Not my precious, precious reviews!
I’ve lost three reviews since last week. One day I checked my Amazon page and saw that Infinite Sacrifice went from thirty-two reviews to thirty-one reviews.
Huh?
This has never happened before and so, I go to where I always go for self-publishing news and advice: the Kindle Boards Forum.
And sure enough, there was already a post up about disappearing Amazon reviews. The person who posted claimed to have lost four reviews and other authors continued the thread reporting their losses and ideas why this would happen.
The theories:
1) Paid review
2) Reviews made from the same IP address as one with financial interest in the book
3) You gave a reviewer a gift card to purchase your ebook for review (considered as compensation). Even if the reviewer didn’t receive their ebook in this way from you, they might have received one from another author, and all of their reviews would be deleted.
4) A reviewer posted the same review on other sites (Goodreads, B&N, Smashwords, etc.)
5) Review left by another author (which I think it completely unfair)
6) That you used your review on other venues outside Amazon (some authors have said that they quoted an Amazon review as a book blurb and then their reviews disappeared.)
7) The reviewer deleted the review.
I couldn’t remember which review I lost (even though I sure did try), but I deducted it was a five-star review 
The next day I woke up to another review gone. Infinite Sacrifice now had thirty reviews and dropped from 4.6 stars to 4.5. This time I knew which review went missing. One of my favorites, a four star from a man (very few men leave reviews for my series). This time I could compare it to the reasons above:
1) No
2) I seriously doubt that they live near me
3) I didn’t give this reader a gift card and, since I checked out his previous reviews, he wasn’t a frequent book reviewer so I doubt he’d received a book via gift card for review.
4) This reviewer didn’t post up the review on any other sites.
5) He wasn’t an author
6) I didn’t post this review up anywhere outside of Amazon
7) I don’t think that he did since he only left the review a month ago.
So I still can’t figure out why that review disappeared
By the end of the day, I lost a review on my sequel. Infinite Devotion went from twelve reviews to eleven reviews. It was a five-star lovely and detailed review from a reader who purchased a print copy of my book.
I came up with the same answers as above, except:
4) She did post it up on Goodreads as well.
This might be the reason. Although, many of my other reviews that are still up are posted on other sites. Why aren’t they gone? I hope more reviews don’t disappear from this book since you need ten to run a promotion that I have scheduled to run early November.
When reviewers repost their original reviews, they get a sharp letter from Amazon threatening to take away their reviewing privileges. When authors complain, they are threatened with removal of their book.
I wrote an email to Amazon just letting them know how many reviews I’ve lost and that I’m not aware that they break any of their rules. I told them that I understood that they needed to react to the sock puppet accusations, but that what they are implementing is not effective. That they are deleting genuine reviews.
Here is their reply:
“Hello,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
However, I can tell you that reviews are removed from the Amazon.com website for three reasons:
1. The review conflicted with the posted guidelines, found here: http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines/
2. The review was removed at the request of the customer who submitted the review
3. We discovered that multiple items were linked together on our website incorrectly. Reviews that were posted on those pages were removed when the items were separated on the site
Further, we’re unable to provide further details about why these specific reviews were removed from Amazon.com; we can only discuss that with the person who wrote the reviews.
I hope this information helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.”
Can anyone explain #3 for me?
If any of you experience this (whether it be a review you left or one you received) I think it’s a good idea to just send Amazon an email letting them know that you didn’t breech their review rules and something is not working on their end. You’ll probably get the same response as me, but maybe if they get enough of these they’ll fine tune something so this doesn’t keep happening.
What is going to happen? I worry that people will be discouraged from leaving reviews. The reviews I leave for others, take me some time to construct and if some of them were removed I wouldn’t waste my time to write more. Hopefully, this is a one time witch hunt and not that many reviewers were effected.
But if the three people who took the time to leave my reviews notices that their review is now missing, I want to apologize. I don’t know why they were taken down, but I thank you for letting me know what you thought of my books. It was not time wasted because I cherish every review and hope you are not discouraged to write more.
