbitrary manner in which they're pulling reviews. I'm sending mine right now. . .


I sent mine. I think we need to at least tell Amazon that we're aware and that there is no reason why these reviews should be taken down. We'll all get the same response I'm sure, but at least it will make them take notice. Also, if anyone lost the reviews they wrote, they should call. I've heard a few reviewers got some notice by talking to them directly (they're sending it on to a 'review committee" to decide if they profit or compete with the author).


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## JGreen20 (Jul 10, 2012)

JRTomlin said:


> Some people think it is also reviewing in "too many" genres (whatever too many may be) and reviewing "too soon" after purchase (also whatever "too soon" may be).


So, people who didn't buy the book can review it but people who bought it and reviewed it "too soon" are suspicious. Amazon's standards... sigh!


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## micki (Oct 8, 2010)

Amazon pulled a 4* review yesterday, but I see it is back up today. All my reviewers are legit - none of my family members have read my book - they have no faith in me   I just wish they'd pulled the 2* review where the reviewer said my book was tripe!!!!!


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## Ernie Lindsey (Jul 6, 2010)

Rather than start a new thread, I figured I'd ask here since it's semi-related...  Would some of you mind checking out the page for SARA'S GAME and tell me if you see anything weird going on with the reviews after refreshing a couple of times?  At the top of the page, sometimes it says 29 reviews, sometimes it says 1, sometimes it says none.*

When I scroll down, the same thing is happening in the yellow bar box, and with the actual reviews themselves.  I've checked across three different browsers, a smart phone, and a tablet.  From my end, it's happening across the board. 

Just wanted some confirmation that it's not just me before I call Author Central to see what's happening.  Thanks!

(*Standard disclaimers apply - I don't know any of the reviewers nor have any reason to suspect they might be removed until I get hit by the unfortunate drive-by like some of you guys.)


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## NS (Jul 8, 2011)

It's weird! Yes, 29 then nothing and back to 29.


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## Ernie Lindsey (Jul 6, 2010)

Natasha A. Salnikova said:


> It's weird! Yes, 29 then nothing and back to 29.


Thanks, Natasha!

I can't even begin to guess what the issue might be. It's been happening for about 2-3 days now.

Ok, time to call Uncle Jeff.


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## cdvsmx5 (May 23, 2012)

Ernie Lindsey said:


> ...sometimes it says 29 reviews, sometimes it says 1, sometimes it says none...


I got a page with 29 at top, 1 below in chart & 1 showing below that, 3 excerpts beside & 10 chopped on the right.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Ernie Lindsey said:


> Rather than start a new thread, I figured I'd ask here since it's semi-related... Would some of you mind checking out the page for SARA'S GAME and tell me if you see anything weird going on with the reviews after refreshing a couple of times? At the top of the page, sometimes it says 29 reviews, sometimes it says 1, sometimes it says none.*
> 
> When I scroll down, the same thing is happening in the yellow bar box, and with the actual reviews themselves. I've checked across three different browsers, a smart phone, and a tablet. From my end, it's happening across the board.
> 
> ...


Yep: most of the time 29, but once in a while it says "be the first&#8230;"


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## Ernie Lindsey (Jul 6, 2010)

Thanks for checking, guys.  I called AC and spoke with a rep - she did some research and got back to me just now.  Sounds like they're running some general tests on reviews.  Out of my hands, back to writing.


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## James Bruno (Mar 15, 2011)

Less than 24 hours after I lodged a complaint over the mystery of vanishing reviews, I received the following via Author Central:

"Hello James,

I am very sorry for any concern our Review feature has caused you, and I completely understand any concerns you may have regarding the missing reviews on your books. I understand that Customer Reviews can have an impact on an authors book sales, therefore, we take the removal of customer reviews very seriously.

I'm not able to tell you why these specific reviews were removed from our website. I can only discuss that with the person who wrote each review. However, I can tell you that reviews are removed from the Amazon.com website for three reasons:

1. The review conflicted with our posted guidelines http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines/.
2. The review was removed at the request of the customer who submitted the review.
3. We discovered that multiple items were linked together on our website incorrectly. Reviews that were posted on those pages were removed when the items were separated on the site.

