From One Extreme To The Other

As you probably know, Dan Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol, recently hit the stands and let’s just say the reviews are mixed. Certainly, he has his fans, but not everyone is. Here’s a small sample from reviewers. From Robert Wiersema of The National Post “a heavy-handed, clumsy thriller.” And of The Da Vinci Code: from Salman Rushdie “...a novel so bad that it gives bad novels a bad name”. And From the BBC’s John Humphreys: “The literary equivalent of painting by numbers, by an artist who can’t even stay within the lines.”

There’s more, but you get the idea. Yet Dan Brown has sold an estimated 80 million copies of The Da Vinci Code in 40 languages and has made more money than most writers will see in a hundred lifetimes. I certainly don’t begrudge Mr. Brown fame or fortune, and since I’ve never read one of his novels I can’t comment on his writing.

But I will say that if you’re already a rich and famous writer, do you really need as many reviews as Mr. Brown has had? How about giving some ink to the unknown writers who are working hard and excelling at their craft?

There’s a Canadian writer named Addena Sumter-Freitag whose poetry collection called back in the days I recently reviewed. No one knows who she is, except a few of us, and she deserves more. So, here’s my review:

The first time I heard Addena Sumter-Freitag read a couple of her poems I was hooked. There was something about the clarity, power, and passion of her words that got to me. So when a collection of her prose and poetry was published I had to buy back in the days and read every word.

This author writes intimately about people and topics many other authors would avoid or merely allude to through metaphor and vague references. Sumter-Freitag tells it straight up, exactly as it was in her world. And quite a world it was. Her collection, back in the days, is a story about growing up a seventh generation, black woman born and raised in Winnipeg.

This is the voice of a writer who knows herself; whose strength lies in her talent and candidness, her family, and her love. Is it any wonder her voice is so strong and memorable? Read back in the days. You won’t be disappointed. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of Addena’s book go to http://wattleanddaubbooks.ca

And to read Mr. Wiersema’s entire review go to http://tinyurl.com/yj5ue6t

To read excerpts of Fatal Encryption and Taxed to Death, visit http://www.debrapurdykong.com/.

Fatal Encryption is available through amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl and Taxed to Death can be found at http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Amazon reinstates author's reviews after deleting them - divine intervention?

Update on the Amazon reviews status:

For those of you who haven't heard, Amazon recently started deleting reviews by authors who included their own book title on the review, usually in the form of a signature line like...

Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author of Whale Song

I had 85 reviews deleted and went through a frustrating battle with reps at Amazon, who ended up putting my reviews back up, minus the author of...bit.

I thought that was the end of it and began a campaign to let authors know about this policy enforcement. See my previous posts: Amazon deletes authors' reviews if book title is in signature and An update on my battle with Amazon over deleted reviews

TODAY'S GOOD NEWS? Read on!

Thinking this matter was over, I was surprised to find another email from Amazon today. Here is the correspondence I received from "Peter, a senior member of the Amazon Communities team":

Greetings from Amazon.com.

My name is Peter; I'm a senior member of our Communities team, a significant part of my job consists of deciding if Customer Reviews adhere to our guidelines. As such, your account was brought to my attention.

First, I'm sorry for any frustration this situation has caused you regarding the removal of your reviews. After reviewing the previous actions taken and our guidelines, your reviews have been reinstated on our website.

We appreciate your contributions to our website and we look forward to your participation in the future.

Best regards,

Peter
Amazon.com
We're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company

And here's my response to Peter:

Hi Peter:

I must admit, I am very happy to know there are 'real' people working at Amazon, and I appreciate that you took the time to email me. Thank you.

I was notified two days ago that my reviews were back up, after someone at Amazon edited them and removed part of my signature line (the part that said 'author of Whale Song'...or whichever title I decided to use.)

While I am fine with Amazon setting policies, I am not fine with HOW my reviews were deleted, without warning and with no notice or explanation. I was further frustrated by the vague emails I received when I inquired about my reviews. I can't tell you how many times I was told they were all "inappropriate" and to read the review guidelines, which I did with a fine-tooth comb.

Yes, this was an extremely frustrating and stressful situation. I won't lie.

Authors are now all abuzz about this policy. This is being discussed in authors' associations in Canada and the US. I've been contacted by other authors who have had the same problem. I've also been contacted by reporters.

