Authors can no longer review books on Amazon, according to this article.
According to emails that author Steve Weddle has received from Amazon, authors cannot leave reviews for other authors because they are deemed to be in direct competition with each other.
Direct competition? Huh. I’ve never felt as though authors were in competition with each other since our “products” were so different. Pick two authors, one subject, and you’ll get two very different end results. Nevertheless, Amazon says:
“We do not allow reviews on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product. This includes authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product,” Amazon repeated. The company added a new closing: “We have removed your reviews as they are in violation of our guidelines. We will not be able to go into further detail about our research.”
Very strange indeed.
