Declan’s Newsletter

Share this post

Amazon: Threat or Menace?

declanfinn.substack.com

Amazon: Threat or Menace?

More like "Apathetic, or just Incompetent?"

Declan Finn
Aug 3, 2022
7
2
Share this post

Amazon: Threat or Menace?

declanfinn.substack.com

Sigh. Oh Amazon. So good at selling books… until you’re not.

1

Among Amazon’s MANY idiotic qualities—pushing TradPub over their own indies, for example—is that they’ve gone and lost a slew of reviews.

You see, when my last publisher, Silver Empire, fell, and we republished with Tuscany Bay, we were certain that we could just transfer reviews from the initial publication to the current one.

Why were we certain? Because it had been done before. Silver Empire had transferred all of my reviews from when I self-published to the new releases. Why wouldn’t it work this time?

Amazon tells me the reviews are “lost.”

When they say “lost” it implies “the reviews are irretrievable.”

I suspect it just means “we can’t be bothered to do the work.”

You see, if you dig down on my Amazon profile, and find the older editions of Saint Tommy NYPD, you should still see the old reviews still there. They were at the time of this writing. So… what the Hell?

Now, why care? Why is this important? Because as Nick Cole once told me on my old podcast, you need 100 reviews before Amazon’s algorithms will take you seriously. I’ve heard 50, but I prefer to take no chances.

So reviews are important. If you like my work, you can help me sell more by reviewing. Technically, if you DON’T like the work, you can help me sell more by reviewing.

So, if you have reviewed a Saint Tommy Novel— any of the first 8 novels—please double check and make sure your reviews carried over.

Amazon supposedly carried over the reviews from Hell Spawn and Infernal Affairs, but I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.

Hell Spawn

Death Cult

Infernal Affairs

City of Shadows

Crusader

Deus Vult

Coven

Hussar

And don’t think this is just an Amazon think. All of these buttons are 100% multi-purpose. I will take reviews anywhere, on any platform. B&N, BookBub, anything and anywhere. Though if you copied and pasted a review to all of the above, I’m not going to complain.

Leave a comment

Declan’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thank you for reading Declan’s Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Share

1

Yes, the title is a reference to the classic Spider-Man comics and the Daily Bugle headline. But as I said in the subtitle, it’s probably more accurate to ask “Apathetic, or just Incompetent?” To which the answer is… yes.

2
Share this post

Amazon: Threat or Menace?

declanfinn.substack.com
2 Comments
R. H. Snow
Writes R. H. Snow’s Deep Thoughts from…
Aug 3, 2022·edited Aug 3, 2022

Holy crud, Declan... I didn't realise this was a thing for Amazon to go "lose" reviews. I know some of my early reviews magically disappeared, no explanations. Sad.

Expand full comment
ReplyCollapse
Bob
Writes The Armed Citizen Project
Aug 11, 2022

I lost my car keys once. Couldn't deal with the stress so I just bought another car.

Expand full comment
ReplyGift a subscriptionCollapse
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Declan Finn
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing