Amazon have been at it again. So, both Queen Victoria and I are not amused. I have now developed a virtual shrug of the shoulders when I notice a review of any of my books has been deleted.

I have come to the conclusion there is nothing to be done. I can’t identify the review. All I know is the count went down from 63 to 62 overnight. It is frustrating as it always seems to happen just after a new review appears. The one star troll reviews seem to be immune from this Amazon purge.

It’s more than frustrating because I know scammers still operate on the Kindle platform and genuine authors like me seem to be the ones who are unfairly penalized by some unknown Amazon algorithm of AI that has no intelligence whatsoever.

See this recent post about KU scammers returning to the Kindle platform.

It is also galling to know there are authors out there who consistently and deliberately flout the book review customer guidelines. I recently discovered, and have proof, of one author who offers gift cards in return for an Amazon review. That is strictly prohibited by Amazon’s Customer Review Policy.

This is the relevant part:

4. Can I pay for someone to write a Customer Review for my book?
No. We don’t allow any form of compensation for a Customer Review other than a free copy of the book provided upfront. If you offer a free advanced copy, it must be clear that you welcome all feedback, both positive and negative. If we detect that a customer was paid to write a review, we’ll remove it.

The only type of paid review that Amazon supports is an editorial review. An editorial review is a more formal evaluation of a book usually written by an editor or expert within a genre, but can also be written by family and friends. If you’ve received an editorial review of your book that you’d like to post to the Editorial Review section of your book’s detail page, please visit our Author Central Help Page.

4.1 What do you mean by compensation?
Offering payment or any other incentive for a Customer Review is considered compensation. This includes giving someone money or a gift certificate to purchase your book. We consider incentives to be any type of reward that is given in return for a Customer Review, including but not limited to bonus content, entry to a contest or sweepstakes, discounts on future purchases, and other gifts.

That couldn’t be clearer.

What has Amazon done about this author? NOTHING!

If Amazon wasn’t the largest bookstore in the world, I would tell it to get lost. Alas, I need it more than it needs me.

Once more, I pose the question: why does Amazon pick on the innocent authors and leave the manipulators and cheats to milk the system?

If any of you are unfamiliar with Queen Victoria and “we are not amused,” here is an explanation:

This supposed quotation was attributed to Queen Victoria by courtier Caroline Holland in Notebooks of a Spinster Lady, 1919. Holland attests that Victoria made the remark at Windsor Castle:

‘There is a tale of the unfortunate equerry who ventured during dinner at Windsor to tell a story with a spice of scandal or impropriety in it. “We are not amused,” said the Queen when he had finished.’

Source: Phrases.org


If you would like to read and review my bestselling undercover cop memoir, it’s on promo right now at a whopping 25% discount for the paperback only on Amazon UK (9% in the US). This is an Amazon promo and nothing to do with me.

Click this universal link to check it out. Don’t forget – paperback only!

 

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