One of the keys to the success of your book is reviews, especially those written by “real people” on Amazon.com. Positive reviews on Amazon encourages browsers to buy your book at both Amazon and in brick-and-mortar bookstores. But what happens when your book receives a bad review, one that you believe is inappropriate?
Authors should keep a close eye on the reviews appearing on Amazon. In most cases the company promptly removes reviews that don’t conform with its guidelines:
Review content must not be “illegal, obscene, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights, or otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable and does not consist of or contain software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of ‘spam.’”
Reviewers are prohibited from using false e-mail addresses, impersonating other persons or entities. Also prohibited are profanity, obscenities, spiteful remarks, phone numbers, mail addresses, URLs, product pricing information or availability, alternative ordering or shipping information, or solicitations for helpful votes.
Amazon has also deleted negative reviews posted by competing authors, reviews that contain inaccurate information about the author or publisher, and off-topic reviews that don’t discuss the book.
How can you protest an inappopriate review on Amazon? Send an e-mail to community-help@amazon.com and succinctly state the facts. You should receive a reply within a few days. If you receive a boilerplate response that the review conforms to Amazon’s guidelines and will not be deleted, feel free to write back until you reach someone willing to carefully assess the situation.
Product reviews are one of the most useful and popular of Amazon’s features. But since Amazon doesn’t verify the identity of reviewers, the system can be abused. In one well-publicized case, a prankster posed as Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and posted review trashing Windows. Around the same time, Amazon promised it would prevent such abuses in the future by allowing only persons who had actually purchased a book with their Amazon account to post a review. But the crackdown never came, apparently Amazon sees too many benefits from its open reviewing system.
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2 Comments
My name is Kimberly Haight (Scheitler) and I am the publisher’s assistant for the new novel Threads West. There is a campaign and attack being conducted through your site trying to discredit my author Reid L Rosenthal with personal attacks. The comments being posted on your site have nothing to do with reviewing the book, only trying to discredit the author with personal information. I would appreciate it if you would look at the link I have attached for the “Concerned Citizen” and please consider this as we are a personal attack and would appreciate it if the post was removed immediately, since it has nothing to do with the book! Thank you for your time regarding this matter. Kim
http://www.amazon.com/review/R29R3ZQY399YP8/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0982157614&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=#wasThisHelpful
I am writing to you again out of concern that a campaign and personal attack on my author Reid L Rosenthal is being coducted through your site. I do not know who this “concerned citizen” is, but these are not reviews and are comments are now being attached to “Reviewers” of the book. I do not believe that Amazon is the place that a personal attack should be mounted and please remove this person’s ability to continue in this fashion. I have the link below and and further below my first link to “concerned citizens” first attack… please handle this matter immediately. Please contact me with how this will be handled in regards to future postings by this person. This is very concerning that folks and reviewers are being attacked on your site. Thank you for your time and assistance regarding this matter.
Kim
http://www.amazon.com/review/R9EIEUCZLDYF6/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0982157614&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=#wasThisHelpful
On November 5, 2010 I posted this:
My name is Kimberly Haight (Scheitler) and I am the publisher’s assistant for the new novel Threads West. There is a campaign and attack being conducted through your site trying to discredit my author Reid L Rosenthal with personal attacks. The comments being posted on your site have nothing to do with reviewing the book, only trying to discredit the author with personal information. I would appreciate it if you would look at the link I have attached for the “Concerned Citizen” and please consider this as we are a personal attack and would appreciate it if the post was removed immediately, since it has nothing to do with the book! Thank you for your time regarding this matter. Kim
http://www.amazon.com/review/R29R3ZQY399YP8/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0982157614&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=#wasThisHelpful