I hope this information helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thank you for your inquiry. Did I solve your problem?"


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## HAGrant (Jul 17, 2011)

James Bruno said:


> Less than 24 hours after I lodged a complaint over the mystery of vanishing reviews, I received the following via Author Central:
> 
> "Hello James,
> 
> ...


Another bunch of canned blurbs from Amazon. Why ask Amazon anything? You might as well ask the Magic 8 Ball, Mattel's fortune telling toy with 20 answers.

"Will my Amazon reviews ever reappear?"

● It is certain 
● It is decidedly so 
● Without a doubt 
● Yes - definitely 
● You may rely on it 
● As I see it, yes 
● Most likely 
● Outlook good 
● Yes 
● Signs point to yes 
● Reply hazy, try again 
● Ask again later 
● Better not tell you now 
● Cannot predict now 
● Concentrate and ask again 
● Don't count on it 
● My reply is no 
● My sources say no 
● Outlook not so good 
● Very doubtful

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8-Ball


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

HAGrant said:


> Another bunch of canned blurbs from Amazon. Why ask Amazon anything? You might as well ask the Magic 8 Ball, Mattel's fortune telling toy with 20 answers.
> 
> "Will my Amazon reviews ever reappear?"
> 
> ...


They left off "No way in hell".


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

The mystery of the first review I lost has been solved. It was a review a got on a blog tour. I wrote up a post on this issue and she commented that she's lost a huge number of reviews. I checked and saw that her review was in fact, gone. I don't know her, I didn't review her book back, I didn't pay for the review (although I paid a small amount for the tour), and I didn't gift her a copy. She worried it had to do with the blog tours. I saw that the rest of the reviews from that blog tour were still there. I realized none of those book bloggers were authors but she was. I think they are considering other authors as profiting and competing with your books (she does have a book in my genre). I told her to call them. I wonder if this sheds light on other missing reviews out there. I guess as authors, we're not allowed to have an opinion on any books in our genres.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Ernie Lindsey said:


> Rather than start a new thread, I figured I'd ask here since it's semi-related... Would some of you mind checking out the page for SARA'S GAME and tell me if you see anything weird going on with the reviews after refreshing a couple of times? At the top of the page, sometimes it says 29 reviews, sometimes it says 1, sometimes it says none.*
> 
> When I scroll down, the same thing is happening in the yellow bar box, and with the actual reviews themselves. I've checked across three different browsers, a smart phone, and a tablet. From my end, it's happening across the board.
> 
> ...


I've been having that happen on my newest book, Mark Taylor Genesis. Sometimes it says 8 reviews, sometimes it say (be the first to review...) and sometimes the graph that breaks down the review rankings says 2 reviews (total) and sometimes, it's back to 8. I keep expecting them all to disappear for good soon.

ETA: Just checked your book, Sara's Game, and while it says 29 reviews at the top, the graph says there are no reviews yet.

This stinks. I have a free promo next week and if my reviews show only sporadically, that will really affect downloads.


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## HAGrant (Jul 17, 2011)

lewaters said:


> The mystery of the first review I lost has been solved. It was a review a got on a blog tour. I wrote up a post on this issue and she commented that she's lost a huge number of reviews. I checked and saw that her review was in fact, gone. I don't know her, I didn't review her book back, I didn't pay for the review (although I paid a small amount for the tour), and I didn't gift her a copy. She worried it had to do with the blog tours. I saw that the rest of the reviews from that blog tour were still there. I realized none of those book bloggers were authors but she was. I think they are considering other authors as profiting and competing with your books (she does have a book in my genre). I told her to call them. I wonder if this sheds light on other missing reviews out there. I guess as authors, we're not allowed to have an opinion on any books in our genres.


The big, big, big problem: Amazon needs to spell all these things out in their review guidelines.


