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Plug Your Book!
49
the book itself. Reviews that focus on the author or outside topics are
often deleted.
Amazon also deletes reviews deemed “illegal, obscene, threatening,
defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights,
or otherwise injurious to third parties.” It also prohibits “political
campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings, or
any form of ‘spam.’”
Reviewers are prohibited from impersonating other persons or using
profanity, obscenities, spiteful remarks, phone numbers, mail addresses,
URLs, product pricing and availability, alternative ordering or shipping
information, or solicitations for helpful “votes” for reviews. Amazon has
also been known to delete negative reviews posted by competing
authors, reviews that contain inaccurate information about the author
or publisher, and off-topic reviews.
You can request deletion of an inappropriate review on Amazon by
sending an e-mail to community-help@amazon.com. Specify the
book title, ISBN, the pen name of the reviewer, the first sentence of the
review, and the date it was posted. State why you believe the review is
inappropriate, and you should receive a reply within a few days.
Sometimes authors themselves abuse Amazon’s review system.
More on this later.
Old-media book reviews
Most newspapers and magazines have reduced space for book
reviews in recent years, even as the number of books published has
skyrocketed. Many of the remaining review columns are syndicated by
national writers, leaving little opportunity for new authors to get
reviewed, even in local media.
The long odds of getting reviewed don’t deter many authors, and
traditional media outlets are being bombarded with self-published
books. However, most old-media reviewers simply won’t consider a book
unless it’s from a major trade publisher.
Sometimes feature sections of newspapers—such as the Lifestyle,
Home, or Business sections—are more likely to feature a book,
particularly one by a local author.
One drawback to distributing review copies of your book is that
many of them will quickly appear for sale on Amazon Marketplace, even
if you stamp “Review Copy, Not For Sale” on the front cover. Although
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