I took a look at the reviews I'd written, and saw more than fifty of them had been removed, namely reviews I did of my peers. I don't read reviews people give me, but I do keep track of numbers and averages, and I've also lost a fair amount of reviews.
Puzzled by this, I contacted Amazon, and received in response an explanation that I assume means the deletions were the result of some new automatic system, along with a link to the updated Review Creation Guidelines. Since all of my deleted reviews followed these guidelines, I wrote them back, cc'ing several people I know who work there in various departments. Here is my letter:
Thanks for the explanation
about why dozens of my Amazon reviews were removed. I cc'ed several of my Amazon contacts
on this response. Please understand I'm not pointing fingers at any of you fine
folks. You know that I have total respect and admiration for you guys, the work
you do, and the company you work for. But
I don't know who in the office should hear this, and I'm hoping one of you
passes it along to whoever made this decision.
My reviews followed all of
Amazon's guidelines, and had received hundreds of helpful votes. They informed
customers, and they helped sell books. They represented a significant time
investment on my part, and they were honest and accurate and fully disclosed my
relationships with the author I reviewed if I happened to know them. And these
reviews were deleted without warning or explanation.
Obviously Amazon can do
whatever it wants to on its site. It isn't up to me to dictate policy. It's
your company, your rules, and I fully respect that. But I believe Jeff Bezos is
very much about treating customers fairly, and I've heard it said many times
that Amazon considers its authors to be valuable customers. So you should know
that I'm just one of dozens of authors who are saddened by this, and those are
just the ones who have emailed me.
The community you're trying
hard to nurture is upset by your actions. They feel those actions are
unwarranted and harmful.
Please express our
disappointment in Amazon to anyone who needs hear it, and let them know I'll be
blogging about it. People are seriously disappointed in how Amazon handled
this. It was a knee-jerk,
inappropriate reaction to a ridiculous case of unjustified moral panic, and a
Big Fail.
Again, I'm not trying to point
fingers, signal anyone out, or place blame. Amazon obviously had concerns about
their review system, but I believe those concerns could have been dealt with in
a much better manner. As you know, I've been a huge supporter of Amazon for
years, and I've publicly
supported many of Amazon's decisions when others hated on you. I'm personally
responsible for dozens of authors joining Amazon Publishing, and thousands
(tens of thousands?) of authors using KDP. And now those authors are emailing
me saying, "Joe, what the heck is Amazon doing? I thought they were the
good guys."
The fact that a binder can get a thousand fake reviews
because of Romney's
comment, but I can't honestly review one of my peers because I'm an author,
is a bit silly, don't you think? Amazon allows 1 star reviews from people who
haven't even read the book, but deletes positive reviews from people who
honestly enjoyed it, and somehow that's improving your review system?
I don't expect any of the
deleted reviews to magically reappear. I don't expect you to change your
policies. And I'm still Amazon's biggest fan and supporter. But my hope is that
if this email gets to the right people, maybe something like this won't happen
again.
Thanks for listening, and
thanks for all you do for authors.
Joe
Now, as I expressed in the
letter, I'm disappointed, and a bit annoyed, but that's as far as it goes. I
just did a quick check, and I've still got thousands of reviews, and my star
averages are unchanged. My appreciation of Amazon hasn't faded. I still believe
they have done more for authors than any other company in history. Though I now
will be more choosy about what I review, because I don't want to waste my time
reviewing something that will be removed for no reason. Other than that, I
won't be affected by this hiccup at all.
Unfortunately, many authors who
don't sell as well as I do now have lower star averages, which could hurt
sales. This doesn't strike me as fair or helpful, and I understand the fear and
outrage I've seen in the emails I've gotten.
But I don't blame Amazon for
this. While I don't think they approached this situation in the right way, they
were showing how customer-centric they are by reacting to public opinion.
Namely, complaints about their review system brought up by those very
clever No
Sock Puppets Here Please authors.
Congratulations, NSPHP
signatories. Because of your concerns about Amazon's review policy and your
ridiculous little petition, and the resulting media witch hunt, thousands of
legitimate reviews have now been deleted.
Good thing you brought it to
Amazon's attention. You should be very proud.
I was going to use a "one
bad apple spoils the whole bunch" analogy here, but that isn't
appropriate, since that petition had over 400 author
signatures. I think it's more like tattling on a fellow student for making
fart noises in class, and then the teacher making the whole class skip
recess as punishment.
But let us all applaud
Democracy In Action. You complained. Amazon listened to you. And now you've
lost thousands of honest reviews.
If it makes you feel better,
I'm sure a few sock puppet reviews were also deleted along with all the legit
ones. So once again, congrats. You have killed an annoying mosquito using a
nuclear weapon, collateral damage be damned.
Hmm... I seem to recall someone
saying that it would be wrong if Amazon started policing reviews. Who was that
guy? He said:
