Amazon is facing a backlash from authors after their reviews were quietly deleted from its website under a new ban on novelists leaving their opinions on books in the same genre.
Amazon prices its Kindle ebooks
agressively. Photo:
CORBIS
The Telegraph -26 Dec 2012
Amazon has now admitted that it has introduced a ban on authors leaving
reviews about other people's books in the same genre because they may pose a
“conflict of interest” and cannot be impartial about their rivals.
This means that thriller writers are prevented from commenting on works by
other authors who write similar books.
Critics suggest this system is flawed because many authors are impartial and
are experts on novels.
In recent weeks, some authors said they had more than 50 reviews deleted
without notice, provoking waves of critical comments and posts on blogs and
internet forums.
They were later told their reviews breached Amazon’s guidelines because they
were left "on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the
product or a directly competing product”.
It is understood the new crackdown of its review systems was instigated in the wake of the scandal caused by numerous fake reviews, in a practice dubbed "sock puppeting".
RJ Ellory, the bestselling British crime writer, was exposed for writing fake online reviews about his “magnificent genius” while simultaneously criticising his rivals.
But last night Amazon's new crackdown prompted a wave of condemnation from authors and the literary industry who attacked it as flawed and ill-thought.
More at The Telegraph including comment from Joanne Harris, Mark Billingham, and other authors.
It is understood the new crackdown of its review systems was instigated in the wake of the scandal caused by numerous fake reviews, in a practice dubbed "sock puppeting".
RJ Ellory, the bestselling British crime writer, was exposed for writing fake online reviews about his “magnificent genius” while simultaneously criticising his rivals.
But last night Amazon's new crackdown prompted a wave of condemnation from authors and the literary industry who attacked it as flawed and ill-thought.
More at The Telegraph including comment from Joanne Harris, Mark Billingham, and other authors.
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