Just a quick word about reviews: some people are under the impression that it is AUTHORS who delete reviews from Amazon. Let me be very clear about something. Authors cannot access reviews with regard to deleting them or approving them. Amazon’s software does that. All we, as the authors can do, is read them. Even if a review is nothing more than a spiteful person saying something nasty because they don’t like us, we still can’t do anything about it.

So, rest assured if you left a nice review for an author who is not well known yet and it disappeared, it was NOT the author deleting it. Similar to what many other companies have done, Amazon has fallen into the trap of allowing software and apps to decide what a “real” review is and what a “fake” review is. Naturally they get it wrong most of the time. That’s because a robot can’t do a human’s job, but because companies make more money using software than paying people, that kind of stupidity is here to stay.

The funny thing is, I have almost 50 reviews and all except five of them are from perfect strangers. I lost 19 to Amazon’s ridiculous software and review purges, but the five that were from people I knew are still there. I kind of wish the software HAD worked because it would have left me 14 to the good. Who knows what the big deal is anyway? Do they think it’s impossible for someone you know to read your book and like it? I guess so because it’s automatically assumed that those reviews are “fake.” Anyway, I digress. Bottom line is, if you have ever left a nice review for an author you like, rest assured that author did not delete it… faulty software did.