Why Did My Amazon Reviews Get Deleted From My Book?

WELL GUYS, I JUST LOST MY 1ST CHOICE NARRATOR DUE TO AMAZON ONLY POST 20% OF THE REVIEWS THAT I KNOW WERE SENT IN. Here’s the email, names redacted.

NARRATOR Thanks for reaching out. Glad you like my work!

Your book looks like a very compelling story. I’m assuming when you say partnership, you’re looking for a Royalty Share deal. This particular book isn’t a great prospect for an RS deal, but if you’re open to paying for production (you keep all royalties), my rate is $400 Per Finished Hour. For a book this length (108k words = 12 hours of audio\), the budget would be around $4800. This includes myself, my audio engineer, and my audio proofer. We can get more into the details if you’re interested, just let me know.

best of luck, narrator

AUTHOR RESPONSE: Thanks for a quick response. Although you are my first choice, I am not that well funded and so I’ll need to give you a pass. I would like to know why you said: “a book of that type is not well suited for a split”. I can take away a lot of guesses but would like to hear the explanation from you, as a professional. I have several actors, one from Hollywood who isn’t hesitating to do a 20/20 split. You seem to have the most experience of anyone I’ve looked at, although none in this genre, so I would appreciate a candid opinion very much. I appreciate your time and consideration.

NARRATOR RESPONSE Sure, I can try to explain. Just to be super clear it’s not “a book of that type” it’s “this particular book”. The short answer is that the book just isn’t selling well enough.

My goal with royalty share is to simply make back my usual rate, but over a longer period of time. It’s just too much risk to take on a book that isn’t currently selling well. And if a book isn’t selling well, it may not be an ideal time to even create an audiobook version at all. Audiobooks are a fractional percentage of the market, and only very rarely outperform the ebook version (usually it’s a single-digit percentage of ebook sales). So the demand just might not be there yet.

However, if you feel strongly about the future of the book or have some strong marketing plans in place, then go for it. And keep all the royalties yourself by paying a narrator their rate (even if not me!). Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any other questions. And by the way, none of this stuff reflects on the quality of the book, it’s purely business.

Best of luck!

AUTHOR RESPONSE THANK YOU for answering. Now it is very clear. AMAZON REVIEW RULES ARE HURTING AUTHORS IN MORE WAY THAN ONE.

I was wondering if Amazon’s new REVIEW RULES would have come into play. I actually sold over 100 books in the first month. Out of the 26 reviews that I KNOW where submitted, Amazon has “ultimately” allowed 6. Two days ago, the reviewer hadn’t purchased $50 in the past month so she got a notice “you do not qualify to leave this review” return message. SHE BOUGHT THE BOOK BACK IN DECEMBER IN CANADA. No ‘friend, family member, no one who got the book as a gift, no one who hasn’t spent $50, it goes on and on. It’s almost impossible to get a review now. Of course, you promote to your friends and relatives. I have 5000 friends on Facebook, 90% I have never met. NONE OF THEM will be allowed to post a review! Everyone is talking about it, news articles galore. It’s killing off authors. AMAZON merged publishing with kindle, one must ask if they plan to dispose of the publishing arm of Amazon down the road.

They are likely doing this with Audible too. There are blogs from very well known indie authors (who have sold 6-12 books on Amazon) about the new “ratings” game and how Amazon is not good for authors anymore. I published on December 31, 2018, six weeks ago. I thought to sell 100 books the first month was good, and it ranked me in the top 100, but after trying to figure out WHAT IS GOING ON AT AMAZON REVIEW DEPARTMENT and getting zero response, only cut and paste, from their very arbitrary rules, I DID STOP PROMOTION. Between all their different bots and algorithms and nazi-reporting, any book now published will not be getting their reviews, it’s not just me. In fact, they are even REMOVING OLD REVIEWS FROM PREVIOUS BOOKS OF WELL-SELLING AUTHORS if they EVER find a connection between the author and the reader online. So, they want you to promote, have all sorts of direct contact, blogs, and Facebook etc. to promote, BUT IF YOU DO AND THOSE READERS JOIN OR BECOME A FRIEND, THEY GO BACK AND TAKE OUT ALL THEIR REVIEWS FROM YOUR PREVIOUS TITLES.

