It's happened to me twice now. Amazon has removed two of my reviews. The first review that was removed I wasn't happy about, but I felt it was sort of fair. I did not prompt him, but my father wrote a short review of my book. He had bought and read the book and then wrote a review. It was subsequently removed because of what I assume is that they saw we had the same last name.

My second review, however, was unjustly removed. Another verified purchaser reviewed my book about a month ago. Looking at my page today, I noticed that it's not there anymore. I've written a strongly worded email to the Amazon Review board asking them to put the review back, but I highly doubt they will do so.

I understand that Amazon wants to provide customers with unbiased reviews. I really get that. It's just that they are going overboard. They want people not associated with the writer, even if they've purchased the book, to write a review. You can't write a review if you are related and most friends, once identified, will be removed too. You can't even write a review if you are a fellow writer! For indie writers, it's important for us to support each other, but now it's not allowed by Amazon. Amazon's guidelines don't even explicitly say authors can't write for another author (they do mention publishers, however).

How is an independent author with no critique pool and with no advertising budget supposed to get 100% unbiased reviews for at least their first few reviews? Lets be honest here, I won't buy something from amazon unless I see some reviews. I can expect that many other people are the same. How am I supposed to get complete strangers to read my book and give me feedback when they are given no indication on whether or not they should purchase my book? It's a classic Catch-22 scenario.

As I've mentioned before, for my first book I've signed up for the Kindle Select. My book is available in the Kindle Lending Library, but Amazon gets exclusive rights for 90 days. Will I do that again? heck no! I won't be apart of Kindle Select again, not with their current rating system. In fact I wish I could have nothing to do with them, but unfortunately they can get away with this because they have the largest ebook seller.

What can you do?

• If you are starting out now, don't link your regular Amazon account with Kindle Direct Publishing or CreateSpace. Save yourself that hassle.
• Work with another intermediary like Smashwords or similar. It is best to get your book across as many platforms anyway, but so far other review systems aren't as arbitrary or stringent.
• Alternatively, try publishing through a competitor like Barnes & Noble or Sony.
• When you leave a review on Amazon, follow the Amazon Review Guidelines. Honestly, their tips on what to include in a review is actually good advice. They just happen to make this guideline mandatory. It's not really a guideline anymore!
• When you leave a review on Amazon, it may be a good idea to wait until you are a verified purchaser. You will receive an email later requesting you to review some of your recently purchased items. You can also probably review through your purchase history in your account to make sure that you get the verified purchaser status. This will give your review more weight to Amazon's review board and to other customers.

I hope this helps. I feel a bit screwed by Amazon, hopefully you will be more prepared. Happy Pi Day and keep writing!!!