For book/ebook authors, publishers, & self-publishers
Updated with New Info: Amazon.com Gets Stupid, Really Stupid. Jeff Bezos Is Sleeping at the Wheel. Dumb, dumb dumb. But if you are an author and write book reviews on Amazon, you must read this.
Note: updated information on the Amazon enforcement policy here: http://www.bookmarket.com/AmazonIsStupid.htm.
I received the following information from several authors today. Here is a good summary of Amazon's new enforcement policy from Cheryl Kaye Tardif:
I am bcc'ing this to ALL my author friends because I really want you to have this information before Amazon deletes all your reviews.
A week ago I found that all 85 of the reviews I've written for other books had been deleted. It has been a very difficult and stressful week dealing with Amazon. They are not very accessible and I was given at least 3 different reasons for why my reviews had been deleted. After numerous emails, this is what it's come down to:
Their final ruling: "Please know that our participation guidelines don't allow customers to promote their own titles in their reviews." If you sign your review with anything other than your name, your reviews could be deleted.
If any of you are in the habit of signing your reviews with something like "..., author of Whale Song", which has been common practice for years, Amazon has deemed this as "inappropriate" and will be deleting them. It seems they're on a campaign to go through reviews posted. They recently made changes to the Amazon Connect program and all our blogs were temporarily gone too. Most are back up.
They also will delete your reviews if you have added the book link (that they supply) and directed it to your own book title's Amazon page. Many authors have used that in their signature line. It can lead to deletion and suspension, according to Amazon's latest email.
I argued the fact that thousands of authors sign their reviews like this, and that it's common practice in our industry. I was told by my last publisher to sign my reviews like this; he even wanted us to include
the ISBN, which I only did a couple of times then stopped. It made no difference to Amazon that this is what my publisher wanted me to do; they aren't accepting signatures with titles.
Amazon is starting to take note of such practices and you'll get no notice; they'll just pull all the reviews you have written. That's what they did with me, even though many of my older reviews were signed
with just my name.
So to clarify, according to Amazon, when posting a review, you are not allowed to have a signature of anything more than your name, and NO links to or mention of your books whatsoever in the review or sig line.
I am giving you the heads-up now so you can go in and edit your reviews if you choose. That's what I'd do, to be honest, because fighting with Amazon is not easy. There is no one who will talk to you
by phone, and waiting for their response is not easy.
This rule also applies to any comments you leave on a book review. Amazon does not want authors to mention their own books anywhere on the review pages.
I haven't heard from Amazon.ca yet, but I expect this will be funneled over to all the Amazons, so I'll be working on editing my reviews there next week.
Please forward this on to all authors you know and any writing organizations or associations you belong to.
I think Cheryl's email sums up the problem with Amazon.com right now.
John's comments:
How stupid can they be! How really, really stupid. This leaves the door open for someone to create an unAmazon that really serves authors rather than exploits them brutally.
Amazon is stupid. Amazon is stupid. I want them to know that I think they are stupid. I hope they read this newsletter (which will be reposted to my website). I think Amazon is incredibly stupid, stupid, stupid.
I really do hope someone creates an alternative.
I do agree with them that reviews written only to insert your link do no good for the book buyer, the author, or Amazon. But legitimate reviews that reveal that the reviewer is an expert (a book author) should be allowed, indeed should be highlighted.
Amazon is stupid. The people at Amazon.com are imbeciles. Jeff Bezos is sleeping at the wheel. This is what happens when one website becomes too dominant. Watch out for Google next.
Start sending your customers to BN.com today.
Signed -- John Kremer, author, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books
You can order my book at BN.com here: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/1001-Ways-to-Market-Your-Books/Joh...
I received the following information from several authors today. Here is a good summary of Amazon's new enforcement policy from Cheryl Kaye Tardif:
I am bcc'ing this to ALL my author friends because I really want you to have this information before Amazon deletes all your reviews.
A week ago I found that all 85 of the reviews I've written for other books had been deleted. It has been a very difficult and stressful week dealing with Amazon. They are not very accessible and I was given at least 3 different reasons for why my reviews had been deleted. After numerous emails, this is what it's come down to:
Their final ruling: "Please know that our participation guidelines don't allow customers to promote their own titles in their reviews." If you sign your review with anything other than your name, your reviews could be deleted.
If any of you are in the habit of signing your reviews with something like "..., author of Whale Song", which has been common practice for years, Amazon has deemed this as "inappropriate" and will be deleting them. It seems they're on a campaign to go through reviews posted. They recently made changes to the Amazon Connect program and all our blogs were temporarily gone too. Most are back up.
They also will delete your reviews if you have added the book link (that they supply) and directed it to your own book title's Amazon page. Many authors have used that in their signature line. It can lead to deletion and suspension, according to Amazon's latest email.
I argued the fact that thousands of authors sign their reviews like this, and that it's common practice in our industry. I was told by my last publisher to sign my reviews like this; he even wanted us to include
the ISBN, which I only did a couple of times then stopped. It made no difference to Amazon that this is what my publisher wanted me to do; they aren't accepting signatures with titles.
Amazon is starting to take note of such practices and you'll get no notice; they'll just pull all the reviews you have written. That's what they did with me, even though many of my older reviews were signed
with just my name.
So to clarify, according to Amazon, when posting a review, you are not allowed to have a signature of anything more than your name, and NO links to or mention of your books whatsoever in the review or sig line.
