Tracie Podger's Blog - Posts Tagged "reviews"
Reviews being removed from Amazon?
I've heard that Amazon are to remove reviews if the reviewer did not buy the book through them. I don't have confirmation that this is true but is a rumour I've heard a lot lately.
Why could this be issue? I write a book, my first and I want to self publish. I don't have the backing of an agent, a publisher with wads of money for marketing so I send out free copies of my book to bloggers and reviewers in return for honest reviews. Ask yourself this. When you buy a book what do you look for? The cover, the blurb and what others are saying about it, is often the answer. If a book is recommended you are more likely to take a look.
Bloggers and reviewers are an essential tool in an authors marketing tool box. I need them to promote my book to their followers, I would be lost in thousands of new books being uploaded to the world wide web every day otherwise. I need their followers to trust the judgement of their favourite blogger and go check out my book. I can't charge the blogger for the book and then expect them to spend their free time reading, writing a review and uploading pictures. Bloggers don't just leave reviews on their own sites but on Amazon and Goodreads too. This helps our book get noticed.
I hope this explains how vital reviews are and whether the reviewer has purchased the book or been given it free, for the purposes of a review, shouldn't matter to Amazon. Remove the reviews, the result could be no exposure and no sales. Both the author and Amazon lose.
Often it comes down to the age old problem of trust. Who wrote those reviews, the one's where there hasn't been a purchase. Of course our mum's wrote one, she loves us and our book! But the majority of reviews will be from people who don't know the author personally, who have read the book and have left a genuine review.
I hope that this is just another rumour and nothing will come of it because I really do feel that, should this happen, so many wonderful books by indie authors will never get read.
Tracie xx
Why could this be issue? I write a book, my first and I want to self publish. I don't have the backing of an agent, a publisher with wads of money for marketing so I send out free copies of my book to bloggers and reviewers in return for honest reviews. Ask yourself this. When you buy a book what do you look for? The cover, the blurb and what others are saying about it, is often the answer. If a book is recommended you are more likely to take a look.
Bloggers and reviewers are an essential tool in an authors marketing tool box. I need them to promote my book to their followers, I would be lost in thousands of new books being uploaded to the world wide web every day otherwise. I need their followers to trust the judgement of their favourite blogger and go check out my book. I can't charge the blogger for the book and then expect them to spend their free time reading, writing a review and uploading pictures. Bloggers don't just leave reviews on their own sites but on Amazon and Goodreads too. This helps our book get noticed.
I hope this explains how vital reviews are and whether the reviewer has purchased the book or been given it free, for the purposes of a review, shouldn't matter to Amazon. Remove the reviews, the result could be no exposure and no sales. Both the author and Amazon lose.
Often it comes down to the age old problem of trust. Who wrote those reviews, the one's where there hasn't been a purchase. Of course our mum's wrote one, she loves us and our book! But the majority of reviews will be from people who don't know the author personally, who have read the book and have left a genuine review.
I hope that this is just another rumour and nothing will come of it because I really do feel that, should this happen, so many wonderful books by indie authors will never get read.
Tracie xx
