Our guest post is from Libby Fischer Hellmann author of many books including A Bitter Veil (4.6 stars, 37 reviews).
An Open Letter To Amazon
Dear Amazon,
I know you’ve been paying close attention to the most recent flare-up about sock puppets and fake reviews. I know you feel badly about it, even though some people don’t think so. And I know you’d like to come up with some kind of solution. I don’t know what that solution is, but I think it’s time for you to step in.
The real issue isn’t fake reviews. It’s an author giving his or her competitor a one-star review on your website. As you know, when an author gets a one star review for a title, it brings down the average ranking for that title. That, in turn, makes the book less visible on Amazon, thanks to your algorithms which make possible the “also-boughts” and “recommendations.” That, in turn, affects sales of that title. So when a title’s ranking dips, there are very real economic consequences. For you (you’re not getting the sale)… as well as the author (who has been unfairly castigated).
If that castigation is the result of another author’s behavior, that (at least to me) is theft, and I wish you would treat it as such. Because, in the final analysis, author manifestos aside, you are the only ones who can control it. I’ve seen some suggestions about tracking ISPs, and other suggestions that I’m too computer illiterate to understand. But you do. You have the technical ability and the moral responsibility to make this practice go away.
My dear Amazon, it really is in your economic self-interest to act. The main value of your website (and I say this as someone who has benefitted greatly from your practices and hopes to continue doing so) is the availability of consumer reviews which are used by your customers to make a purchasing decision. As a friend said, and I’m paraphrasing here, if those reviews are no longer of value, why shouldn’t a customer go someplace else to do their shopping?
I don’t want to see that happen, and I know you don’t either.
Sincerely,
Libby Hellmann
What a good letter. I totally agree. It’s very difficult to get a helpful answer on these kind of questions. I’ve lost several 5* reviews on Amazon US. I received no reply from my enquiry. I hope you are more successful with this letter.
Any writer who thinks of other writers as “competitors” has the wrong mindset. Writers are co-contributors to the wealth of knowledge and entertainment for all readers. Readers are capable of reading, and in fact are hungry for, more than one source of reading material. Each writer’s work stands on its own to attract its readers. At any given time, a reader may decide to buy one writer’s book over another, but that doesn’t mean the sale is “lost” because that same reader may come back and choose the other as the next purchase (or some future purchase). This, of course, is not Amazon’s problem. It’s the writer community’s problem, and personally, I don’t want Amazon policing the writer community.
That’s not to say that I think Amazon’s reviews are perfect the way they are and nothing should be changed. Just that one writer attacking another writer is not something Amazon should try to control.
I fully agree with everything you say.
There are evolutionary reasons why we do this.
In this case it’s pretty easy to work out (so the author can further their own book).
I used to be a programmer, and I’m racking my brain to find an answer.
I think from the technology side, just about anything can be done (Goolge knows what you are doing…).
However, what if an author truly wants to rate a book with one star?
How would one go about proving that?
Maybe more stringent comment moderation procedure for authors?
That would cost money, so it may not be the answer.
But, let’s face it, Amazon aren’t exactly low on the funds right about now.
Aaaaarg, I could answer my own questions and play devils advocate all night.
Who knows…? O_o
One step in the right direction, in my opinion, is if Amazon would require all reviews to be written under a person’s real name. Then technical means could be used to detect when someone sets up dummy accounts to create fictitious names.
If this were in place, an author could give a legitimate one-star review. Alternatively, I know many helpful reviewers who, instead of giving a really negative review, privately contact the author with recommendations.
I do think Amazon has the responsibility to try to come up with effective solutions to this problem. If Amazon wants to continue to be trusted, it will have to deal with this situation sooner or later.
I, for one, vote for sooner.
Phyllis Zimbler Miller
http://www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
I fully support your letter! But I’m fairly confident Amazon will move against authors who play games and try to shoot in their colleagues back, a very nasty, unethical, despicable thing to do!
We’re all in this together – ok, some of us may not want to help other writers, but in the end, it’s the writers’collective opinion that will prevail and indeed start that famous “buzz” that is the basis for blockbuster sales! Remember how Tolkien started? His trilogy got the support of fellow writers first, then, little by little it drew the general public’s attention and by the 1960s it was a blockbuster!
You might like to read this blog post I just wrote — “Ongoing Saga of Amazon Reviews” — http://budurl.com/Amazonbookreviews — in which I specifically talk about the “helpful” and “unhelpful” votes.