I’ve had my Amazon.com reviews yanked.
After eighteen years and over 1,700 reviews, Amazon has rescinded my reviewing privileges and deleted my reviews. They do this because I violated their rules, accepting items for review at their creators’ expense. This is a common tactic for small manufacturers and indie publishers, to get attention to products that would otherwise go unseen. Without resources for saturation advertising and global distribution, they depend on willing third-party reviewers to carry their words.
This seems particularly unfair to the kind of pop-up content creators that a platform like Amazon makes possible. However, recent news of fake Amazon reviews reveals how a handful of producers (or their agents) toss around tiny commissions, some as little as $10, and distort the market. So it’s a mixed bag, a slight to legitimate reviewers like me who occasionally accept kitchen knives or pre-release CDs for review, but a necessary defense of Amazon’s territory.
It’s also a debate for another time and venue.
More relevant, for the small but dedicated audience this blog has cultivated, is: this leaves my reviewing up in the air. Though I sometimes get more fervent responses from readers for my opinions on popular culture and current events, book (and occasional movie and music) reviews have been this blog’s lifeblood for the last seven years. They represent over two-thirds of my content, and the reason the largest number of users have visited.
And without Amazon, I have no means of getting new books. I mean, certainly, I could purchase my own, and I sometimes to review books I’ve purchased, usually under a separate header, the “1001 Books To Read Before Your Kindle Battery Dies.” Even then, I reserve that header for books that I believe are a cut above the general, books that moved me enough that I want to share the experience of having read them with you, my audience, whom I regard as friends.
The largest number of review books comes, instead, from authors, agents, publishers, or Amazon itself soliciting my opinion. Amazon is cracking down on fake reviews because obvious shill reviews hurt market share and can submarine an otherwise good product. But a well-written third-party review can draw business, which publishers hope to continue. And because I’ve developed Amazon cachet, some professionals seek my opinion, which they consider worth money.
I love reviewing. I love the challenge of taking my abstract ideas about the experience I had with books (or other products) and translating them into words. I like sharing that experience with fans and friends. I like participating in the effort of separating worthy from unworthy content in a world that has become saturated with content. Reviewing has made me a better reader, which in turn has, I hope, made me a better writer.
But reviewing hasn’t been particularly lucrative. In the six years I’ve been writing this review blog, I’ve sold only a few products through my links, and made maybe enough to take a lady out to dinner twice. Besides the lack of remuneration from reviewing, I’ve also paid a cost in the time I haven’t spent doing my own writing. I’ve cultivated cachet with my words, but only in response to others doing real creative work; my own writing has stagnated.
These reviews won’t stop overnight. Because I work ahead, I have several reviews written from before I had my privileges revoked, and review books half-read which I will probably go ahead, finish reading, and review. However, without my pipeline of content, the supply of new reviews is likely to dry up pretty quickly. This blog will soon lack for content. And I suppose, if I’m being fair, that’s my own fault.
So, I’m taking the opportunity to rededicate myself to my own writing. When I look over the manuscripts half-finished, the written content I’ve created but not sold or gotten in front of a ready audience, I can’t help realizing this blog has exacted a cost. I only have so many hours in the day, so much strength necessary for the writing act, and I’ve spent it on other people’s writing. It’s time for me to return to my roots and be an actual writer myself.
This blog won’t stop. I will still share reviews, because I believe doing so makes me a better writer, and a better reader. But I cannot afford to write with the dedication of a newspaper columnist anymore, striving (and often failing) to produce three columns per week. Production will become more sporadic as this blog becomes what it should’ve been: a hobby.
I’m sorry it took a reprimand from Earth’s biggest retailer to remind me why I started reviewing in the first place. But I suppose I can either sit around feeling sorry for myself, or I can, in Neil Gaiman’s terms, create good art. I choose the latter path. I thank you, my audience, my friends, for six good years. Let’s go onto the next adventure together, shall we?
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