I am giving you the heads-up now so you can go in and edit your reviews if you choose. That's what I'd do, to be honest, because fighting with Amazon is not easy. There is no one who will talk to you
by phone, and waiting for their response is not easy.
This rule also applies to any comments you leave on a book review. Amazon does not want authors to mention their own books anywhere on the review pages.
I haven't heard from Amazon.ca yet, but I expect this will be funneled over to all the Amazons, so I'll be working on editing my reviews there next week.
Please forward this on to all authors you know and any writing organizations or associations you belong to.
I think Cheryl's email sums up the problem with Amazon.com right now.
John's comments:
How stupid can they be! How really, really stupid. This leaves the door open for someone to create an unAmazon that really serves authors rather than exploits them brutally.
Amazon is stupid. Amazon is stupid. I want them to know that I think they are stupid. I hope they read this newsletter (which will be reposted to my website). I think Amazon is incredibly stupid, stupid, stupid.
I really do hope someone creates an alternative.
I do agree with them that reviews written only to insert your link do no good for the book buyer, the author, or Amazon. But legitimate reviews that reveal that the reviewer is an expert (a book author) should be allowed, indeed should be highlighted.
Amazon is stupid. The people at Amazon.com are imbeciles. Jeff Bezos is sleeping at the wheel. This is what happens when one website becomes too dominant. Watch out for Google next.
Start sending your customers to BN.com today.
Signed -- John Kremer, author, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books
You can order my book at BN.com here: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/1001-Ways-to-Market-Your-Books/Joh...
Views: 7
Comment
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Comment by Cheryl Kaye Tardif on April 9, 2009 at 1:19am
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Bobby, I'd be happy to be your guest. I've emailed you in reply to your invitation.
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Comment by Bobby Ozuna on April 8, 2009 at 8:08pm
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Cheryl & John:
I have queried you both, to see if you might consider being guests on my LIVE Internet Radio show, The Soul of Humanity. My show is designed to publicize and promote the world of independent artists, from every facet of the creative world, but especially the world of indie publishing. I try to discuss topics pertinent to the publishing world--such as Cheryl's article tonight--and then feature a new author (or artist) every Wednesday night.
I would be honored if either one of you would help spread the word or consider being guest authors on my show.
If you are interested, or know someone who may need help finding a forum to publicize their work, please send them my way.
I can offer several options to help my fellow author. First, they can be featured on my LIVE one-hour, commercial free show as part of the Artist First Radio Network. My shows stream LIVE and they are arhived for later listening to a world-wide audience. I get emails from listeners (and demographic reports) from people within the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, The Netherlands, South Korea, Isreal and more! I offer an author PLUG service, where for a simple monetary contribution of $10, they get their book title, author name and a quick 2-sentence description of their book "plugged" LIVE on the air to my listening audience, including the amazon widget (ironic huh???) on my blog for easy finding. They can pay for one show, or as many as they wish.
I feature authors for contributions of $50, $75 and $100 to be guests on my show and discuss aspects of their struggles and successes as indie authors or artists.
I have sponsor rates available, where my sponsors can get commercial feeds or simple audio plugs by me, for months at a time. I also include banners for their business as part of the Artist First Radio Network, where 1.2 million listeners reach monthly.
If am doing all I can and reaching out to my author communities to spread the word about a show they can help them...and their efforts to add color and life to the soul of humanity...
~Bobby Ozunawww.ozunapub.com
Drawing Stories...With WordsThe Soul of Humanity, Internet Radio Show
Bobby@Ozunapub.cmo
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Mr. Kremer, would you be interested in "talking" about this whole Amazon situation with me LIVE on my Internet (talk) radio show, the Soul of Humanity??? I feature new authors every week and my audience is world-wide. Every show I discuss topics pertinent to the world of indie publishing. I would love if you would consider discussing this with me within the next few weeks (I can provide more details later). Tonight I am going to read the article you posted above and discuss it from my perspective and hopefully the perspective of many other authors like myself...
~Bobby Ozuna
www.ozunapub.com
bobby@ozunapub.com
The Soul of Humanity, Internet Radio Show
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So much has happened in the past 24 hours. I have been contacted by authors, author organization reps, reporters, book marketers, bloggers and finally, someone from Amazon. Amazon has been bombarded by emails from authors, orgs, marketers etc, and last night I noticed that Amazon in Seattle had checked out my blog posts. ;-)
Today I received an email from a senior member of the Amazon Communities team. He apologized and stated that my reviews had been reinstated.
I began my reply with a thank you and how I knew they'd been reinstated 2 days ago. It wasn't until I got to the end of writing my reply that I had a strange thought. I immediately went to check my reviews on Amazon. Guess what I found??
All my reviews have "author of Divine Intervention" added to them! It's not how I signed them exactly, but it's a start.
I am now gong to notify the dozens of sources who are following this story.
To those who edited their review signatures, I'm sorry but I gave you the info that Amazon reps told me, that we had to remove our book titles and any product links to our own books. At this time, by reinstating my reviews to include my book title (not linked), I think it's safe to say that they are not going to reinforce this policy, so we can relax and add this info without worry.
I am trying to get an official statement from someone in Amazon on this.
Anyways...lots of people to contact...I'll be blogging about this later when I have time to breathe.
Cheryl Kaye Tardif
http://www.cherylktardif.com
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