I don't know where this goes, so Site Admin, feel free to move it. **************** I recently bought a book on Amazon and am enjoying it. I'd like to write a review. However, reviews by friends and family are against Amazon's TOS. I have never met the author, we are not family. BUT, I read somewhere that Amazon considered friends to be any two people who have some connection, even a tenuous internet one. I think the examples I read about mentioned Facebook friends and mutual twitter followers as being included in the friends and family exclusion. Such an extensive list of "friends" seems dubious. Still, I don't want the author to be reprimanded just because I happened to enjoy the book. Where is the friends and family line drawn?
Somehow I doubt casual twitter followers & facebook acquaintances really count. Especially if you only know them because of their writing. I also doubt anyone at Amazon is checking these things for every review.
I've seen several book reviews where the reviewer specifically mentions knowing or being related to the author. Are you sure those rules are current?
My mother-in-law has reviewed my books (yes, she reads them) without any penalty to me. Several FB friends have reviewed my work as well, again with no penalty. The only person who has been unable to leave a review has been my wife. She just receives a message when trying to leave a review that she is unable to do so because of our relationship. My work has never been targeted. If you are a close friend of an author I think this should be disclosed in a fair review. If it is someone you rarely see or speak to then I don't think it matters on a moral level. Amazon is many things but the secret police of self-publishing they are not. You will either be able to leave a review or you won't.
Nope . . . Totally unsure, that's why I'm asking. Good to know. Thanks for the information. As I mentioned in the OP, it sounded dubious, but better safe than sorry.
I have a colleague at work, and his review was denied. No explanation, just not accepted. We assume it is because we share the same IP address, but we don't really know.
Those rules are current. But unless you're posting from the same IP, share a surname, have the same credit card details on your account, or the review says "MY SON'S BOOK IS EXCELLENT!" how is Amazon going to know? Even if they did have some impossible mysterious means of determining who's Facebook friends with the author, there would be no penalty to you except your review being removed. Go ahead I say. Just talk about the book, not the author--the one thing that always rings alarm bells for me, especially with self-published books, is reviews that say "Sarah has done a great job of painting vivid characters" or whatever.
That's a bummer. Incidentally, the review in question would be one for Blood in the Sand. I'm about halfway through now. When I finish the book, I'll let you know if the review goes though.
