Hi all, I've heard from a bunch of other authors (mostly in the self-pub world) that Amazon is beginning to limit the number of reviews a book can have in terms of verified vs. unverified. Seems that they are trying to curb fake reviews and fake review clubs, but as always, the solution they've come up with heavy-handed and not very well thought out.
Before, it was my understanding, a reviewer had to have spent at least $50 on Amazon (over a year? Lifetime? each year? I dunno) and you couldn't give a product away specifically for a review, except for when it came to ARCs where the rule was, you can give away ARCs but you couldn't demand reviews in exchange.
But now, I think my release got to about twenty or so reviews before my readers came to me with issues reviewing. When they try, it says something along the lines of, this product has suspicious reviewing activity and you cannot review at this time. Except, every book is getting the same message.
I found this link to a blog: https://the-digital-reader.com/2018/05/24/amazon-has-banned-arc-reviews-and-forgot-to-tell-anyone/
Though, I don't know the writer. From that source:
Before, it was my understanding, a reviewer had to have spent at least $50 on Amazon (over a year? Lifetime? each year? I dunno) and you couldn't give a product away specifically for a review, except for when it came to ARCs where the rule was, you can give away ARCs but you couldn't demand reviews in exchange.
But now, I think my release got to about twenty or so reviews before my readers came to me with issues reviewing. When they try, it says something along the lines of, this product has suspicious reviewing activity and you cannot review at this time. Except, every book is getting the same message.
I found this link to a blog: https://the-digital-reader.com/2018/05/24/amazon-has-banned-arc-reviews-and-forgot-to-tell-anyone/
Though, I don't know the writer. From that source:
The warning message:You won't find this policy mentioned on Amazon's site, but numerous authors are reporting on KBoards, Facebook, and elsewhere that Amazon is no longer letting people post un-verified book reviews
Does anyone have any more info on this? I actually am not too sad about huge ARC programs going away, if that is where this is going, i just want to know what my next step should be!Sorry, we are unable to accept your review of this product.This product currently has limitations on submitting reviews. This may be because we detected unusual reviewing behavior on this product, or to maintain the best possible shopping experience. For more information, see the Customer Review Guidelines.