I brought this situation to light amongst the writing community for one reason: to help my author friends avoid this hassle and stress. Already many of them are editing their reviews and removing mention of their book titles. Some refuse to. I have done my best to be patient and understanding with everyone at Amazon, and trust me, it's not easy. I have no intention of bashing Amazon, but I do feel it's important to educate other authors, so I will continue to talk about this policy enforcement.

Most of the authors I've spoken with via phone, or email, agree with me on these
following points:
1. Amazon should not delete reviews without first notifying the person who has written them and explaining clearly WHY this is happening.
2. The writer of the review should have an opportunity to edit the review accordingly.
3. The Review Guidelines need to be updated to include: Authors who write reviews can not mention their own book titles nor use the product link to mention their books.
4. A mass email needs to be sent to every Amazon member, with a headline directed to authors so that most will read it--something like: If you're an author and you write reviews here, please read!

Yes, there is a notice about solicitation on the other guidelines but when reviewers want to know the review rules, they go to the...Review Guidelines. It's a simple fix on Amazon's part.

This is the courteous, respectful way to handle this kind of situation, and I can tell you, my author friends would appreciate this.

Now, after I've written all this, I re-read your email and had this thought that maybe, just maybe you meant that my reviews were reinstated with my signature line, so I just checked. I am in shock. Thank you. I'm not going to delete anything above because I want you to know where my head was at with all this. I take this to mean that authors CAN mention a book title in their signature, and I hope if this policy ever changes, you will notify us first.

I am extremely pleased with this decision by Amazon to allow authors to leave their book title in their signature line. Thank you. I will now get to work on contacting all the associations and authors, plus the various blogs that have covered this. I will also blog about this myself. I'd like to include your email in full, with your permission. I will leave out your email address.

P.S. I'd like to know that Amazon is also "Building Earth's Most Author-Centric Company". I know that books are just one product for Amazon, but I sometimes think authors are undervalued and unappreciated.

Sincerely,
    
Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Summary:

When I checked my reviews on Amazon today, I was so stunned to see one of my book titles mentioned that I didn't realize until later how ironic and funny it was. Someone at Amazon went into all 85 review (as much as I could see) and carefully typed in this same book title in every review. My review signature now reads:

Cheryl Kaye Tardif,

author of Divine Intervention

Yup, that's one of my other book titles...and I guess you could say I had a little "divine intervention" in this matter. ;-)

Amazon did not reinstate my product links in my signature. I'm okay with that. I can respect this, and I really appreciate hearing from someone in Amazon and receiving an apology.

It appears I have MJ Rose, author and book promoter, to thank for Peter's quick response to my situation. I emailed MJ to let her know about this situation when it first occurred, because I know she networks with thousands of authors, publishers and other marketers. She had an Amazon contact and sent him my email.

Hmmm...that might explain why I noticed that someone from Amazon in Seattle had been checking out my blog posts on this.

To any authors who might have found their reviews deleted or edited like this, my best piece of advice is to state your case in an email to Amazon. Be as clear as possible and try to be respectful. I could have lost it with them, but I didn't. And I'm very glad.

So my author friends, let's heave a communal sigh of relief. One battle down. (Let's not count the ones to come.)

REPRINT NOTICE:
If you would like to quote me (in whole or in part) regarding this Amazon review issue on your blog or newsletter, you may, providing you include the following information at the end:

Reprinted with permission from Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author and Book Marketing Coach, http://www.cherylktardif.com

Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
Author and Book Marketing Coach
http://www.cherylktardif.com/
http://www.shamelessbookpromoter.com/

P.S. Follow me on Twitter where I'm giving away 60+ PRIZES!!

Baffled By Amazon

After reading Cheryl's posts, I've made a couple of trips to amazon.com to see if the 55 reviews I've posted are still there and they are, but then I wasn't savvy enough to even think of naming my book in my signature line. Like Cheryl, I read the guidelines about posting reviews before posting my first one and I honestly don't recall any mention about signature lines or links. If this is an issue for amazon.com, it should have been in the guidelines from the beginning.

But here's what gets me. Why would a company whose main purpose is to sell products want to keep people from advertising products that Amazon sells? Aren't they there to make money? Where's the logic?

