Spoilers on Amazon . C

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JohnB1988

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:rant: I was wondering what other writers think about this.

Ptolemy's Gate, the # 3 in Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy is finally out. I made the mistake of looking over some of the reviews on Amazon. One little creep has posted a *major* plot spoiler. (Not even sure I want to bother buying the book now.)

I didn’t realize that Amazon allowed people to do stuff like that. Should I ever get published, I’d hate to have my book trashed and potential readership reduced. If the Amazon people had any brains they would realize that kind of thing has to hurt book sales.

But, for all you Stroud fans---Don’t read the reviews on Amazon!!
 

katiemac

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Does Amazon allow reviewers to report posts? I know you can at least say the review "wasn't helpful."
 

PeeDee

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I am fairly certain they have to have some sort of reporting system. Otherwise, you'd see a lot more spam.

Reviewers post all sorts of spoilers. It's why I tend to avoid the reviews, unless they don't have an Amazon review or a publisher's review.
 

johnzakour

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PeeDee said:
Reviewers post all sorts of spoilers. It's why I tend to avoid the reviews, unless they don't have an Amazon review or a publisher's review.

I'll read what Harriet Klausner has to say, as she's like the worlds fastest reader and a nice lady who knows how to review a book without ruining it.

I swear sometimes she has reviews of my books up the day after the press copies come out.
 

Mud Dauber

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I used to enjoy reading amazon reviews, but then someone here posted an article that talked about how some pple are paid to do them on there and now I see the reviews in a whole different light.

And yeah, I've come across some major spoilers before. What are people thinking?
 

Ralyks

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There is a link at the bottom of every review that says: (report this). You can use that to report the spoiler. I don't know if they have general rules against spoiler. I know a reviewer posted a spoiler for the frist edition of my book. It was a positive review, so I couldn't get too upset, but I really wished he or she had not.
 

JohnB1988

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Ha, well I did click on report this. Now that particular review is either gone or has a heading “Spoiler.” I’m not sure as I didn’t pay close attention. Looking at all the reviews it seems a lot of folks like to reveal unusual plot twists, but at least all of those “reviews” now have an alert.
 

aruna

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Not only can you report spoilers via the website, they actually have an employee who deals ONLY with amazon reviewers, complaints about reviews, anything to do with the reviewing system. Established amazon reviewers - ie those with a high ranking - are VERY particular about these sort of matters. They have an ethical code and watch their own ranking, the number of helpful and not-help votes they get, and so on. It's al,most as if they consider themselves more important than the authors!
I should know; I used to be on their discussion board. They take the amazon reviewing business very seriously.
Harriet Klausner does not command much respect in the reviewer community, That's because, even though she says she's a speed reader who reads several books a day, her reviees are very often little more than the blurbs from the backs of the books. Her reviews are usually trite and shallow. Mostly, she simply parrots off the plot points and uses cliches such as "this book was a delight to read." Always five stars.
Yet she continues to reap the most helpful votes and maintain her number one position.
I have my own favourite reviewers: Mary Whipple, for instance, is MUCH better than Harriet.
 

Stacia Kane

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I've never had a problem reporting problems to Amazon, the two times I did they took the offending review down immediately. (By which I mean, reviews that crudely insulted the readers or were nonsensical, not simply reviews I disagreed with, of course.)
 

JohnB1988

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Since that spoiler without any warning is gone now, I suspect you’re right that Amazon took care of it. I guess I was just unlucky. Not sure I like Amazon reviews: most seem like mini-ego trips for people without much else to do. IMHO
 
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