Julie Broad explains why Amazon removes book reviews and how to protect yours. Avoid linking Goodreads to Facebook, create separate logins for reviewers, and disclose when someone got a free copy. Social connections and incentivized reviews are the biggest triggers for removal.
This subject comes up from time to time. Batches, large batches of Amazon reviews get removed from the Amazon site. Stick around and I've got tips to help you keep your honest, hard earned reviews safe. Hey, I'm Julie the book broad with book launchers.com, a fantastic company that works with nonfiction authors to write, publish and sell a book that will build their business exciting, explode their career, make money, and possibly even make them famous. Yeah, we're that good. Alright, so Amazon reviews disappearing. This subject comes up time and time again. Reviews matter a lot in buying decisions and you need good, honest reviews. You don't want Amazon to be gamed easily, so these purges aren't necessarily a bad thing. But as with any sort of systemized approach to cleaning up a system, some good gets killed with the bad. Like any antibiotics, right? They get rid of the good and bad bacteria in the system to make you healthy. In the latest purge, Legit Love that song. Too legit to quit but in the latest purge, legit reviews were taken down, but after complaints and review by Amazon, many were put back. In a few cases, legit reviews were pulled and not put back because Amazon decided there was some sort of a violation. It's a good time to refresh yourself on Amazon's policy. Check the link below if you're not sure how to do that. Now here's something most of you may not have thought of or realized. Amazon does not want your friends and family to review your book. Friends and family are biased. But how does Amazon know who are your friends and who is a family member? I mean seriously, if you have a last name like Young or Smith, there is a lot of those folks out there and they might not be related to you, so they can't just go by last name. But here's something to pay attention to. Amazon might be figuring out who you are friends with via Facebook. They own Goodreads after all, and one of the main ways to sign into Goodreads is via Facebook. So here's the tip of the day. Don't be lazy. Create your own login and disconnect it from Facebook. If you connect the two, it's entirely possible that data sharing allows them to figure out who your Facebook friends are. Disconnect Twitter. Disconnect Facebook from Goodreads. There have also been a lot of reports of people who give gift cards to folks to buy a copy of their book for review, having those reviews removed. Also, make sure you coach your reviewers if they get a free copy to add a disclaimer Amazon can't confirm that a person bought that book, which gives the Verified Purchase review, which means it's a good bet that a non verified purchase could be flagged, not necessarily removed, but flagged for review. In those cases, get reviewers to add a simple disclaimer line that says something like I received a complimentary copy of this book in in exchange for an honest review. Additional guidelines for customer views straight from Amazon. They can only include URLs or links to other products sold on Amazon. Customers in the same household may not post multiple reviews of the same product. Do not try to review somebody's book and then get your husband to review and then your kid to review. Doesn't work. Also, Amazon explicitly says you may not manipulate the Amazon Verified Purchase badge by offering special pricing to reviewers or reimbursing reviewers. To learn more about Amazon Verified Purchase Reviews, refer to to the Amazon Verified Purchase Reviews section. Rest assured, if you're hustling to get reviews like you should be, and you're not paying people to write good reviews, and you're not trying to game the system in any way, your legitimate reviews will likely stick. But take that extra step of not connecting anything to Goodreads or anything else Amazon might have their hands on. Reviews are essential to the Amazon business model, and you better believe they're doing everything they can to protect them. Like this video Smash that thumbs up button. Seriously. Do that right now. Smash it. It feels good and it makes me happy. The only thing that actually makes me happier than when you smash that like button is when you subscribe to the channel and leave a comment below. When you do that, well, we'll become besties, right? Kay Wheeler Books, Artemis Craig, Bay State Studios Belly Dancer Diaries. We're besties now, right? Seriously, comments are always appreciated and most are responded to. But if you comment on the video the day it comes out, new videos every Friday, you'll be entered to win some awesome, awesome book launcher swag. See you next time.
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