And here's another thing that baffles me. A colleague of mine has a book listed on amazon.com and yet amazon.ca refuses to list it. Like Cheryl, my colleague has sent them multiple emails over the past six weeks, to no avail. I had the same issue with Taxed to Death. It's been listed on amazon.com since it came out in 1995, but when I asked amazon.ca if the book could be listed there as well, they said no, but that I could sell it through their marketplace. Fair enough. I did this until I happened to see Taxed to Death listed on amazon.ca a few months later. Why? I don't know, and no, I'm not complaining. My point is one of logic. I just don't understand how this company thinks. They're like the stock market. Unpredictable, frustrating, and probably here to stay whether we do business with them or not.

Good luck, everybody,
Debra
www.debrapurdykong.com

An update on my battle with Amazon over deleted reviews

Since breaking the news yesterday about my battle with Amazon over reviews (ones I wrote on books I'd read) that they deleted because I included author of Whale Song in my signature line, I've received emails and phone calls from concerned authors, many who tracked me down via the Internet after reading about me on Twitter, The Write Type or John Kremer's Marketing Tips email. Some authors have already discovered missing reviews; some have gone through the same hassle I did.

The fact that Amazon is now going through reviews written by authors and deleting them if they reference the author reviewer's book title has created a huge stir. People are talking about it, blogging about it, and there could be authors out there wondering why their reviews are all deleted, since Amazon gives no warning before the axe comes down.

I highly recommend that if you're an author you edit your reviews now and have only your name as a signature. You cannot mention your own book title in any review or review comment. Trust me, you do not want to go through the week of hell that I just did. The Amazon review department is only accessible via email.

Amazon's emails gave me the following reasons for my suddenly missing reviews:

1st email: I have checked with the appropriate department and found that all the reviews submitted by you were inappropriate, as a result all the reviews are removed.
(My response: what does "inappropriate" mean and why are they all inappropriate?)

2nd email: We've checked with the concerned department and found that your customer reviews were removed because of the positive campaign and these reviews do not adhere to our guidelines.
(My response: what does "positive campaign" mean and where is this a rule in the review guidelines?)

3rd email: We always strive to provide a high level of service, and we would appreciate your feedback. Please let us know if we resolved your inquiry.
(My response: That's it? Of course this didn't resolve things!)

4th email: We have again reevaluated your reviews and found that you have included links to books written by you. Please note that linking to products you have a financial investment in, such as books you've written, is prohibited. The use of these links, both within your reviews and in your review signature, resulted in the suspension of your reviews from our website. Our guidelines do prohibit authors from posting positive reviews for their own books or negative reviews for competing books.
(Well, at least they were more specific. Finally! Something I could work with. My response: It doesn't say we can't use the link tool for our book title in our signature on the review guidelines. And I've never reviewed my own books or written negative reviews for competing books.)

5th email: We need to research this situation further, and it'll take a bit more time than usual. I will write back to you on April 4, with the resolution pertaining to your inquiry.
(They were true to their word and emailed me on the 4th.)

6th email: We have reviewed your previous correspondences and all the reviews submitted by you. Please know that our participation guidelines don't allow customers to promote their own titles in their reviews. **** The use of the Service for commercial purposes such as advertising, promotion, or solicitation *****
(My response: When I read the guidelines for writing reviews, I read the "Review Guidelines", not the participation one. Shouldn't this be in the Review Guidelines? Makes sense to me.)

Also in 6th email, Amazon mentioned that all my reviews had been edited by them and my book titles removed and that if I did this again I would be suspended from submitting reviews.

7th email: About having "book title" in signature line, I would suggest you to please provide us with the reviewers details so that we can take appropriate action.
(Can I say stunned??? So Amazon now wants me to give them the names of the thousands and thousands of authors who sign reviews with their book titles in the signature line??? Of course my response was, Sorry but I am not comfortable pointing fingers. You'll have to find them yourself. Sorry.)

It was because of the 7th email that I decided to take my battle with Amazon public.

Now don't get me wrong, Amazon is within their rights to set rules. I can't argue that, even though I don't like this policy and I think they're making a mistake. But I completely disagree with deleting authors' reviews without warning and without giving them a fair chance to edit them. I would have done that without this fuss if they'd notified me first and asked me to edit them.

And a note to Amazon: Although this discussion may lead to many, many unhappy people, it is not my intention to bash Amazon. I simply want to educate authors so that they can take action, edit their reviews if they choose and hopefully avoid having this happen to them.

Note: If you would like to quote me (in whole or in part) regarding this Amazon review issue on your blog or newsletter, you may, providing you include the following information at the end:

Reprinted with permission from Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author and Book Marketing Coach, http://www.cherylktardif.com/

Read my original post about Amazon deleting my reviews.