If any of you would like to read more on this, here are a few links:
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,129759.0.html
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,130243.0.html
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,130320.0/topicseen.html
What about you? Have you lost any reviews (on your books or ones you have left for others)? Can you figure out why it’s happened?
“Can anyone explain #3 for me?”
I believe, when there are multiple versions of a product (say, a hardcover, audiobook, and a paperback), Amazon usually puts the reviews from one version on the product pages for the other versions. So that’s why you might see reviews for the audiobook edition of a book on the hardcover’s page, etc.
So that explanation would be a case where they accidentally “linked” two unrelated products and shared their reviews by mistake.
Thanks so much for explaining that for me, Brian. The third review I lost was a print copy review that also was linked to the ebook reviews. I wonder if that did it.
I’ve lost reviews on all my books. Amazon also deleted a review I posted for a book I bought several months ago, loved, and reviewed, and I don’t know the author at all. When I wrote to them to ask why they deleted it, they said my account was related to another reviewer… but it absolutely is not. I sent them a second email, which they never answered.
Amazon should post their review rules in detail on their website. This is abusive.
Holly, I can’t believe what’s happening either. I would be so mad if any of the reviews I left were deleted. We all know how much time is put into each detailed review.
I’m sorry that this is the backlash of a few shoddy authors (traditional and self-published). It seems like they’re throwing out the baby with the bath water. It would be a shame if this continues without much explanation.
Don’t know about disappearing reviews, but here’s a scary story of a customer being blocked by Amazon, AND having all her books wiped from her Kindle! All done without explanation, despite repeated requests by her to find out what she had, apparently, done to cause such offence.
http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/
That is truly frightening! Talk about a Halloween scare! I can’t imagine if all my kindle books disappeared. Maybe I should complain too much. Sounds like Amazon means business.
Now that you mention it, I noticed a month ago that I lost a review, too.
Hopefully this is just a one time thing. Not fun at all and very unprofessional.
Oh, it got you too huh? That stinks. I really hope it doesn’t continue. I love my reviews
Me too. Not good at all. Here’s to hoping!
Yep, I’ve lost reviews too. 4 at this point.
I used to wake up to check my reviews to see if any were added, now I wake up to see how many are missing! Another one disappeared this morning. The same person who went missing on my sequel, went missing on my first book. I have no idea why.
I represent an author and he has told me he has lost 15! No reason given. Amazon sends a robotic responses to inquiries. I say we start our own review Blog and keep all reviews forever!! This is not fair. Getting a book published and sold is hard enough as it is!
Hi Dave, thanks for stopping by and sharing your Amazon experience. I can’t imagine fifteen reviews disappearing! I’ve said to my family how I think I could be paid in reviews since they give me such a high when I see a new one posted.
When I see them disappear it’s like seeing a trophy vanish off your shelves. Amazon has said that the reviewer needs to request the reason their review was deleted. So I urge you all the check your reviews that you’ve left and ask Amazon to explain any of them that’s disappeared.
I wish I could contact my vanished readers to make them demand the reason. This post has gotten so much attention from people seeking “disappearing Amazon reviews” so it it happening to many people.
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I’m concerned about #4. I often repost reviews for books to Goodreads or B&N. People shop for books at all three places. And if Amazon really does remove reviews for reposting, I think they’ll simply drive reviewers to Goodreads instead to their own loss.
I agree Scott, most of the book bloggers I send my book off to post up at many sites as a courtesy. Amazon needs to be more detailed in the reasons for removal since we need to know what the rules are so we don’t lose more reviews. I’ve heard that a few people have found some success with calling Amazon directly to discuss why their review was deleted. Amazon should at least revise their review guidelines to specifically let people know what their policy is.
Lauren, I am experiencing loss of reviews as well. I Googled and found this post and I wonder if there’s some kind of issue with the book bloggers and Amazon. My reviews are way off. There used to be hundreds which has gone down to nine. Now it says there are nine but only six show. I found it interesting that we are having the same issues and we ‘met’ through a blog tour. I hope this isn’t some kind of trend but I am more than slightly alarmed.
