alicecooper
1 girl, 3 boys
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- Nov 4, 2012
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So for those of you not aware of what I'm talking about, Amazon have been stifling readers' rights to post reviews on books. I'm talking about genuine reviews here, not ones unscrupulous authors may have paid for on fiver (oh no, Amazon doesn't care about those because they're hard to trace!)
On what grounds?
Well it's whether or not their AI Review Bot thinks you know the author personally. You may think that's fair enough, but there are several factors involved here.
Firstly, the way the Bot makes its decision is based on monitoring social networking activity. This means that if you have ever had any sort of communication with the author whatsoever, including joining their fan page, commenting on a post the author may have made, entering a competition they have hosted, etc. Amazon's AI will deem you to "know" the author, and you have a strong chance that your review will be rejected.
In fact, some people have had their review accepted, and visible on Amazon for several months, before then being pulled down for no reason.
Secondly, let's just take the example that yes, perhaps this reviewer does know the author on a personal level. So what? Does that mean the reader isn't allowed to have an opinion on the book they've read? Some of these people are verified purchasers, they've paid for their books, and yet they're still denied the right to post a review about it.
And then there are non-verified reviews. Well many authors sell their books at book fairs, conventions, or through their own private websites, so of course many of their readers are not verified by Amazon (as the sale didn't go through Amazon). This immediately flags up an alert to Amazon's bot that this review is probably fake.
Gift cards are the next thing. If an author sends anyone an Amazon gift card, and at some later point the person who was sent a gift card leaves the author a review of their work, this, too, is deemed unacceptable, and it is assumed that the reviewer in question knows the author.
So any authors running a competition privately whereby the winner would receive an Amazon gift card, can kiss goodbye to ever receiving a genuine review from the winner.
My own books are for sale on Amazon (among other places) I would never EVER expect anybody to leave a review of my books that is not a genuine honest review. Doesn't matter who you are - a relative, a friend, a passing acquaintance, a fan of my work, or a complete stranger who stumbled on my books by accident. I welcome all feedback, and am truly blessed that my books have been so well received.
For Amazon to stifle reviews in this way is severely damaging to an author, as we depend on genuine ratings as a way of showing the world that our books are worth reading.
It's also incredibly insulting to a reader for Amazon to assume that their review is less than genuine.
It's a matter of morals and integrity, and sticking up for our rights. Amazon's AI Bot makes grievous mistakes and unjustified assumptions about whether or not someone knows an author, and whether or not a review is genuine. This has to be stopped.
There is a petition if any of you would care to sign it :
https://www.change.org/p/amazon-com...utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
On what grounds?
Well it's whether or not their AI Review Bot thinks you know the author personally. You may think that's fair enough, but there are several factors involved here.
Firstly, the way the Bot makes its decision is based on monitoring social networking activity. This means that if you have ever had any sort of communication with the author whatsoever, including joining their fan page, commenting on a post the author may have made, entering a competition they have hosted, etc. Amazon's AI will deem you to "know" the author, and you have a strong chance that your review will be rejected.
In fact, some people have had their review accepted, and visible on Amazon for several months, before then being pulled down for no reason.
Secondly, let's just take the example that yes, perhaps this reviewer does know the author on a personal level. So what? Does that mean the reader isn't allowed to have an opinion on the book they've read? Some of these people are verified purchasers, they've paid for their books, and yet they're still denied the right to post a review about it.
And then there are non-verified reviews. Well many authors sell their books at book fairs, conventions, or through their own private websites, so of course many of their readers are not verified by Amazon (as the sale didn't go through Amazon). This immediately flags up an alert to Amazon's bot that this review is probably fake.
Gift cards are the next thing. If an author sends anyone an Amazon gift card, and at some later point the person who was sent a gift card leaves the author a review of their work, this, too, is deemed unacceptable, and it is assumed that the reviewer in question knows the author.
So any authors running a competition privately whereby the winner would receive an Amazon gift card, can kiss goodbye to ever receiving a genuine review from the winner.
My own books are for sale on Amazon (among other places) I would never EVER expect anybody to leave a review of my books that is not a genuine honest review. Doesn't matter who you are - a relative, a friend, a passing acquaintance, a fan of my work, or a complete stranger who stumbled on my books by accident. I welcome all feedback, and am truly blessed that my books have been so well received.
For Amazon to stifle reviews in this way is severely damaging to an author, as we depend on genuine ratings as a way of showing the world that our books are worth reading.
It's also incredibly insulting to a reader for Amazon to assume that their review is less than genuine.
It's a matter of morals and integrity, and sticking up for our rights. Amazon's AI Bot makes grievous mistakes and unjustified assumptions about whether or not someone knows an author, and whether or not a review is genuine. This has to be stopped.
There is a petition if any of you would care to sign it :
https://www.change.org/p/amazon-com...utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
