Self-Published Authors, Reviewers, and Book Readers, I Need Advice

Hello there friends.

I have a dilemma, and perhaps someone might have advice.Bear with me while I explain.

Potential buyers of books not only read the plot description of a book to see if it’s something that interests them, but they also read reviews. How does an author get reviews for a newly published book if there aren’t any yet?

Well, an author gives away some free copies and hopes that those people who read it will volunteer an honest review. (Sometimes authors pay for reviews, but not in this case).

What happens if those readers who received the free copies put up a review, but Amazon takes it down?If the author is contactable, the reader contacts the author to tell them the review was taken down and they don’t know why. They received a generic response about Amazon’s guidelines which they did not violate.

So, the author contacts Amazon to ask them what can be done to ensure readers who are given free copies can put up an honest and voluntary review.

Amazon then sends the author a generic link to their guidelines. The same guidelines that were not violated by the reviewers. This response does not solve the problem.

I apologize for speaking of myself in the third person, but yes, this is what happened to me and my reviewers. I know that Amazon likes to see verified purchases, but at some points free copies are offered. Sometimes Amazon will remove reviews because they don’t trust the reviewer is being nonbiased. All of my reviewers, however, have put in their reviews that they are giving an “honest and voluntary review.”

I’ve written to Amazon three times now. The only variation of a response I received from the generic guidelines, was to tell my reviewers they need to contest the removal of their review with Amazon.

Okay, I feel fortunate that anyone would take the time to read and then review my book. Why should they be expected to go through Amazon’s red-tape to get that review posted? Moreover, why would anyone review a free book if they had to jump through hoops to get a review posted?

Having reviews is of huge importance for authors. How are we supposed to get anyone interested in our books if potential readers don’t see any reviews? It looks bad.

Am I the only author this has happened to? Are there any other reviewers who have had this happen? If so, did you find a way to fix it?

Does anyone have any advice on how to get reviews that stay up?

P.S. There is no customer service phone number. Amazon will only correspond through email for this issue. I asked about that, too.

 

 

 

 

Advertisement