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.
Done, just waiting for Amazon to publish my comment
ReplyDeleteHumans one, Bots nil. Bless you. Thank you so much. xx
ReplyDeleteI’m looking forward to receiving my new copy. Is that Madeleine on the new cover?
ReplyDeleteYep, that's her. Thank you so much, Cheryl. x
ReplyDeleteDone mine too. It’s not appearing yet but hopefully it will do.
ReplyDeleteI rarely comment (but we’ve chatted by email) and never leave reviews but wanted to support you
Are you able to have the option to buy by paperback/kindle as one listing? That way reviews for the paperback will appear under kindle and vice versa (I think at any rate)
Normally, as a reader, I go to one url and then choose if I want the book or ebook
That might help get around this problem?? Stupid bots. I am so worried about our future with AI
I’m looking forward to hearing about your new house, when you’ve settled and beaten these stupid bots.
Jen F
Thank you so much, Jen. That's ever so kind. And how lovely to hear from you. I hope things are going OK for you at the moment.
DeleteAbout linking the paperback and e-Book — The Hour Before Dawn was published in sequence in Series One of The Hawk & the Dove; it's Volume 5 in the series. When we published it, the paperback and e-book appeared as options within one listing.
When they blocked the title and withdrew it from sale, they only did it to the paperback — and we don't know why exactly, because they wouldn't tell us, they would only link us to a generic page of possible problems. So we had to completely republish the paperback with a new ISBN. But that took it out of the publishing sequence of Series One. If we'd marked it as part of the series, it would have come up as Volume Ten of a nine-volume series. So we just published it as a stand-alone book and hoped readers would figure it out, because the info is there on the cover, and in the series titles list in the previous story in the series.
So then we had to decide what to do about the e-book, which they hadn't blocked. That was still listed in its proper place in the series sequence, and if we'd wanted to link it to the newly published version of the same book, we'd have had to un-publish it and republish with a new ISBN, and thus it would have lost its place in the series sequence.
So although it's clunky and annoying, we decided to leave it — the choice was between whether the e-book stay in sequence in the series or be linked to the paperback. It's not entirely satisfactory but we thought it was the best choice; and because it's all automated there's no human intelligence to understand and create an exception.
I could post about our new house and take some pics of it if you'd like to see. I'll do that in the next few days. xx
Oh it’s all such a palaver and nonsense isn’t it. You’ve done the best you can and hopefully it will get through the bots this time
ReplyDeleteI look forward to a post about your new home in your own time.
Im doing ok these days
Jen
❤️
DeleteGah Pen I tried but Amazon will not let me send a review because I haven’t shopped with them in the past 12 months. I hope you do get enough reviews to help protect your book.
ReplyDeleteYou’ve been on my heart. How did the house move go? Are you and Tony settled in? Much love to you as always dear friend xx
Thank you so much for trying — you are a sweetheart. Our move was exhausting but went smoothly and we love our new place. Waving to you, and much love. xx
Delete