Amazon’s new review policy is causing a bit of a stir among authors and reviewers…
Want to write a customer review?
To write a customer review: you must have used this account to complete a purchase* of an item from Amazon.com. Please wait 24 hours after your first purchase before writing a review.
If you have another account: and you have already used it to make a purchase, you can sign into that account to write a review.
I think I may be in the minority–but this makes perfect sense to me, especially from Amazon’s POV. Amazon has become something of a force in online reviews–and not just for books. Had you all seen this from the NY Times? Funny, yes, but an annoying expenditure of bandwith to Amazon? Probably. And how about all those “friends of” reviews? You know all the reviews reviewers will swear are written by friends of the authors? (and yeah, many of them are) Or the drive-by reviewer..the one who has some axe to grind and stops by Amazon to attack a book and author? There are plenty of those.
So, overall, I think it’s a good thing. Now when you go to Amazon you will at least know the person bought the product. That has to be a good thing, doesn’t it?
Lori, I didn’t know about this! I review books for my Magical Musings blog about once a month and have been posting them on Amazon too. I guess I won’t be doing that now. Although I buy from Amazon a few times a year, most of my purchases are from local stores.
ROFL about the milk reviews.
by Edie Ramer October 9th, 2006 at 3:37 pmWell, from what I can see, it’s not saying you have to have purchased that item to review it, but ANY item from Amazon. They just want it to be for people who use Amazon, but it doesn’t seem to be as restrictive as people are thinking. At least as far as I can see. And really, there can’t be that many people who haven’t succumbed to the $25 or more free shipping, can there? *grin*
by Nicole October 9th, 2006 at 4:14 pmWell, I got that message when I tried to post a review. I picked a book at random just to see what happened. So, since I have bought PLENTY o’items from Amazon, I’m pretty sure it is that item–or it would have let me review away.
by Lori October 9th, 2006 at 4:17 pmOOOPS! No, I spoke too soon. I wasn’t logged in. Nicole is right. You just have to have bought something from Amazon.
by Lori October 9th, 2006 at 4:20 pmSo, yeah, really no reason to complain IMHO.
Lori
Good to know. This coming Saturday is my week to post a review. I’ll give it a shot on Amazon.
by Edie Ramer October 9th, 2006 at 6:35 pmI haven’t had problems posting reviews for items that I haven’t bought there (in fact all of my reviews were for books I got other places). I just had to buy something from them in the past, which I have. I have heard of some problems though, but I haven’t had them.
by Jennifer Y. October 11th, 2006 at 10:07 pm