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## Ernie Lindsey (Jul 6, 2010)

MaryMcDonald said:


> I've been having that happen on my newest book, Mark Taylor Genesis. Sometimes it says 8 reviews, sometimes it say (be the first to review...) and sometimes the graph that breaks down the review rankings says 2 reviews (total) and sometimes, it's back to 8. I keep expecting them all to disappear for good soon.
> 
> ETA: Just checked your book, Sara's Game, and while it says 29 reviews at the top, the graph says there are no reviews yet.
> 
> This stinks. I have a free promo next week and if my reviews show only sporadically, that will really affect downloads.


Mary, I'm seeing the normal page and all your reviews for MTG. Hopefully yours has stabilized and the free run goes well for you.

I know it's not the same as having a review removed for whatever algorithmic reason, but if they're testing out whether or not reviews affect purchases, I can definitely say I've seen a slowdown in sales over the past couple of days since it started. On the flip side, I've never had this kind of luck with the number of sales after a good free run, so I can't say for certain that it's due to the absent reviews or just normal attrition over a week.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Thanks for letting me know, Ernie. I had been selling the book at a rate of about 7/day. Since the fluctuations started a few days ago, I've sold zero of that book.


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## Groovy Writer (May 24, 2010)

I was just at a conference about customer care and online influence, and Amazon reviews were mentioned as one of the biggest influences on sales. So you can imagine these business people thinking about how to boost their Amazon reviews and the sort of gaming of the system going on, and so can Amazon. Better yet, Amazon can tune their algorithms based off massive amounts of information they gather. It is possible some of the missing reviews are getting swept up in Amazon's search for reviews that aren't kosher. If anyone knows if large numbers of reviews are missing from other product categories, please let us know.

Amazon already has to be diligent about e-book mills that cobble together info from the Web and sell it as e-books. Amazon stopped that by scanning e-books for duplicate text on the Web and pulling e-books that are cobbled together. Amazon also caught on to author tag exchanges and changed their algorithms in response. And the company guarantees lowest prices by sweeping the Web for the same products sold elsewhere for lower prices. They have enormous data gathering and engineering capabilities. I'm sure they are looking closely at reviews and thinking about how to make them as trustworthy as possible. After all, the Amazon brand is built on the public's perception of trust and leads the pack in that department. It's pure gold for them.

In their shoes, I would find out as much as I could about the reviewers and their connections to the products. Someone mentioned in this thread that Facebook friends reviewed their books. That is an easy connection for Amazon to make. Facebook sells information about its users to big companies like Amazon. How about people who have bought you gifts on your Amazon wishlist, or even sent you something through Amazon? Ding! Connection made. Amazon knows the reviewer is connected to you in a personal way. Question is, how do they respond? Well, I think we're seeing it.

I had a review disappear today. It was a review I wrote for my book back when it had no reviews. I gave it 4 stars and a two-sentence generic plug. When I posted it I had no idea if Amazon would accept it, but I've written other Amazon reviews giving my honest opinion, so I think they trusted me ... until today.

Tomorrow the missing review could return and my theory shot down. Amazon does periodic system sweeps just as general maintenance. Features on product pages disappear and reappear. I remember when my book description disappeared and I contacted Amazon in a semi state of panic. They told me not to worry, they were just doing back end maintenance. The way I understand it, all of the various elements on Amazon product pages -- descriptions, reviews, prices, sales rankings, etc -- are put together from separate systems. So if one goes down, the site stays up. Clever monkeys, they are. Guess we'll see what happens.


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

I lost a 5-star review from a book that had only 4 reviews and another 5-star review from a book that had only 3 reviews, so Amazon's actions are really hurting.  

I filed a complaint, only to receive the same canned response that others have gotten. 

What's ironic is that I recently gifted a copy of my book to someone, and this morning, Amazon sent me an email asking if I wanted to review my purchase! I'm so tempted to write a review, but I won't.


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## merryxmas (Jun 21, 2012)

Anyone else think Konrath's response to this smacks of doublethink? He lambasts authors for being against fake reviews last month and emails Amazon to tell them they're wrong to delete reviews this month. Then he blames all the legitimate reviews being deleted on those that opposed fake reviews.

