Photo: John Blyberg

How Amazon’s New Book Review Rules Impact Self-Published Writers

via IB Times

Success, it’s been said, is all about who you know — just don’t get to know too many people unless you want the world’s largest online book publishing platform to penalize you for it.

Thousands of independent authors are asking Amazon.com Inc. to change a controversial policy that prohibits users from reviewing books written by people they personally know. The policy is meant to cut down on the willful shilling of books by close friends and family, but members of the relatively insular independent publishing community say the rules are restricting their ability to offer or accept honest criticism from others in their peer group. They also say the detection system is highly flawed, and as Amazon has gotten more aggressive at policing it, perfectly legitimate reviews are getting caught in the algorithmic crosshairs.