# Disappearing Amazon Reviews?



## Mikeyboy_esq (Jul 17, 2017)

Does Amazon occasionally delete book reviews?  I just noticed that my debut book has 2 less reviews (now 31 total) and my latest book has 1 less review (now 13 total).  If this is normal, how does Amazon determine which reviews to delete?  Do they delete unverified reviews, the oldest reviews, or is their decision based something else?


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## Ultraroel (Jul 18, 2017)

I found the following:

https://www.amazon.com/forum/top re...orum=Fx2Z5LRXMSUDQH2&cdThread=Tx1U0Q0A61KKP1Z
https://forums.createspace.com/en/community/thread/39022

Seems they do remove them, for various reasons.


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## olive12 (Jul 18, 2017)

Yeah I think they remove them if there is some suspicious activity around them. But, I *think* you can object some of the removals?


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## sunaynaprasad (Nov 30, 2017)

I've had at least 12 to 15 reviews deleted from one of my books. And these were all from complete strangers expressing their unbiased opinions. Amazon has been unpredictable at times. I'm sorry to hear that you've lost 2 reviews.


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## Ralph Rotten (Dec 1, 2017)

I have actually had Amazon remove reviews that appeared to be trolls.  There are some low grade writers out there who will actually go and give crappy reviews to a buncha books, then review their own book with 5 stars (yes, they actually think no one will figure out their little ruse.)  I had one troll who reviewed 15 books that he had not actually read, he even stated that he had only read the first 30 free pages...but the one book he did buy and read was his own.  So I report 'em and Amazon rolls up all of their troll reviews.

Right now I am closing down on another troll.  Because he is actually a verified purchase, they will not remove his bad reviews.  But the guy has flamed about 30 writers just so his alt will appear to be bonafide.  But I was able to trace him all the way back to Linkedin.  Next step is ask him to delete the review or I contact the other 29 authors he flamed and reveal the name of his books to all of them.  

Here is my personal rule for reviewing other authors books: *If you can't post a good review, then post none at all*.  We live on a spherical planet, and what goes around, comes around.


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## LeeC (Dec 2, 2017)

Ralph Rotten said:


> I have actually had Amazon remove reviews that appeared to be trolls.  There are some low grade writers out there who will actually go and give crappy reviews to a buncha books, then review their own book with 5 stars . . .
> 
> Here is my personal rule for reviewing other authors books: *If you can't post a good review, then post none at all*.  We live on a spherical planet, and what goes around, comes around.


Really, are their humans that would perpetrate such a dastardly deed  Don't know about them getting away with reviewing their own books though. I'm no fan of Amazon, but they've been detecting and doing away with such for years now. 

I agree with your second point. There have been a good number of books where fooled by the preview I gave up on. I only post reviews for books I believe deserve more attention. There has been one exception, where I posted a review for the first book of a series. One authored by a professor of creative writing I was  trying to get along with — we're all corrupt to some extent ;-) I thought the book a run of the mill formulative approach better left to the slush pile with its peers, but didn't day so. 

I don't believe in posting reviews with the intent of receiving reviews (just as well in my experience), but rather in promoting good writing, and in turn potentially improving the literacy of reading public. In today's world there's too much trading of favors, to the point it has lowered general literacy. The recent (relative to my life span) video nanny raised generations are also a factor. 

In qualification, I'm not interested in reviews at present, because I'll be pulling my book soon. I've come to understand that it was written so blandly that it doesn't hold the interest of many readers, especially surface readers. What I've learned since publishing it prompted me to embark on a complete rewrite, and, because I like to draw, including realistic illustrations. It will have a new title and cover also. 

Anyway as an example, following is a short list of books I've reviewed, and promote in my social media branding, because I believe they deserve more recognition:

Jennifer Christie Temple's poetry collections "Magic of Life" and "Windfalls." [pure pleasure mixed with meaningful insight]
Oliver Buckle's "A Read For The Train" [a writer's writer]
Terry Durbin's "Chase" [a must read for any aspiring suspense/thriller writer — the book written so well it provoked me to both tears and angry outbursts]
Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Water Knife" [A rip-snorting base human behavior suspense/thriller]
William Stolzenburg's nonfiction "Heart Of A Lion, A Lone Cat's Walk Across America" [an apex of journalistic style rendering, with subject matter pertinent to all reasoned readers]
Suzy Davies' "Snugs The Snow Bear" [a children's book my grandson and I thoroughly enjoyed, not to mention it's the kind of thing that may help our children at least stall our destructive ways, instead of filling their heads with alternate reality BS]
Elizabeth Kolbert's nonfiction "The Sixth Extinction, An Unnatural History" [well written content all reasoned readers should be aware of]
George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and Nancy MacLean's nonfiction "Democracy In Chains, The Deep History Of The Radical Right's Stealth Plan For America" [two books every reasoned American that believes in majority rule should have already read]

And that's barely the tip of the iceberg, as I've been reading as much as possible since the 1940s. One of the reasons their are so many looking for instructions/formulas for writing, and so many poorly written books out their, is because they don't take the time to read extensively. And yes, maybe I tend more to ecolit in my latter years, since I'm a student of natural history, a naturalist, that sees the evidence of where we're headed, despite the denials of the materialist mindsets with no conscience.


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## Ralph Rotten (Dec 3, 2017)

Amazon is all about the lists.  There's a list for newly released books, another for highly rated books, and even a list for newly released books with a high ratio of good reviews.  So really, the only way to stay afloat on Amazon is to get as many reviews as you can, as close to release date as possible.  Remember; there are approx 70,000 books published a month on Amazon.  It's easy for your book to drown to death without good reviews.  So not only do you need to write an outstanding novel, but you have to work the lists so your book doesn't vanish into the Amazon Triangle.

I try to review books that I like because I understand that sometimes writers need to know that they are not toiling in vain.  There are some mornings that I get up at 0400 and wonder why the hell I'm doing all of this work.  Reviews let me know that I'm not wasting my time (and help sell more books.)  And when I do review a book, I avoid being that boorish reviewer who nags about their editing.  Tell them what was good, what parts spoke to you, and try to remain positive.  I would never want to be that one asshole that broke a writer and made them stop writing.


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