As many of you know, I was kicked out of many different groups for authors or told that I would never get the number of reviews I need for my books. I was told this by group members and the Facebook group moderators allowed this to happen. I even encountered racist moderators who were leading groups doing very suspicious things against authors of color with budding authors. At one point, I left a room where the new authors were being trained as bullies to routinely dox authors on Amazon by posting a 1-star review or bad reviews. The posters would purchase an ebook, write a fake review, and then return the book after a week. Many posted in the group that they had never even read 1-page of the book. This is why 99% of the books I review via Amazon are verified purchases. I don't do independent ARC reviews on the site and I don't trade reviews for money or gifts. I also do not post a review of a book that I have not read. Further, I never urge people to post reviews of books of mine that they don't own. I don't have hundreds of reviews on the site. However, the reviews I have are honest and they are by actual fans of my work. There are die hard companies that review for profit and they post 115 reviews of an authors work within 30-days as part of their marketing plans. I know so many independent companies that were taken down with this practice within 3-years. I stopped buying independent authors books and posting reviews after reaching Amazon Top 1000 reviewer status. The bullying on the site was ridiculous and there was literally no way to stop this from Amazons end. Consequently, this was around the time that Amazon took down all of the ARC reviews, lists, and recommendation lists after finding several reputable independent review companies making money off these features. I knew the site was headed for trouble when all of the African American book clubs like RAWSISTAZ stopped doing reviews after having thousands of real book reviews removed from Amazon. The book club was merely a casualty of a new policy that sought to put an end to fake reviews on the site. The reputable reviewers who reviewed on a variety of sites shifted over to about 15 different sites. Many opened up Youtube channels and monetized their blogs. However, the trolls remained on Amazon. As Amazon continues to crack down on this behavior on the site, they should be aware of other scams driving business away from their site:
Scam #1 - The reviewer with 1-5 reviews that are all negative on an account that is less than a year old. This is usually someone paid to set up an amazon account with a gift card (visa, american express, amazon). The user sets up the account to do a purchase of a competing authors work. A review is then posted within a week to dox the authors work. After the review is posted, the scam artist has 25 or more people from a Facebook group click that the review was helpful. This makes the authors work undesirable on the site and helps the competing author who hired the scam artist maintian their book ranking.
Scam #2 - The competing authors hired to dox existing positive and verified purchases. This is where several competing authors get family members and friends to dox positive reviews by clicking not helpful and even writing 5-10 negative reviews of products they never purchased.
Scam #3 - The author groups on Facebook that discuss everything except buying, actually reading authors books, and posting a detailed review for book lovers on various sites. Many of the groups I have been a member of (40 in fact) on Facebook concentrate on book events, doxing, bullying, and putting books in the wrong categories to gain 'top rankings' on the site. I have literally witnessed authors going to war over rankings in groups.
There are other scams going on as well on that site. That is why I rarely write reviews. When I do write reviews, I write about the books I purchased for myself that I enjoy. I received 3 requests per week about product reviews and I turn each one down.
I have been book blogging for over 15 years. I also review for reputable companies, academic journals, and I started a vlog about books. I would never recommend someone posting a review of a book that they have not read or do not own on Amazon or any other site. I recommend that anyone buying my work post pictures, videos, etc. showing they actually own the book or that they are reading the work. If you are an author starting out and you need reviews, you should get reviewers to post reviews on the following sites:
1. Barnes and Noble
2. Books-a-million
3. Instagram
4. Twitter
5. Facebook Business Page
Also, you should do your research on which sites are the best review sites. Good luck on getting your work reviewed. I look forward to the comments. I will write a follow-up blog on this post based on the feedback.
Happy Posting!
