I’ve written about this before. This is the second time The Vanishing Wife has received its 100th review. I’m completely grateful for so many reviews and want to thank everyone who takes the time to rate and write something about my books. Reviews are tremendously helpful to readers and writers alike and I urge readers to leave reviews every chance you get.
However, like many authors, I’ve lost legitimate reviews in Amazon’s purge of so-called fake reviews in their crackdown of “violations of community standards.” That’s why this is my second time to reach 100.
I’m in complete agreement with Amazon’s efforts to try to remove reviews that are fake. Authors are paid for their work and any time money is involved someone will find a way to game the system. Unfortunately, legitimate reviews are getting caught up in the process as well.
For the last several months, authors have lost reviews for no apparent reason. I have also been a victim. The only way I know that is because of the 100 threshold. According to Amazon’s Community Standards, a reviewer is in violation if they are found to be “Creating, modifying, or posting content regarding your (or your relative’s, close friend’s, business associate’s, or employer’s) products or services.” There are other standards, but this one is pretty far-reaching, and to my knowledge, it’s the only one that could possibly apply in my case.
The first question is how Amazon determines that someone is a friend or relative. It must be with some algorithm linking the author to other social media so it’s speculative at best. But let’s face it, most authors have friends and relatives who will read their books and it’s possible that some will review and even add a star because they know the author. Does it really matter? Surely, these are not the fake reviews Amazon is trying to stop. As reviews accumulate, negative comments and ratings will inevitably flow in (you can’t please everyone) and the friend/relative reviews will be offset. Regardless, if the reviewer has clearly read the book and the narrative supports the rating, the review is not “fake.”
On the flip side, I was looking for a book to use as research on a subject I plan to incorporate into my next thriller and came across one that had received a one-star rating with no supporting narrative. Really!? Was the book that bad? Or could it have possibly been a competitor or a troll? Shouldn’t that review be questioned? The review could have been done for any number of reasons, but I wasn’t going to spend $20 to find out.
And there’s the rub. What Amazon is doing is affecting the livelihood of authors. They need to stop the fake reviews, but they need to be discerning with the ones they remove. Obviously, reviews that are paid for are a no-no, but they need to find a better way to determine when an author or his/her friends are creating fake ones.
I’ve been reading recently that readers are not making the effort to leave reviews since their work could be removed anyway. Please don’t do that! Amazon will eventually get their act together and authors appreciate every single person who takes the time to read and comment. After all, it would be difficult for a writer to continue without feedback that someone is reading and appreciating their work.