Amazon are making it harder for us to get and keep reviews on our books. They ask for reviews and ratings on the products but then pick at how you obtained it.

We are always appreciative of readers who leave a review after reading our work, but many are being removed. The problem is a lot of readers follow their favourite authors on Facebook or appear on their friends list and Amazon see this as bias. Facebook is a social networking site, and authors and readers alike use it as such. Readers find it to be one of the easiest way to get updates and interact with Authors.

Unfortunately Amazon is taking this as a sign that the readers are showing bias when leaving a review and removing it. The readers are being penalised for wanting to befriend an author and get updates. This in turn is making it difficult for authors, if we don't accept friend requests, we risk losing readers, but on the other hand if we do we lose reviews. We are in a no win position as reviews are needed for our books to gain visibility.