Thank you,

Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
author of Whale Song, The River and Divine Intervention...ha!

Amazon deletes authors' reviews if book title is in signature

This past week has been a very stressful one as I had to deal with Amazon.com after they suddenly deleted ALL 85 of the reviews I had written for books I'd read.

It took nearly a week to get a straight answer from them, although for the most part, they responded fairly quickly to my numerous emails. And the one customer service rep I spoke with was very kind when telling me that the reviews department wouldn't take calls from reviewers, even if there was a problem.

In Amazon.com's first email, they said ALL my reviews were "inappropriate". That was it. No explanation of why they were suddenly all inappropriate.

The next email said my reviews were deleted because of "the positive campaign", and that they were "inappropriate". When I asked for an explanation of what a "positive campaign" is, they didn't give it. I asked for them to tell me what was inappropriate with each review so I could edit it.

Finally, after many emails, it was resolved. This is the letter that I am now sending to my writer friends and organizations I belong to, in hopes that it will help other authors avoid this problem:

A week ago I found that all 85 of the reviews I've written for other books had been deleted. It has been a very difficult and stressful week dealing with Amazon. They are not very accessible and I was given at least 3 different reasons for why my reviews had been deleted. After numerous emails, this is what it's come down to:

Their final ruling: "Please know that our participation guidelines don't allow customers to promote their own titles in their reviews." If you sign your review with anything other than your name, your reviews could be deleted.

If any of you are in the habit of signing your reviews with something like "..., author of Whale Song", which has been common practice for years, Amazon has deemed this as "inappropriate" and will be deleting them. It seems they're on a campaign to go through reviews posted. They recently made changes to the Amazon Connect program and all our blogs were temporarily gone too. Most are back up.

They also will delete your reviews if you have added the book link (that they supply) and directed it to your own book title's Amazon page. Many authors have used that in their signature line. It can lead to deletion and suspension, according to Amazon's
latest email.

I argued the fact that thousands of authors sign their reviews like this, and that it's common practice in our industry. I was told by my last publisher to sign my reviews like this; he even wanted us to include the ISBN, which I only did a couple of times then stopped. It made no difference to Amazon that this is what my publisher wanted me to do; they aren't accepting signatures with titles.

Amazon is starting to take note of such practices and you'll get no notice; they'll just pull all the reviews you have written. That's what they did with me, even though many of my older reviews were signed with just my name.

So to clarify, according to Amazon, when posting a review, you are not allowed to have a signature of anything more than your name, and NO links to or mention of your books whatsoever in the review or sig line.

I am giving you the heads-up now so you can go in and edit your reviews if you choose. That's what I'd do, to be honest, because fighting with Amazon is not easy. There is no one who will talk to you by phone, and waiting for their response is not easy.

This rule also applies to any comments you leave on a book review. Amazon does not want authors to mention their own books anywhere on the review pages.

I haven't heard from Amazon.ca yet, but I expect this will be funneled over to all the Amazons, so I'll be working on editing my reviews there next week.

I am interested in hearing what others think--both authors and non-authors. Is it fair of Amazon to delete reviews without any warning? Should they give the reviewer the chance to clean up their reviews before axing them? Should authors be allowed to have one book title in their signature line (ie....Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author of Whale Song)? Does it really matter; are you more inclined to buy the book if another author says it's good?

My intention here is not to bash Amazon. I appreciate that they put my reviews back. My intention is to educate authors about this new change in Amazon's policies--and it IS a change since authors have been doing this for years and it's not even on Amazon's review guidelines, even though they argue that it's elsewhere in their many-paged rule book.

Others who have blogged about this:

• http://www.bookmarket.com/tip090405.htm


• http://thewritingmother.blogspot.com/2009/04/amazon-deleting-reviews-online.html


• http://www.marketmynovel.com/2009/04/amazon-deletes-reviews-with-author-signatures.html


• http://www.weberbooks.com/2007/04/amazon-yanks-author-connect-blogs-and.html

I'll update you on this and on more links where this is being discussed.

Note: If you would like to quote me (in whole or in part) regarding the Amazon review issue on your blog or newsletter, you may, providing you include the following information at the end:

Reprinted with permission from Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author and Book Marketing Coach, http://www.cherylktardif.com/

Thank you,

Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
AUTHOR OF WHALE SONG! (so there!) ;-)
http://www.cherylktardif.com/