Friends, would you be willing to help us with something?
As you know, reviews are very important on Amazon, and the Amazon publishing body has been in touch with me expressing concern about customer disappointment with regard to my book The Hour Before Dawn. They blocked the book and removed it from sale.
It became apparent in our correspondence with the decision-making body on Amazon that we were dealing with bots not humans, and we could not make any headway in establishing what the problem was. All they would do was link us to a page detailing every possible problem it could be — everything from offensive material through to copyright infringement.
At the time of Amazon blocking the book and withdrawing it from sale, our Humilis edition of The Hour Before Dawn had only one review, and that was a one-star review without any comments.
However, the previous edition (published by Lion Hudson) was still available through Amazon in second hand copies. It was published in 2015 and has been for sale on Amazon ever since then. It had 155 reviews (all positive) when I last looked, and is still up on Amazon now.
So the problem seems to be the lack of positive reviews.
As they blocked the book and refused to discuss it apart from sending us obstinate refusals to budge from bots who would/could not specify the problem, we were in a bit of a fix. It's an integral part of the Hawk & Dove series, so we didn't want to be lost.
What we have done is to republish it with a couple of minor editorial tweaks; we removed 2 quotations from the beginning in case they were thought to infringe copyright — though they actually did not because I sought permission for one and the other was in the public domain. But we couldn't think of anything else to do, and if the issue was 'customer disappointment', I have no idea how to fix that.
So the republished Humilis paperback edition is here on US Amazon and here on UK Amazon.
On Kindle e-book it's here on US Amazon and here on UK Amazon.
What will protect its availability is positive customer reviews. I think you can leave a customer review without having to purchase another copy.
So please please please — if you have read this book and have any comment to make on it, would you be willing to go along to Amazon at the links above, and say what you (honestly) think of that story?
I hope that will protect it from being removed.
And if you have the time and inclination to leave a positive review on any of the other Hawk & Dove books, that will help keep them available and I will be so very grateful.
Thank you so much, friends.
God bless you.
