Being an Amazon.com Reviewer with Integrity

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so. I know that I am!

Kev originally raised this topic about on-line reviewer integrity, and I'm glad to have a chance to address it. Thank you!

This is an important subject because Amazon.com book reviews do appear to have a large impact on a book's sales. An Amazon.com book reviewer can end up influencing more peoples' thinking than most billionaires . . . except those who own media companies. In fact, Amazon.com employees have told me that my reviews often have large impacts on book sales. I have no direct evidence to confirm or deny that observation, but I've certainly seen sales of my own books be harmed by unfair, negative reviews. That's one reason why you won't see many successful authors doing much reviewing on Amazon.com.

I began reviewing books on Amazon.com in 1999 when my first book, The 2,000 Percent Solution, came out. My son, Mark, had suggested that I write some reviews to understand how Amazon.com worked by letting ordinary people share their views of books.

I am now the #3 ranked reviewer on Amazon.com and the #5 ranked reviewer on Amazon.co.uk. Until about two years ago, I had more "helpful" votes for my reviews than anyone else in the Amazon universe.

I see my role as being someone who helps others with limited time to read and skill in reading to find the best and most helpful books for their purposes. In performing that role, I try to be an honest agent who represents the interests of both authors and readers in equal amounts. In that role, I am probably a bit more generous than someone would be who is not an author. For example, I will praise a book highly based on only one section that's good while many other sections are deficient . . . if the book is worth buying and reading just for the good section. Most other reviewers would simply pan such a book.

I found it very awkward in the beginning because I wasn't clear on my purpose.

If you are new to reviewing on-line, you may have some of the same questions I did. I've listed a few of the questions that made me uncertain.

1. Who should I write the "review" for?

2. What elements should a "review" include?

3. How should I deal with a book which some people would love and others would hate?

4. How should I address tasteless material in an otherwise positive book?

5. What benefits should I offer my readers?

6. How much should I say about my own work?

7. How should I protect the plot and surprises in a fiction book so that readers would still be able to enjoy their reading experiences?

8. How should I comment on a book written by someone with an original voice who didn't properly prepare or edit the book?

9. How should I select books to review?

10. How should I deal with "free" books being offered in exchange for a review?

11. How should I handle nasty reviews of my books that seemed to be inspired by reviews I had written that critiqued books published by others?

12. How should I respond to hate-filled e-mails and discussion board attacks?

As you can see, I had enough questions that I didn't feel comfortable being a reviewer for several years. In fact, at one point I asked Amazon.com to remove all of my reviews because of problems that I was experiencing. They first agreed to my request and later changed their minds and put the reviews up with anonymous attribution. Interestingly, my reviews were never more popular than when no one knew that I wrote them.

I finally agreed to have the reviews attributed to me again after Amazon.com offered me access to some new software that was under development. To this day, I have still not received any access to the software that was "offered" to me . . . but they did promise to let me become anonymous again if I wished to do so.

Over the years, I shared these concerns with other reviewers, authors and my family. I gained a lot of benefit from the feedback that I received.

As a result, I developed a personal code of ethics that I am constantly refining based on having gained more experience. Here are my rules for myself. I don't feel like anyone else needs to follow these rules. I simply share my rules to provide one perspective that may help someone else develop their own code of ethics.

1. Always provide a review within 90 days of receipt if I promised one . . . unless the author or publisher gives me permission not to write a review. In circumstances where I think that my review could be harmful to a legitimate book, I offer authors and publishers that choice of not receiving a review.

2. Avoid reading and reviewing books that I won't or don't like unless someone will be harmed by misrepresentations made about the book or its contents by the author or publisher.

3. Grade a book based on what someone would probably say about it if the book best fit their interests. To keep integrity, indicate in the review who would like the book best . . . and who would probably avoid the book if they knew a lot about it.

4. Never harm an author's career with anything I say. We should encourage authors, even those who need a lot of improvement. In fact, some authors have made substantial improvements in their writing and research practices after reading my reviews of their books.

5. Take into account the background of the author and reference that background in the review when it affects the review. For instance, a child author should not be held to the standard of someone who has a top publisher and has worked in the field for many years.

6. Do review books by those I know, but be sure that I do not bias the review out of friendship. If I cannot avoid positive bias, I don't review the book.

7. Accept no personal gifts except those that arrive after a review has been written and with no advance knowledge of the potential to receive a gift. I limit myself to accepting gifts with small economic value (my limit is $50).

8. Review books in order of receipt except when a charitable contribution is provided to Habitat for Humanity. I offer some authors and publishers the option of making a $50 contribution to Habitat for Humanity. In exchange, I will review a book that I would normally not review and put it at the top of my reviewing list.

9. Review books about which I have the knowledge and background to provide useful information.

10. Write a review that summarizes the book's approach or contents, what's good and bad about the book, how the book compares to others in the field and mention any special credentials or experience I have for evaluating the book.

11. Avoid writing reviews of anything other than books.

12. Do not reveal which books I received as gifts from the author or publisher. This is a common trade practice and revealing it would create confusion because other reviewers don't mention this either.

13. Sell or donate review copies that I do not wish to keep in my personal library.

14. Seek to review books that will help improve the world.

15. Study the reactions to my reviews to make them more "helpful" to more people.

16. Disclose my background as a person and as an author so that those who read my reviews can take my perspective into account while reading my review.

17. Be candid about technical flaws in books while also looking past the technical flaws to the substance that the flaws obscure.

18. Do not request help in "rank-increasing" schemes where reviewers agree with one another to vote for each others' reviews. I do have my favorite reviewers and make a point of voting for their reviews when I like the reviews.

19. I vigorously seek to protect my own books from unfair reviews. I do not always succeed in that endeavor. Net-net, I think my books sell fewer copies than they would if I did not review. One of my publishers once asked me to stop reviewing in the interests of increasing my sales.

20. I rarely participate in the discussion boards because of bad experiences I've had with personal attacks there. Life is too short to waste my time with such negative activities. I don't respond to nasty e-mails. I will correct errors that people point out to me.

21. Avoid commenting on other reviews or individual reviewers.

I may not have anticipated your questions. This blog entry is selective rather than exhaustive. If you will share questions, I will be glad to answer them either through my e-mail address or through comments to this blog.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about how you can enjoy your ideal weight without spending much more money on food.

Thursday, I will share some ideas for improving your nutrition to feel better and operate more effectively.

Friday, I'll tell you about more mansions and estates that you can visit that will bring you great joy.

Saturday, I'll give you an update on how to enjoy the football season better than a billionaire on five dollars extra a day.

On Sunday, I will explore the spiritual joy and meaning of selflessly serving others.

Monday, we'll explore ways that you can find new estates and mansions to visit that you have never seen before.

Next Tuesday, I will describe how you can organize an ideal trip to the western United States to see the best sights and sites that most others miss.

Please feel free to let me know what else you would like to learn, and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

If you are new to this blog, be sure to check out the updated table of contents entry that was posted on August 10. It will help you find earlier entries that may be of interest. I'll update this table of contents every week or so for your convenience.

August 4 was the most frequently read blog entry to date. Be sure to check it out!

Thanks so much for your support of this blog. I'm delighted that so many thousands of people have made this blog part of their regular reading habit!

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Thank you to my many friends, students, clients and blog readers who are spreading the good word about this blog.

If you are visiting today because someone invited you, I'm delighted to meet you! Let's stay in touch.

May God bless you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell