Another review: bring it on!

I'm going to post this two latest Amazon review here because they seem to have a habit of being deleted, which you might think amounts to a conspiracy. But what can you do?

Great read
*****
By Holiday reader

Good characters, great plot and very readable. I say this as a person who does not read fiction, but I can honestly say, that I could not put this book down as Albert makes you want to know what is going to happen to the characters as they fumble their way through the chaotic 'summer of love'.

There is also a great cast of supporting characters, and I often found myself wondering what their stories were, especially Eric and his house in Stansted!!

Amazon and the great disappearing review

I would love to be in a position not to notice, to have so many reams of praise beneath White City that the removal of but one review was like someone taking a pebble from a beach.

But I am not. This is a debut, self-published novel and as such its success relies solely on word of mouth, whatever marketing wheeze I can dream up, and the reviews it garners.

So when one review disappears from a grand total of five I'm going to take note.

It was the first review I received, and as such held a place close to my heart. I have checked the rules for submitting reviews and this breached none of them. Worse still I can find no obvious point of contact with Amazon for me to voice my concerns.

A quick Google revealed a number of indie authors in the same boat. Some had more of their reviews deleted than I actually have reviews, which is scary. Even those who had found a way to contact Amazon about it reported no luck with them, and instead were met with the stock response that "it is up to the reviewer to contact us." Hands washed.

So instead of five lovely reviews from lovely readers, I have four. Which is better than I could ever have expected. But now I have been introduced to a whole new reason for worrying. Reviews of my book can disappear at a moment's notice with no explanation, and no chance of remonstration.

All of a sudden self publishing the Amazon way comes with a sinister new undertone. As if I wasn't uncomfortable enough with them not paying their share of UK tax.

I guess that's the risk you run dealing with retailing giants - you are at a real risk of getting stepped on.

Here's a link to a thread on Amazon's own self-publishers' forum that it has made no effort to contribute to:

https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=48101&start=15&tstart=0