I'm scratching my chin. I like his blog very much and it was one of the main reasons I got my butt into gear and started writing but I just don't know what to think reading that.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

merryxmas said:


> Anyone else think Konrath's response to this smacks of doublethink? He lambasts authors for being against fake reviews last month and emails Amazon to tell them they're wrong to delete reviews this month. Then he blames all the legitimate reviews being deleted on those that opposed fake reviews.
> 
> I'm scratching my chin. I like his blog very much and it was one of the main reasons I got my butt into gear and started writing but I just don't know what to think reading that.


No, because what he was talking about was not fake reviews, but reviews he had posted of books he had read. And I think he is RIGHT who to blame this whole thing on.

I absolutely agree with this paragraph in particular:



> The fact that a binder can get a thousand fake reviews because of Romney's comment, but I can't honestly review one of my peers because I'm an author, is a bit silly, don't you think? Amazon allows 1 star reviews from people who haven't even read the book, but deletes positive reviews from people who honestly enjoyed it, and somehow that's improving your review system?


It has come to the point every time a get a new good review (and I DO think they are targeting good reviews, that it is part of the search algorithm) I flinch and wonder how long it will stick around. I got a 5-star review of Freedom's Sword today. Is Amazon going to decide that because it is only a couple of sentences, sentences that happen to intelligently discuss the novel, it should be removed? It is highly possible. And he is also right in this: A lot of authors find the whole thing upsetting. I have never faked a review in my life. I have never felt that I had to. And when obviously legitimate reviews are yanked, yes, it bothers me even though its only been a handful.


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## lungtastic (May 23, 2011)

merryxmas said:


> Anyone else think Konrath's response to this smacks of doublethink? He lambasts authors for being against fake reviews last month and emails Amazon to tell them they're wrong to delete reviews this month. Then he blames all the legitimate reviews being deleted on those that opposed fake reviews.
> 
> I'm scratching my chin. I like his blog very much and it was one of the main reasons I got my butt into gear and started writing but I just don't know what to think reading that.


Honestly, I agree with him. I think the timing is too much of a coincidence. I read a blog post a couple of weeks ago that was talking about telling the difference between fake and real reviews, and it literally made it sound like every type of review out there was fake. I worry about good reviews now too, I've only lost one but I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before I lose more, and it takes so much just to get reviews in the first place. Especially since most of my Amazon reviews are one or two sentences.


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## John Daulton (Feb 28, 2012)

merryxmas said:


> Anyone else think Konrath's response to this smacks of doublethink? He lambasts authors for being against fake reviews last month and emails Amazon to tell them they're wrong to delete reviews this month. Then he blames all the legitimate reviews being deleted on those that opposed fake reviews.
> 
> I'm scratching my chin. I like his blog very much and it was one of the main reasons I got my butt into gear and started writing but I just don't know what to think reading that.


I think he's right that Amazon's removal policy is doing harm and good. What he doesn't seem to know, and we don't either, is how many fake reviews are coming down as opposed to legitimate ones. His point about sock puppet reviews and outright purchasing of reviews as being "free speech" I thought was pretty far off the mark, at least in terms of how I think of free speech. That aside, part of the point I think he was making was that the big, author movement to hunt down fake reviews might end up becoming a witch hunt, which clearly it has to some degree or another. So it gets back to the unanswered part of this, which is, how many actual witches were burned and how many innocents? And, I guess, from that, how many innocents count as a fair price to sacrifice in exchange for burning X quantity of witches? Whatever those answers actually are, I do agree that this is definitely disincentive to write reviews, which is too bad. It sucks to have your opinion not matter just because you write books too.


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## H.M. Ward (May 16, 2012)

Did you see this? It was in the LA Times yesterday. Apparently authors are not allowed to review other authors.

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-why-is-amazon-deleting-writers-reviews-of-other-authors-books-20121102,0,7028228.story


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