I’ve discovered an issue with amazon that could expose authors to retaliatory action. This might be old news to everyone else, but it’s new to me.
Amazon allows you to specify a pen name when doing reviews—something to replace “Amazon Customer”. Great idea, preserves anonymity. However, if you have an Amazon author page, and if you post responses to comments on your Amazon author page, guess which name they show up under? That’s right, the same pen name. Now someone for whose book you might have posted a less-than-stellar review has a way to trace it back to you. Retaliatory one-star reviews from friends and family, cyber-stalking across goodreads, facebook, and anywhere else you have a presence, are all real possibilities.
I’m probably overreacting, but if it can happen, it probably will. To someone. I’ve deleted all my book reviews and reported the issue to Amazon. I won’t be posting any book reviews until it’s fixed.
Amazon allows you to specify a pen name when doing reviews—something to replace “Amazon Customer”. Great idea, preserves anonymity. However, if you have an Amazon author page, and if you post responses to comments on your Amazon author page, guess which name they show up under? That’s right, the same pen name. Now someone for whose book you might have posted a less-than-stellar review has a way to trace it back to you. Retaliatory one-star reviews from friends and family, cyber-stalking across goodreads, facebook, and anywhere else you have a presence, are all real possibilities.
I’m probably overreacting, but if it can happen, it probably will. To someone. I’ve deleted all my book reviews and reported the issue to Amazon. I won’t be posting any book reviews until it’s fixed.
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