As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been the victim (several times) of the dreaded Amazon Review Removal Syndrome. Happened again. Two reviews for two of my books were removed this past week. One review was removed from a book for which I haven’t had a new review on in, oh, I don’t know… Maybe two years?
It strikes me as so arbitrary because I-
A. Don’t ask anyone to write a review for me, ever.
B. Don’t send out ARCs or review copies of my self-pubbed works— nothing, nada.
C. Don’t know a single one of the reviewers, aside from Tom Stronach who states up front that he knows me, yet his reviews are still there, (probably won’t be for long), and maybe a couple other reviewers from way back in the day when I was a new author with small publishing houses and my pubs sent out ARCs.
D. I know a number of authors who have fake five star reviews posted on their book pages and those reviews never seem to disappear.
Most authors I know tell me they have never had a review removed. So I ask you, what’s up with this? Is there like a target on my back?
The answer is that you have gotten on a watch list (remember ol’ J. Edgar?) and you will be monitored closely forever more. Nat10nal s3cur1ty.
Seems a little silly of them - and I’m assuming you’ve got no humans who will talk to you at their end?
Can you find these reviews in the internet archives? Then you can save them for images.
So sorry. This is so annoying. If I ever get this thang finished and published, I will take screen shots - assuming there is ever a review.
I don’t think you’re one of the people this kind of thing should happen to.
Alicia (daring to put her name on your blog)
Well thank you, Alicia. Who knows? Maybe I am on a ‘watch list’. Can’t imagine why tho. I contacted Amazon the last time this happened - They removed something like four reviews all at once. They didn’t have an answer for me. The person I spoke with was very nice, but she didn’t really know.
It may have been the reviewer’s review rights were removed. THey threatened me with that a while back b/c I changed my display name to reflect my blog name. I had to remove all references to the blog in all my reviews.
Interesting, Steph. That very well could be why. I haven’t done anything new…
Julia, is there someone, somewhere, remotely or directed to Amazon you can contact and question about this? Something is really wrong with what’s happening.
Well, Marylin, I did call once and and I was able to speak with a tech. Basically they refer you to the rules and regs for posting reviews. This tech was sweet and she did a little research for me. Some reviews were simply moved and she found them and returned them. In this particular case I’m clueless. I just know the number of reviews has decreased but I don’t know which reviews were removed. This evening one review magically reappeared. It’s happened to other authors. I’m not alone. The irony is that Amazon is trying to screen out fake or sock puppet reviews but from my perspective the algorithms they use are entirely ineffective at spotting sock puppet reviews.
Very strange. I have no clue if I’ve ever had a review removed. I don’t pay attention to them. I’m not sure if I have that many either.
I find it crazy that they keep pulling yours.
Gremlins. It is always Gremlins.
Yeah, Roberta - gremlins! I like the notion. Definitely gremlins.
I think it’s a little crazy too, Amber. And you tend to notice when you have 8 reviews for 4 years and then suddenly you have 7.