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PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:58 am 
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I read this over at Dear Author yesterday --- needless to say I was shocked!!!!

Years ago I left one star for a book....my one star is still there on Amazon.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:37 pm 
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Brigade, did you change your name from Nite.


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:39 pm 
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<b>[quote="phyllis583"]Brigade, did you change your name from Nite.[/quote]</b>

I noticed this too. Nite, why did you change your posting name?


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 6:12 pm 
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I was wondering the same thing.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:22 am 
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I can't imagine that an author has the ability (or the time) to get negative reviews deleted from Amazon. I have a ton of them on my books (not overwhelmingly, but then I have around 80 books, so...) and I've never seen any of them deleted.
I HAVE seen reviews that were so off the mark, they didn't make sense. Like one reviewer said my book was in 1st person. Hello. I've never written a book a book in 1st person.
But the thought of having it deleted (even if I could!) never crossed my mind. I just posted a comment to it, saying it wasn't 1st person.
:::shrug::::

Personally, I think some people got their reviews deleted for some OTHER reason, and as usual, they're trying to make the author out to be the bad guy.
:::sigh:::

Lori

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:33 am 
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Lori, what this one author has been doing is having everyone on her group loop go to Amazon and report each negative review as abuse and then write their own glowing reviews. When Amazon receives a certain number of abuse claims come on a review, they delete it.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:37 am 
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I skimmed through the posts at link given above and didn't see any proof of that. I saw people speculating... so if I missed something, some proof, sorry.

Happy reading all!

Lori

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:04 am 
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One of the posters...maybe I saw it elsewhere, I frequent a lot of blogs, said she used to be on the author's loop and saw the calls to action. I'd heard it before in regards to another author as well...several months ago...cause I went to Amazon to see if the one bad review (well, only review) that I posted was still up and it was.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:11 pm 
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[quote="Brigade"][quote="phyllis583"]Brigade, did you change your name from Nite.[/quote]
_______

Indeed I did! :D[/quote]

I'm happy with whatever name you use when it involves that avatar. :)
That was my favorite show at one time.

Paula


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:50 pm 
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I just took my nosy self over there and read and the reviews are still on there Amazon recently changed the "look" of their pages I used to review for them quite a lot but don't have the time anymore.

I had heard some time ago that authors would petition to get reviews "covered" by like having a LOAD of people write reviews so that the negative ones would be pushed down off of the main page but that was like 5-6 years ago. Anyhoo with this new page layout you can collate negative vs. positive reviews.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:07 pm 
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I'm going to be a devils advocate here. Amazon wants to sell books so they get rid of lousey reviews that might make people not buy a book. I can see how they'd want to do it. I don't like it, but I can see it.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:12 pm 
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[quote="Linda7849"]I'm going to be a devils advocate here. Amazon wants to sell books so they get rid of lousey reviews that might make people not buy a book. I can see how they'd want to do it. I don't like it, but I can see it.[/quote]

I think allowing honest reviews is more productive though: they can lead a customer to a different product they'd enjoy better, and prevent unhappy customers who felt misled by overwhelming positive reviews into buying something they absolutely hated.

I've read some negative reviews on Amazon that I found were really helpful to me as a customer, because they revealed a reader didn't like a book because of plot elements that would have made the book a wallbanger for me. Some led me to other books I purchased instead and enjoyed.

I am actually a fairly high ranked reviewer on Amazon (around 80 or so) but I have to say I do tend to avoid reviewing a book I hated (Unless it's obscure and has no reviews) because I fear negative vote campaigns. As it is I still get occasional complaints - one angry reader emailed me that I had ruined the book for her by posting spoilers. I gave away less then the back cover did!


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:55 pm 
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[quote="rebecca191"]

I think allowing honest reviews is more productive though: they can lead a customer to a different product they'd enjoy better, and prevent unhappy customers who felt misled by overwhelming positive reviews into buying something they absolutely hated.

[/quote]

I agree, I enjoy all kinds of reviews, but maybe the bad ones scare Amazon. As I said, just trying to be the devils advocate LOL.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:29 pm 
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[quote="Linda7849"][quote="rebecca191"]

I think allowing honest reviews is more productive though: they can lead a customer to a different product they'd enjoy better, and prevent unhappy customers who felt misled by overwhelming positive reviews into buying something they absolutely hated.

[/quote]

I agree, I enjoy all kinds of reviews, but maybe the bad ones scare Amazon. As I said, just trying to be the devils advocate LOL.[/quote]

Yeah, it will be sad though if they continue with this practice, I like being able to read all kinds of reviews to find out if the book contains elements I know I'll like, or know I'll hate.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 12:03 am 
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I must be the only romance reader (well, any reader, actually) who does not read reviews on Amazon, even though I order so many books from them that I'm surprised I'm not a first name name basis with them. I've read too many reviews in the past on Amazon that were personal attacks on the authors and had nithing at all to do with the book itself. To me, a review (whether of a book, a movie, a CD, etc) is all subjective anyway. And if a book draws my interest, I'll buy it no matter what the reviewer says, just as I'll go see a movie that I want to see, despite bad reviews. The only book reviews that I read and take into consideration (though I'll get the book anyway if I'm interested in it) are the ones in RT. But I personally would never base my purchasing a book on what an Amazon reviewer says about the book.

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:45 am 
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[quote="lorifoster"]I skimmed through the posts at link given above and didn't see any proof of that. I saw people speculating... so if I missed something, some proof, sorry.

Happy reading all!

Lori[/quote]

<b>Lori, have you been to the DearAuthor blog? Tons of evidence up there on this author and publishing house, someone actually mentions that in this forum you said you didn't think manipulating reviews was possible. It's a very enlightening discussion, I had no idea that reader reviews could be manipulated but they can. I've never paid much attention to the publishers but from now on I will make sure I NEVER purchase a book from Highland Press. They have said some pretty horrible things (and the evidence was screencapped and posted for all to see) to READERS (ah, you know the people that purchase books?!!?). Anyone, author or publisher, that treats readers like imbeciles will never get another dime from me.<b/>


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:11 am 
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Interesting. I wonder if it's skewed in any way.
As an example... ages ago, (practically with cavemen) when Amazon was still fairly new to me, I saw where another author had taken a reader review posted in one forum, and shared it on Amazon.
I thought, "Huh. Good idea."
So I did the same, noting the name of the person who had posted it, and where I'd gotten it.
At the time, I didn't see anything wrong with that. I was a new author just sharing good reviews I'd gotten to a broader audience.
But then Amazon did this thing where they changed the anonymity of the poster (moi) and suddenly, it didn't matter that I'd shared all the info, it looked like I'D given myself some good reviews. :oops:
Readers lynched me at least a dozen times. I felt like an immortal, because they killed me over and over. :lol:
No explanation was good enough.
But I was young and green about the biz and unaware that it was a no-no to share reviews from one forum to another.

That was my first lesson that some readers are in a love/hate relationship with authors and they're anxiously waiting for a chance to pounce.

I HOPE I haven't made any mega big mistakes like that since, but I wouldn't swear to it. I'm human.

So yeah, this author might be trying to manipulate reviews, but I saw nothing directly from her, just from other people quoting her. And not being in the class of "she without sin" I'm not going to throw a stone.

I hope it gets resolved without turning into one of those enormous online time-sucks. Life's too short and we could all be a lot happier. :wink:

Rainstorms and cold winds here today. :P Blah.

Lori

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