Ah! Yours was the first review that disappeared! That is crazy! I’m wondering if they have removed your review since you’re an author. They have been targeting authors leaving reviews for authors (that is such garbage!)
I have a few reviews left up from the blog tour, so they didn’t just target the blog tour, but those book bloggers aren’t authors as well. I bet that’s what it is. Were many of the reviews you lost by authors? They are considering other authors as either profiting from your review or competing.
This is total crap since I find so many books to read just lurking on kindle boards and now I can’t leave reviews for them? This is very wrong.
Many people have pointed to book bloggers being hit by this review epidemic. I can’t imagine losing all those reviews. I’m so sorry. And thanks for taking the time to write yours, it’s such a shame it’s gone now.
Amazon does listen to reviewers better than authors, so you might want to call about your reviews disappearing and let them now that you are not profiting or competing and see what they say. You definitely don’t want to waste your time writing reviews if they’re not going to accept any of them. Let them know that you are a reviewer and see what they say. Good luck!
[...] Disappearing Amazon Reviews by Lauren Waters at Lauren Waters [...]
This is a part of the writing world I’m not a part of yet… It sounds frustrating/stressful! Gosh, every review counts–especially a five star one. I’m not looking forward to this part of the process…
Reviews are a fantastic experience, normally. Hearing back from your readers is amazing, but having them disappear is excruciating. Hopefully, Amazon will have this all worked out by the time you get your masterpiece out
I am very glad I found your post. I was on Amazon tonight and looking at my husband’s book reviews and noticed his book was missing 4 reviews. Sadly, I can not remember two of the four that reviewed the book. They took down my review of teh book even though I had my name enlosed in the review. Then they took down my father’s review of the book – what the?
When a person self-publishes, we are thrilled when any person takes time to write their own review, now they take it down!!! So wrong!
Thanks again for writing about this!
Thank you so much for stopping by! I’ve been out of touch due to Hurricane Sandy, but I’m so happy to have helped you. I’m sorry that your husband lost four reviews and I hope it has ceased. I was so worried I would just keep losing them! It must still be happening though since I’m getting so many hits on this post everyday. I truly hope Amazon has realized how inaccurate this program has been.
[...] Disappearing Amazon Reviews (laurenwaters.net) [...]
Gosh –that’s awful. Especially for authors who are solely e-published, because Amazon may be one of the only areas people are looking for reviews. I hope that a real person with Amazon actually reads your email and does something about it!
I’m sure they won’t listen to me, but I bet they’ve been inundated with complaints from authors and reviewers. Let’s hope they fine tune their programing a bit so it doesn’t throw out viable reviews.
[...] Disappearing Amazon Reviews (laurenwaters.net) [...]
I THINK and this is a really good THINK that if a reviewer has only 1 review and its ur book they MAY delete it too. So pretty much that is more than 50% of reviewers.
Luckily, my reviews have stopped disappearing (*knocks on wood*), but you never know when Amazon does another purging. I hope you’re not right! So many of my reviewers are new reviewers. I take it as a compliment that someone read my plea for reviews and they took the time to write a review for the first time. It would be a shame if they removed them for that reason.
[...] Disappearing Amazon Reviews (laurenwaters.net) [...]
I am a brand new author and so only had 2 reviews. My first was left by a friend of a friend who actually read my entire book in a week. His review showed up on amazon.com but not amazonkindle.com for some reason, and now it’s gone. Maybe they removed it because they realized it hadn’t gone to all formats? Very disappointing when I have so few!
That is so frustrating. Each review is precious when you’re just starting out. A great way to get some reviews is to do a free ebook giveaway on Librarything. If you give away 20 copies, you’ll probably get a three or four that will actually leave a review. It took me forever to get the first ten on my first book, but it’s important since a lot of advertisers require at least ten reviews before they’ll feature your book. Don’t give up!
Also, make sure you put a little note at the end of your book for people to leave reviews if they enjoyed the book (and send them to a mailing list for new releases
) Best of luck!
Thanks so much! Very helpful advice!
Anytime! If you ever have any questions feel free to email me