Author Reviews Violate Amazon's TOCs - Seriously?

In recent weeks there has been a lot of controversy surrounding authors reviewing books on Amazon. A post by Suw Charman-Anderson covers the story in more detail. It seems that authors are now banned from reviewing all books because they are seen to be in direct competition with book products.

As an author, I don't see myself as somebody in competition with other authors. If another writer publishes a book similar to one of mine, I'm delighted to see it do well both for the author and because it will draw attention to other books in the genre. Books aren't like mobile phones or electricity supplies - readers often buy more than one. You only have to look at the number of Fifty Shades clones in the charts to know that success for your competitors could improve your sales.

Yes, occasionally indie authors do find ourselves head-to-head, for example if several of us are nominated for a book club's next read or we're battling to get to number one in the freebie chart. However, these temporary rivalries are always taken in good spirit and, at the end of the day, we're happy to see our peers do well. I'm sure that there are spiteful authors among us, by they are certainly in the minority.

As for books from other genres, why shouldn't I review them? Am I to assume that I'm now not allowed to review a cookery book, for example, even though I haven't published a single non-fiction title let alone one that includes recipes.

Then there's Pompomberry House - a novel about indie authors which is primarily enjoyed by ... indie authors! Is nobody from the target audience allowed to leave a review?

One of the first things I learnt when I started self-publishing was to get actively involved in reviewing other indie books. I feel I've always been fair, awarding between three and five stars for books that I finished and not leaving reviews for books I couldn't get into (I'm not one of those people who feels comfortable reviewing a book I haven't finished.)

Some "competing" authors have reviewed my books and I've never found that a review associated with an author name has been spiteful or jealous.

On the other hand, I have received one or two bogus reviews under unfamiliar names - the sort that award one star yet the review text doesn't match the book. These clearly were spiteful. Yet when I reported the first one to Amazon, they refused to removed it and, after two or three messages, refused to discuss it further. I didn't bother to report the next.

Please Amazon, I urge you, do clamp down on review fraud but please allow authors to review books. We are some of the most avid readers out there and our opinions are just as valid as anybody else's.

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