Cheers, Author

Just thought you should be aware. It probably will soon apply to Audible Books too. I provided links below so you don’t think I’m a nut job or something! hahahahhaha.

NARRATOR RESPONSE Sounds like tough waters for independent authors to navigate these days! I have heard of reviews being removed, so I know what you’re talking about and I’m sorry that happened to you. I hope things improve on that front.

I actually thought you had a good number of reviews for the short time the book has been published, especially considering it is your first book. I’m sure you want more, but what you have is a good start! I am looking at Sales Rank primarily when I make royalty share decisions. This indicates to me in general terms how much a book is selling day-to-day. I consider books for Royalty Share where their Kindle editions rank in the top 10k of the entire store over a sustained period of time (my better selling audiobooks have ebooks that regularly rank in the 1000-3000 range). As I mentioned, audiobooks are a small fraction of overall consumption, so the ebook had better be selling very well in order to have a profitable audiobook.

If you do end up with an audio version, my authors tell me that it is difficult to have success in promoting only the audio version. Audiobooks are just another format that certain people prefer to consume their books in. Promotion should be for the book in general. The consumer will decide how to consume it (e.g., Kindle, paperback, audio)…

OPINION The authors he has narrated for all have thousands of reviews, starting from the years before 2013 until now, WHEN AUTHORS REVIEWS WERE ALL ALLOWED. OF COURSE, THERE BOOKS SOLD. AND BTW, THEY WERE MOSTLY HORROR OR THRILLERS, AND NOT ALL WERE WELL WRITTEN. BACK THEN, AUTHORS COULD OFFER A FREE KINDLE FOR A REVIEW IF THE READER STATED IT. BACK THEN, NO REVIEWS WERE UNDERGOING THIS STRANGLE-AS-MANY-REVIEWS-AS-POSSIBLE ALGORITHMS.

AUTHOR RESPONSE TO “LOST” NARRATOR The Amazon Review Process 2019 is flawed. For me, this is a DOUBLE WHAMMY LOSS. I stopped promoting the book (I was in the top 100 for the first month) because of the Amazon policy to reject MOST of the reviews) So, I stopped throwing 16 hours a day and hundreds of dollars at the “SELLING THE BOOK MARKETING PLAN” since it was obvious no matter how many books I sold I would never get more than a miniscule portion of the actual honest reviews that could come from that expense of time and money. BECAUSE I STOPPED THAT PROMOTION, my book sales dropped off and now I’m in like 30,000 or lower ranking, so NOW THIS GREAT NARRATOR DOESN’T BELIEVE MY BOOK IS GOOD ENOUGH TO SELL ENOUGH TO DO THE COMMON 20/20 SPLIT OF PROCEEDS which is one option with Audible narrators. BTW, AMAZON keeps 60% of the “air” they sell as Audible Books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the author is still doing ALL the promotion, as far as I can see. I LOST MY BEST NARRATOR – DOUBLE WHAMMY! I CANNOT RECOMMEND ANY AUTHOR TO GO THROUGH THE HELL I HAVE BEEN THROUGH FOR THREE PLUS SOLID MONTHS USING THEIR VERY LAME TEMPLATES, DOING ALL MY OWN PROMOTION, CREATING AN AUTHOR IMAGE ONLINE, ONLY TO HAVE AMAZON REJECTING THE MAJORITY OF MY LEGIT REVIEWS.

I loved that narrator because of his ability to do a wide range of vocal varients and abundant talent for having a voice for each character. He is amazing! I AM VERY SAD. The worst thing is it doesn’t make sense. Amazon makes more money than the author on the book , not to mention the Audible that they also get for free than, so they are cutting their own sales. Why would they not care about their sales enough to repair this damaging severe rating policy? One must ask if they have a long-term plan to terminate their publishing arm?

I am just beside myself, have stopped all expense to promote my book, looking for other avenues. I have read all the defensive articles and reviews about how poor Amazon is fighting with bots and fake reviews, etc., but they are cutting off their nose to spite their face. I might just need to go back into the traditional marketing methods. Query letters and rejections? I’d almost rather die! AMAZON HAS CUT MY THROAT.