Amazon Reviews

Umgowa

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I had no idea what forum to post this is in. None seemed perfect, so I chose Office Party. I posted a review of a book on Amazon this morning and checked two hours later and the review was not there. Does it take a day or two for a review to get registered and show up?
 

KBooks

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Sometimes reviews post in 15 minutes. Other times it can take days. They will send you an email when yours successfully posts. If there is a problem and they can't post it for whatever reason, you can go in and edit and resubmit.
 

veinglory

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Sometimes they suppress reviews for weird reasons. I have a two sentence review I wrote for an off-brand fitbit charger no-showed for containing potentially offensive material.
 

Umgowa

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Yesterday I posted this question in the Office Party forum and I now don't see it anywhere . . . So I will try again and post it here. Yesterday morning I posted a review of a book on Amazon and I looked two hours later and my review was not there. Does it take a day or two for an Amazon book review to take hold and become visible on the Amazon site? If this is not the right forum for this question, I would appreciate it if a moderator would tell me what would be a more appropriate forum. Thank you.
 

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And since that's not an Office party topic, I'm going to merge it with this thread.
 

Umgowa

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My first Amazon review (done on my business computer) just got posted on Amazon. I saw it today. It just took a day. Now for a big follow-up question: I just posted another second review for a different book on my home personal computer and I got the message that I did not meet the minimum eligibility requirements. I looked at the requirements and found language that said I had to have spent a minimum of $50.00 on Amazon over the past 12 months in order to post a review of a book. Am I reading this correctly? Can anyone confirm this for me?
 

KBooks

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Were these reviews posted under the same Amazon account?
 
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gingerwoman

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I had no idea what forum to post this is in. None seemed perfect, so I chose Office Party. I posted a review of a book on Amazon this morning and checked two hours later and the review was not there. Does it take a day or two for a review to get registered and show up?
They usually send you an email saying it can take up to several days to appear as they assess it. But also if you haven't spent up to fifty dollars on Amazon in the last twelve months they will not allow you to post reviews. All this is an attempt to stop fake review buying.
 

Night_Writer

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My first Amazon review (done on my business computer) just got posted on Amazon. I saw it today. It just took a day. Now for a big follow-up question: I just posted another second review for a different book on my home personal computer and I got the message that I did not meet the minimum eligibility requirements. I looked at the requirements and found language that said I had to have spent a minimum of $50.00 on Amazon over the past 12 months in order to post a review of a book. Am I reading this correctly? Can anyone confirm this for me?

Yeah, that's true. You do have to spend $50 in a year. Good article about Amazon here.

https://www.authorspublish.com/amazon-and-authors-a-symbiotic-or-parasitic-relationship/
 

KBooks

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Totally different.

My question would be why are you using two separate Amazon accounts from two separate IP addresses to try to post reviews? Is this related to your previous threads about you and a friend wanting to write reviews for each other without Amazon catching on? I really wouldn't do this.
 
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lorna_w

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My question would be why are you using two separate Amazon accounts from two separate IP addresses to try to post reviews? Is this related to your previous threads about you and a friend wanting to write reviews for each other without Amazon catching on? I really wouldn't do this.

This. Also, a couple of reviews won't sell your books. Twenty-five fake reviews won't sell your book. Many readers never ever glance at reviews. A good book, a good cover, good keywording, a good product description, and a number of books out in your name might start to sell your books if they are any good--but you need bookS, plural.

Reviews aren't very important. Period. Move on to what is important, getting your 5 or 10 books written, edited, proofread, and out there. Then you might see sales on book #1. Reviews do not change your visibility. 50 reviews at amazon does not make any magical thing happen to a book. It does not change ranking.

Look at my avatar. That's my daily sales at Zon midway through this past year. I never look at my reviews. I never think of my reviews or average rating or any of that. I do my job, which is writing. Reviews are not my job--and to write them for others in my genre would be against the TOS. As I make my living as a writer, being kicked off Amazon for violating TOS would be a very bad thing for me.
 

Arpeggio

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This. Also, a couple of reviews won't sell your books. Twenty-five fake reviews won't sell your book. Many readers never ever glance at reviews. A good book, a good cover, good keywording, a good product description, and a number of books out in your name might start to sell your books if they are any good--but you need bookS, plural.

Reviews aren't very important. Period. Move on to what is important, getting your 5 or 10 books written, edited, proofread, and out there. Then you might see sales on book #1. Reviews do not change your visibility. 50 reviews at amazon does not make any magical thing happen to a book. It does not change ranking.

Look at my avatar. That's my daily sales at Zon midway through this past year. I never look at my reviews. I never think of my reviews or average rating or any of that. I do my job, which is writing. Reviews are not my job--and to write them for others in my genre would be against the TOS. As I make my living as a writer, being kicked off Amazon for violating TOS would be a very bad thing for me.

I can see how that's true. I've got books with less reviews that sell more than other books that have more reviews. I write non-fiction. I've got books in niches (in terms of subject and advanced skill level) and they don't sell as much as the ones with more broad appeal so I'm working on another one of those types at the moment.

Probably good key wording might something I've not been putting as much time in as I'd like.What else do you use? Amazon advertising and or / freebee promo places?
 

Chaoticia

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..you need bookS, plural..

That sucks. It seems like the professional publishing world is set up for churning out books to maximize profit and what happens is its going to minimize novelty and innovation, and keep more people from reading as a result. Self-publishing gives you freedom but compared to a big publisher helping with marketing to get your foot in the door with some reviews versus none, if you choose to do it all-- apart from the reviews which is immoral, doing it all really is the most frustrating thing in the world. I don't know that I will ever write another novel. This has been the hardest work of my life and its like me and other writers who poured a ton of time, attention, and energy into a single book are getting the short end of the stick in this technological age.
 

AW Admin

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That sucks. It seems like the professional publishing world is set up for churning out books to maximize profit and what happens is its going to minimize novelty and innovation, and keep more people from reading as a result.

Don't do this.

I'm not going to tolerate anyone slamming an entire industry whether it's self-publishing or trade publishing.

This is not the season to try my patience, people.