Warning: This post may get a little mopey (though I’ll try to stay upbeat and end on a positive note :)).
My Amazon reviews have been disappearing. Not reviews that I’ve written, but ones that were written about my books by readers. *Sigh.* I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m very OCD when it comes to checking up on my book babies. Seriously, I check their pages almost daily. The “almost” is because I’d actually gotten better about this, sometimes checking every other day instead of every. single. day. But the “almost” is no more after what’s been happening.
Most recently, the reviews I noticed have gone missing were from ADORKABLE.
The screenshots are from 2018 (this year) on May 8, 9, 11, and 13. As you can see the numbers go from 469…to 467…then back up to 468. Now this may not seem like much, right? But at one point, ADORKABLE had 470 reviews. Unfortunately, I have no screenshot of this, but when I noticed it dropping I started to pay closer attention. OCD, remember?
Anyway, I noticed the drop from 470 to 469 but didn’t freak out. Then I actually got two new reviews–and the total went down a few days later to 468. Then down again to 467. Annnd commence freak out lol! That means I actually lost 4-5 reviews all around the same period of time. Strange, right? Something had to be wrong. All I needed to do was contact Amazon, tell them what was happening, and they would fix it. Right???
Wrong.
Here are the responses I received from Amazon. Basically, they include the reasons they remove Amazon reviews and say there’s nothing they can do. I was floored. I read through the guidelines for removing a review, and none of them apply to me. My family is very small, and none of them have reviews for my books up on Amazon (Full disclosure: My aunt did write one back when ADORKABLE was first released in 2016, and it was removed immediately).
One of the other reasons stated is that a reviewer may choose to remove their own review. Well, at least one of the reviews that disappeared was a 4-star. I know how much time and thought goes into writing a review. Heck, it takes me a couple of hours to write a post! So, I don’t think anyone who wrote and posted an Amazon review–let alone a nice one–which means they liked the book!–would take it down.
Also, none of the reviews for my books link to other products (reason 3 for removing a review).
The people at Amazon don’t disclose what reviews were taken down or why. Only the person who wrote the review can request to see the reason why their review was removed–even though Amazon doesn’t notify them, so the reviewer would never know it was missing in the first place.
Naturally, I wasn’t satisfied, and that’s why I got another email from Amazon. It was a cut-and-paste of the first response.
I’ve also noticed a couple of reviews disappear from NINJA GIRL. Le sigh. But I’m one of the lucky ones because, so far, readers keep reading and reviewing.
Reviews mean everything to a self-published writer.
It cannot be overstated.
Reviews are what drive new readers to your books. Reviews let people know a book is worth their time, money, effort. And reviews let writers know there are people who love their books (outside of family), that they should keep writing, that they are providing something of value to others.
When you’re out there on your own, trying to make a name for yourself and your books, it is difficult. No one is there to help you, no one has your back, no one is telling you to keep writing or when the deadlines are. If you fail, it’s all on you. If you succeed, it may be you…or just luck. And just imagine, when you finally break through, when you find those readers who enjoy your books…Amazon decides to remove their reviews with no explanation. No warning. The reviews, the readers’ thoughts, are there one day, gone the next. It is so disheartening. For both the writer and the reviewer.
So what did I do after all this was said and done? I saved the reviews in a Word doc then took screenshots. Several hours, 77 pages of text reviews and 81 pages of screenshots later, everything was saved 0__0. And that was just for ADORKABLE!!!
Yes, I did this for all of my books. And yes, I know it sounds a bit extreme LOL, but I had to do it. I want to be able to read those reviews over and over (the nice ones, of course :)). And if Amazon won’t help me in this matter, well, I couldn’t just give up.
Thank you to everyone who has written a review for one (or more) of my books! Your support means the world, and I hope you will keep writing reviews! I will most definitely keep reading them <3.
Happy reading,
Cookie O’Gorman
