Navigating the world of Amazon book reviews can be tricky. Understanding their Community Guidelines is crucial to ensuring your reviews are ethical and compliant. This technical breakdown dissects Amazon’s guidelines, focusing on the rules for leaving reviews. We’ll explore the key clauses and offer insights to help you stay on the right side of Amazon’s policies for receiving and giving book reviews.
Important Note: We are not lawyers and this content is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered legal advice. If you have specific legal questions, please consult with a qualified attorney.
Community Guidelines – General
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201929730
Who Can Participate in Leaving Reviews
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You must have spent $50 on Amazon.com, using a credit or debit card, in the past 12 months, to leave a review.
Amazon has implemented this $50 spending requirement to combat fraudulent reviews and ensure that reviewers are genuine customers. While this rule is intended to increase the trustworthiness of reviews, it can present a challenge for authors, especially those who are new or who don’t actively purchase a lot on Amazon.
Ads, conflicts of interest, promotional content
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We don’t allow content if its main purpose is to promote a company, website, author, or special offer. We also don’t allow people to create, edit, or post content about their own products or services. The same goes for products and services offered by:
-Friends
-Relatives
-Employers
-Business associates
-Competitors
We don’t allow reviews written as a form of promotion. We remove reviews posted by someone with financial interest in the product, or any other conflict of interest. See more examples of reviews that we don’t allow.
We don’t allow anyone with a financial or personal connection to the brand, seller, author, or artist to post questions. They can post answers, but only if they clearly and conspicuously disclose their connection. Example: “I represent the brand for this product.” We automatically label some answers from sellers and manufacturers. In that case, additional disclosure is unnecessary.
Excluding reviews and questions and answers, you can post about products to which you are financially or personally connected. It is mandatory, though, that you clearly and conspicuously disclose the connection. Example: “I was paid for this post.” However, brands and businesses can’t participate in the community in ways that divert Amazon customers to non-Amazon environment. That includes advertising, special offers, or “calls to action.” Content posted through brand, seller, author, or artist accounts about their own products or services doesn’t need additional labeling.
For details and more examples, read our promotional content guidelines.
- We don’t allow content if its main purpose is to promote a company, website, author, or special offer.
- The easiest way to think about this is to ask yourself, “Are the reviews I’m receiving there just to promote my book, or are they real readers who give unbiased reviews based on their personal opinions?” If the reviews you receive are biased in any way, then you’re probably violating this guideline.
- We also don’t allow people to create, edit, or post content about their own products or services. The same goes for products and services offered by…see list above
- It’s up to you to ensure you don’t request reviews from anyone related to you and/or financially connected to your books.
- We don’t allow reviews written as a form of promotion. We remove reviews posted by someone with financial interest in the product, or any other conflict of interest.
- At Get Books Reviewed, we have anti-review swapping algorithms that make it impossible to swap reviews with other authors in our network so long as you only use our network. This is one of the reasons we don’t allow members to use competing book review clubs while they are actively using our network.
- Reviews given in our network are completely anonymous which removes any potential bias.
Compensated reviews
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Reviews should reflect your honest opinion. We don’t allow reviews that are created, edited, or removed in exchange for compensation. Compensation includes cash, discounts, free products, gift cards, and refunds. Some common examples of what’s not allowed:
-Your order arrives, and there’s a gift card in the package. To redeem it, you first have to post a positive review.
-After leaving a negative review, you get an email offering a refund if you change or remove the review.
-You receive a text message that promises full reimbursement for buying a product and posting a review about it.
Exceptions:
-We allow reviews of free products received through the Amazon Vine program. We label these reviews with “Vine Customer Review of Free Product.”
-It’s OK to review a free or discounted book (advanced reader copy) that you received from an author or publisher. However, they can’t require a review in exchange or try to influence the review.
- Reviews should reflect your honest opinion. We don’t allow reviews that are created, edited, or removed in exchange for compensation. Compensation includes cash, discounts, free products, gift cards, and refunds.
- None of our reviewers are compensated in any way for their reviews and reviews are not mandatory to leave.
- It’s OK to review a free or discounted book (advanced reader copy) that you received from an author or publisher. However, they can’t require a review in exchange or try to influence the review.
- In our network, it’s impossible to get a review in exchange for any review you leave as we have an anti-review swapping algorithm to prevent this from happening.
- Every reviewer in our network is anonymous, so the author cannot influence the review. Reviews are 100% genuine based on reading the book.
Consequences for violations
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Violations of our guidelines make the community less trustworthy, safe, and useful. If someone violates the guidelines, we may:
-Remove their content
-Limit their ability to use community features
-Remove related products
-Suspend or terminate their account
-Withhold payments
If we find unusual reviewing behavior, we might limit the ability to submit reviews. If we reject or remove your review for guidelines violation, you won’t be allowed to review that product again.
