Been away for a few day so just catching up. I'm laughing at that Alison Perry! She says Amazon seem to let people post a review even if they haven't bought the book. She knows this because she herself posted a review without having bought the book! She was given the book for free so by Amazon guidelines she should state in the review that she was given a free copy. I'm going to report her and the other Influencers to Amazon for not declaring it's a free copy. It also states in Amazon guidelines that friends and family of the author cannot leave reviews.
From Amazon Review Guidelines:
you'll be able to review any product on Amazon.co.uk regardless of where you purchased that product.
Promotional Content
In order to preserve the integrity of Community content, content and activities consisting of advertising, promotion, or solicitation (whether direct or indirect) is not allowed, including:
- Creating, modifying, or posting content regarding your (or your relative's, close friend's, business associate's, or employer's) products or services.
Book authors and publishers may continue to provide free or discounted copies of their books to readers, as long as the author or publisher does not require a review in exchange or attempt to influence the review.
Promotional Content
Promotional content is an endorsement by someone with a financial or close personal connection to what they're endorsing.
There are several ways in which products may be promoted to customers. In all cases, the poster must clearly disclose their financial or personal connection if not obvious from the context.
Here are a few examples:
- An author or publisher may post content in the book description, About the Author and Editorial Reviews sections of the product detail page.
- Anyone may post comments on Customer Reviews or Questions and Answers as long as any financial or close personal connection to the product is clearly and conspicuously disclosed.
So there you go Alison/Babs...have a read and then pop and edit your review before it is removed!
Aha! Edited to add that Alison has now bought the book so her review shows verified purchase! She can only know of this from reading here or Bab telling her as it was previously mentioned she should mark it as gifted. When she first published her review, it did not have verified purchase.
They obviously read this or Babs alerted them all as they've now bought the book so they have verified purchase. Alison's review previously had photos of the book that she also shared on her Instagram but she's removed that now!