I created a new banner for my review site earlier this year.😊

 

In the past two days, I’ve made some big changes to my review policy. I will discuss the two main changes in this post. The first one I’ll cover is that I’ve discontinued my full service. This service was a paid service that included in-depth reviews, light editorial assistance, and extra promotional assistance. I did have great clients, but I didn’t charge enough to compensate me for all the effort and time I put into the service and the idea of charging more seemed exorbitant. I wasn’t going to charge more for a service than I would be willing to pay if the tables were turned. I feel it would be wiser for me to focus my efforts on finding a more stable source of income and into finishing my novels, which is what I’m going to be doing, but I will continue writing unpaid, less time-intensive reviews in my free time.

The other update has to do with Amazon book reviews. There’s a lot of confusion surrounding Amazon reviews because of the changes their terms have undergone. Honestly, I thought their new terms were a lot more restrictive than they really are. There’s a lot of misinformation online when it comes to what reviews are and are not allowed on Amazon. Most blog posts I read earlier on stated that I couldn’t leave any reviews for books I received for free from the author, even if I received nothing else from the author. It seemed like Amazon considered free copies to be compensation for reviews. When I read through Amazon’s terms myself, I could see how different bloggers drew that conclusion, and, enforcing that view, acquaintances of mine who offer free reviews have had their reviews taken down by Amazon. So, I didn’t post book reviews on Amazon as part of my review service. However, a couple of days ago, I decided to contact Amazon myself to clear up the confusion. I wish I had thought to do so sooner. I asked an Amazon customer service representative if I could leave reviews on Amazon for books I received for free from the author.

The answer was yes.

Of course, I have to be upfront about receiving a free copy and about the fact that my review is honest and unbiased, but I always am, anyway. In light of this information, I’m not sure why my peers’ reviews were taken down. As far as I know, they did add the proper disclaimers to their reviews. I read that Amazon will target reviews that state the reviewer left them "in exchange" or "in return" for a free copy of the book. This is a common disclaimer among reviewers who are just trying to be transparent with readers, but it does make it sound like the review wasn’t altogether voluntary. Perhaps that’s why Amazon removed my peers’ reviews.

Because I’m not one-hundred percent certain why some reviewers have been targeted by Amazon and others haven’t, I can’t be sure that my Amazon reviews won’t be taken down. For all I know, there may be a troll working for Amazon who randomly goes around taking people’s reviews down whenever they’re having a bad day, doubtful as that is. I have no clue. Amazon customer service has given me the clear to share the reviews I complete for free, so I hope they don’t change their minds.

In the spirit of that hope, I updated my guidelines to allow the posting of Amazon reviews, but keep these points in mind:

 

🦙   Whether I post a review on Amazon or not is solely up to me. I may not choose to post an Amazon review for all the books I accept through my review service. My posting must remain voluntary. Same with Goodreads and anywhere else I post reviews, including my own site.

🦙   As usual, I will be transparent about my connection with the author. If I receive a free book and that’s what I’m basing my review on, I will state that.

🦙   I only write honest and unbiased reviews, so just as with all my other reviews, my Amazon reviews may be negative or positive.

🦙   If I go another year without purchasing enough on Amazon, I won’t be able to post any reviews until I’ve spent a minimum of $50. Amazon won’t allow anyone who hasn’t spent at least $50 through their site in the past twelve months to post a review—no, I’m not making that up. In the past, it’s kept me from posting reviews even before I learned about Amazon’s other terms. I’m not going to spend money wildly to keep my review-posting ability enabled. Also, there’s no telling if Amazon will end up deleting my reviews for some reason. They may change their terms again.

🦙   I still can’t post reviews on Amazon for the books I accepted through my paid service. I didn’t just receive a free copy of the book from the author, I received compensation. Because of this, Amazon would frown on me posting those reviews on their site, and I’m not willing to lie or otherwise conceal the fact that compensation was involved.


Bearing that in mind, authors who used my paid service can still share my reviews of their work on Amazon themselves. Any author who uses my review service can share my review of their work or a quote from my review in their editorial reviews section, so long as my wording isn’t changed and so long as the review is attributed to me (Kayla C. Reviews). Some have argued that the editorial reviews section may even pack more of a punch than the customer reviews section because it precedes the latter and reviews from more prominent sources such as Kirkus are usually posted there. If you’d like to learn more about this section and how to use it, please visit this link to Jane Friedman’s website.

If you’re interested in having me review your work, please be sure to read my review policy before you query. My review services are partially closed at this time. I still accept queries, but I’m less likely to accept new submissions. You can find other review services by checking out my Book Services Directory.