If someone violates state and federal laws, including the Federal Trade Commission Act, we might take legal action. This action may result in civil and criminal penalties.
We have witnessed firsthand that Amazon is dead serious about implementing these penalties. You’ll be able to read more about potential consequences here.
- If someone violates state and federal laws, including the Federal Trade Commission Act, we might take legal action.
- You can learn more about the FTC crackdown on reviews here.
Customer Reviews
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G3UA5WC5S5UUKB5G
Customer Reviews help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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Customer Reviews should give customers genuine product feedback from fellow shoppers. We have a zero tolerance policy for any review designed to mislead or manipulate customers.
We don’t allow anyone to write reviews as a form of promotion.
The following are types of reviews that we don’t allow and will remove:
-A review by someone who has a direct or indirect financial interest in the product.
-A review by someone perceived to have a close personal relationship with the product’s owner, author, or artist.
-A review by the product manufacturer, posing as an unbiased shopper.
-Multiple negative reviews for the same product from one customer.
-A review in exchange for monetary reward.
-A review of a game in exchange for bonus in-game credits.
-A negative review from a seller on a competitor’s product.
-A positive review from an artist on a peer’s album in exchange for receiving a positive review from them.
This is just a rehash of the “Ads, conflicts of interest, promotional content” above with a little more details.
- Customer Reviews help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. Customer Reviews should give customers genuine product feedback from fellow shoppers.
- A lot of what Amazon is trying to do is summed up in this statement. In short, are the reviews you are receiving strictly for your benefit, or are the reviews for the benefit of potential readers? There are many book review services out there where the focus is clearly on “getting reviews to increase sales for authors,” whereas Get Books Reviewed is focused on getting honest reviews from real readers regardless of star rating or personal opinion. The onus for getting good reviews is on the author of each book, not on the reviewers in a book club network. This is one reason we highly recommend having a professional copy editor review your book before submitting it on our network.
- Types of reviews that we don’t allow and will remove
- A review by someone who has a direct or indirect financial interest in the product.
- GBR operates with a strict policy of no financial involvement in book sales. Our reviewers are anonymous and receive no compensation or incentives based on the commercial success of any book we review. This means we have no financial interest in whether a book sells well or not; our focus is solely on providing honest and insightful critiques.
- A review by someone perceived to have a close personal relationship with the product’s owner, author, or artist.
- Everyone is anonymous in our network. If you happen to find a book in our network by a person you directly know, please don’t review it, as this part of reviewing is each person’s individual responsibility.
- A review by the product manufacturer, posing as an unbiased shopper.
- Multiple negative reviews for the same product from one customer.
- A review of a game in exchange for bonus in-game credits.
- A negative review from a seller on a competitor’s product.
- These statements are not related to our service and is the responsibility of each individual author to monitor and comply with.
- A review in exchange for monetary reward.
- No reviewers in our network are monetarily rewarded for giving reviews.
- A positive review from an artist on a peer’s album in exchange for receiving a positive review from them.
- We have anti-review swapping algorithms that prevent this from happening in our network.
- A review by someone who has a direct or indirect financial interest in the product.
About Promotional Content
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GDSRWWGGRA2JXSNZ
This is a very important section of Amazon’s Community Guidelines, often ignored by many book review clubs and online book review services.
Promotional Content in Customer Reviews
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Our goal is to capture all the energy, enthusiasm, and feedback (both favorable and critical) that customers have about a product while avoiding use of reviews to advertise, promote, or mislead.
To help illustrate, here are a few examples of reviews that we don’t allow:
-A product brand posts a review of their own product
-A customer posts a review in exchange for cash, a free or discounted product, a gift certificate, or a discount off a future purchase provided by a third party
-A customer posts a review in exchange for entry into a contest or sweepstakes or membership in a program
-A customer posts a review of a game in exchange for bonus in-game content or credits
-A relative, close friend, business associate, or employee of the product creator posts a review to help boost sales
-A customer posts a review of the product after being promised a refund in exchange for the review
-A seller posts negative reviews about a competitor’s product
-An author posts a positive review about a peer’s book in exchange for receiving a positive review from the peer
Although products may be provided to customers for free or at a discount, and those customers may write reviews, any attempt to influence or manipulate reviews is prohibited, including conditioning any future benefit on writing a review or the content of the review. Benefits include but are not limited to: future opportunities to receive free or discounted products, continued membership in a program or club, cash rebates or gift certificates, entry into contests or sweepstakes, bonus digital content or credits, and ratings or referrals that may affect the recipient’s chances of receiving other benefits.
Here are a few examples where a review is not permitted:
-The customer’s eligibility to receive free or discounted products or other benefits in the future depends on their review
-The customer’s continued membership in a program or club depends on their review
-The customer is a member of a review club where sellers or brands give the customer ratings or refer the customer to other sellers or brands based on their review
-The customer is a member of a review club where they are asked to register their Amazon public profile so that sellers or brands may monitor their reviews of products offered through the club
The following reviews are generally allowed, provided they comply with the above guidelines:
-A customer writes a review of a product purchased using a discount generally available to all Amazon customers, such as a Lightning Deal.
-A customer writes a review of a product received for free at a trade show, convention, or other similar venue where the provider does not monitor whether the customer writes a review or condition any benefits on writing a review or the content of the review.
We’re only going to comment on areas of this guideline that specifically relates to book review clubs.
- Our goal is to capture all the energy, enthusiasm, and feedback (both favorable and critical) that customers have about a product while avoiding use of reviews to advertise, promote, or mislead.
To help illustrate, here are a few examples of reviews that we don’t allow:- A customer posts a review in exchange for cash, a free or discounted product, a gift certificate, or a discount off a future purchase provided by a third party
- Reviewer do not receive any cash or discounts for posting reviews on our network
- A customer posts a review in exchange for entry into a contest or sweepstakes or membership in a program
- We do not have sweepstakes
- Members do not have to leave or receive reviews to join our club. We offer a free trial and a monthly subscription fee, which are unrelated to the number of reviews you leave on our network.
- A relative, close friend, business associate, or employee of the product creator posts a review to help boost sales
- An author posts a positive review about a peer’s book in exchange for receiving a positive review from the peer
- We have an anti-review swapping algorithm for members in our network. Ensuring that your close associates don’t review your book is your responsibility and is unrelated to our network. If you happen to see an associate’s book in our network, please do not review it.
- Although products may be provided to customers for free or at a discount, and those customers may write reviews, any attempt to influence or manipulate reviews is prohibited, including conditioning any future benefit on writing a review or the content of the review. Benefits include but are not limited to: future opportunities to receive free or discounted products, continued membership in a program or club, cash rebates or gift certificates, entry into contests or sweepstakes, bonus digital content or credits, and ratings or referrals that may affect the recipient’s chances of receiving other benefits.
- We can and do accept reviews of Free PDF or Free EPUB versions of authors’ books.
- The customer’s eligibility to receive free or discounted products or other benefits in the future depends on their review
- The customer’s continued membership in a program or club depends on their review
- Since every member is completely anonymous, you can not influence the reviewer.
- GBR will not contact any reviewer on an author’s behalf for any reason.
- Members continued membership does not depend on the content of their reviews with the exception of reviews that do not meet Amazon’s guidelines or honor Amazon’s written goal to capture all the energy, enthusiasm, and feedback (both favorable and critical) that customers have about a product. Reviews that are not based on the content of a book are not accepted in our network.
- Members receive the same amount of tokens regardless of the star rating, and our network accepts both positive and critical reviews.
- There are no other benefits a member receives that are based on the content or rating of their review.
- The customer is a member of a review club where they are asked to register their Amazon public profile so that sellers or brands may monitor their reviews of products offered through the club
- As a member, you have no direct information about the individual reviews you receive in our network, so you can not monitor your reviews received in our club.
- Since GBR is not a seller or brand, we can monitor your reviews internally, but we are not able to share the specific details of each review received in our network with our members. (Be careful! Many competing book review clubs allow their members to see information about individual reviews and also the other members’ Amazon profile information, which breaks anonymity and presents ways to attempt to influence reviews. GBR is one of the only fully compliant book review clubs in the market today.)
- The following reviews are generally allowed, provided they comply with the above guidelines: A customer writes a review of a product received for free at a trade show, convention, or other similar venue where the provider does not monitor whether the customer writes a review or condition any benefits on writing a review or the content of the review.
- Similar to receiving a product sample at a trade show, our members explore a diverse library of books. They freely choose books to read and provide unbiased reviews without any obligation or incentive from the authors. Just as vendors at a trade show don’t monitor product feedback, our authors cannot influence reviews. This ensures genuine and independent feedback, mirroring the organic discovery and evaluation process typical at trade shows.
- A customer posts a review in exchange for cash, a free or discounted product, a gift certificate, or a discount off a future purchase provided by a third party
Understanding and adhering to Amazon’s Community Guidelines is essential for anyone participating in their review system. By following these rules, you contribute to a trustworthy and reliable review environment for all users. Remember, the goal is to provide authentic feedback that helps customers make informed decisions.
Join GetBooksReviewed.com today for a free 20-day trial and rest assured that you’re being fully compliant with Amazon’s Community Guidelines.
