Yesterday, I received a deluge of emails from worried friends. The reason? This update on Amazon reviews, posted on Amazon’s blog by Chee Chew, VP of Customer Experience. It announced how so-called ‘incentivized reviews‘ – i.e. reviews in exchange for free stuff – are now prohibited:
“Our community guidelines have always prohibited compensation for reviews, with an exception – reviewers could post a review in exchange for a free or discounted product as long as they disclosed that fact. These so-called ‘incentivized reviews’ make up only a tiny fraction of the tens of millions of reviews on Amazon, and when done carefully, they can be helpful to customers by providing a foundation of reviews for new or less well-known products.
Today, we updated the community guidelines to prohibit incentivized reviews unless they are facilitated through the Amazon Vine program.
Mercifully, it turns out that my worried friends had missed the crucial last paragraph in the post:
“The above changes will apply to product categories other than books. We will continue to allow the age-old practice of providing advance review copies of books.”
How does this affect you?
Well, it doesn’t – not directly, anyway. However, given Amazon’s constant tinkering with reviews, and its aversion to paid ones, it’s best if you avoid the standard phrasing “I received a free copy in exchange for a review” when writing your review. My suggestion is that you use instead something like:
“I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader’s Copy of this book”
“I was provided a pre-publication copy of this book by the publisher for review purposes”
Basically, make sure it’s clear that no exchange (monetary or otherwise) took place, and that your review is honest and voluntary. Which, I hope, is always the case anyway.
Also, be careful in the wording when sending out notices to your ARC lists, making sure that it doesn’t sound that you’re “requiring” a review but rather that you’re “hoping” for one.
Marcia said:
Thanks for this update and your suggestions, Nicholas. I have always done the “I received a free copy of this book . . . .” thing, but I’m going to take your advice and reword as you suggest. I think both of those work far better, and because I fully understand Amazon’s need (and ours) to keep the reviews honest & the system working, I don’t mind at all.
I’ve never done the free ARC thing with more than 3 people on any book, so it hasn’t been a major issue, but I want to be sure I stick to the right way to go about it. I do NOT want to do anything to bite the hand that feeds me. 🙂
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
That’s a very wise way of looking at it 🙂
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evollstadt said:
Very interesting information, but what does ARC stand for?
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Advance Review Copy. It’s free copies that publishers share with select readers prior to a book’s publication. My apologies; I assumed my readers would be familiar with the term.
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Marcia said:
Reblogged this on The Write Stuff and commented:
Getting one reblog in, before I’m likely to lose power. Might have to shut down ahead of the storm. This is a very good post on a tricky issue, and I plan to use the phrasing Nicholas suggests in the future. It makes sense to me.
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Darlene said:
Great information, thanks fo sharing!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks for reading! I’m glad you found it useful 🙂
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dgkaye said:
Thanks for always keeping your eyes peeled for us Nicholas. I’ve heard so many scary stories of authors being banned from writing reviews and shiver every time I write a review for a book I was given by a fellow author. I usually write: ‘Disclaimer: – I was gifted with a copy of this book’ . I hope that doesn’t cross any lines. 🙂
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
That’s up to our Amazonian overlords to decide 😉
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Don Massenzio said:
Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog.
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olganm said:
I’ve read on a blog this morning that a reviewer had received an e-mail from Amazon about her reviews being considered incentivized, although she only reviews books and she was saying she would stop posting on Amazon. I’ll also change my wording in reviews, as we were told you had to mention it was a free copy. I guess the issue is the ‘exchange’ part. Most authors are quite clear that you might review if you choose to, but I guess it’s a matter of phrasing on both parts. It surely doesn’t encourage people to leave reviews…
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
No, it really doesn’t 😦
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kimwrtr said:
Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
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Deborah Jay said:
Reblogged this on deborahjay and commented:
Sound advice here for authors sending out review copies – do take a look.
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Michelle Morrison said:
I haven’t reviewed much on Amazon, although I do want to start doing so more regularly, so this is good information. I understand the need for having regulation because of people who do reviews only to make money or get free products. There will be people who will take the opportunity to get free stuff no matter what. I would think it would be difficult for Amazon to know for sure someone got something for free unless they broadcast it. I’ve reviewed books I didn’t buy from Amazon. I don’t think someone who gives away products for review could know for sure their product would be reviewed either. It’s a Catch 22.
I shamelessly take advantage of it when authors offer free or discounted copies of their books for a limited time by the way. 😀 Admittedly that is different from an ARC. Also, many times the book will be the first book in a series and I usually will buy the rest of the books. 🙂
It would be lovely if I had nothing to do but read; unfortunately that isn’t the case.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Absolutely. It’s a fine line that Amazon has to walk.
As for your last line, I second that 😀
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Let's CUT the Crap! said:
Sheesh. Talk about Big Brother.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Well, yes, but – in their defense – they’ll upset someone no matter what they do.
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coldhandboyack said:
Thanks for the update. I use a lot of beta readers, but never ask for a review. Whatever they post is voluntary, and I wouldn’t want them to get into trouble on my behalf.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
That’s probably a good policy. I, too, avoid asking for reviews, as I’d hate to be pushy 🙂
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cherimem said:
As always, it is the boots on the ground who make decisions. One small publisher had two ARC reviews receive the dreaded your account is cancelled and there is no recourse email. The policy is implemented by the person in the cubicle. With no recourse available you are at the mercy of that individual. Just last year an individual who was touted as a major Amazon reviewer had their account cancelled and there was no recourse. This particular person is highly respected by many indie authors. I will continue to use Riffle and review any book I read on Barnes & Noble because Amazon needs the competition. More reviews are going on my blog. I do not trust the big gorilla one scintilla.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
That’s a good point; a lot of these emails are generated automatically, but at the end of the day it’s a person behind a screen that has the final say.
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The Owl Lady said:
Reblogged this on The Owl Lady.
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