I wonder how many other authors are sometimes frustrated by the lack of reviews of their work on Amazon? I know I certainly am, especially when those that I did have, suddenly vanished. I've never actually managed to get to the bottom of that little trick, though I suspect it has something to do with Amazon's review policy. As an occasional reviewer on their sites, I've had the odd snotty notice from them accusing me of being a "paid reviewer" or of "unauthorised advertising" on their site. This is almost always related to the fact my "reviewer name" (My own and my publishing name) links directly to my Amazon Author Page. They never seem to get the idea that their own system is responsible for that and not yours truly.
It gets doubly frustrating when someone who has bought your book on their site and tries to review it, eventually writes to you, the author saying -
"I tried to post a review on Amazon but the site defeated me. There is something about their sites that blows mental fuses with me and defeats all my attempts to do anything other than buy things - and even that is only achieved with difficulty."
I can sympathise with him. He lives in South Africa and deals with Amazon.com and the DOTco.uk sites and has some of the same problems I have living in Germany and buying English titles from these sites. It's a pity, but at least he sent me what he'd attempted to post and invites me to post it here. So, here it is -
'On the Run' is another highly entertaining space adventure from Patrick G Cox. Once again, I find the creativity of his scientific and technical imagination to be the highlight. The computers are central characters in the story, and the economic warfare waged through the computing systems gives the story a very topical feel.
Ben Curran.
Marine Engineer.
All I can say is that its a nice review, one I wish he could have posted. It is super of him to send it to me and alert me to the apparent blockade he encountered. Now I shall have to attempt to flag this up with Amazon and hope for an answer. I am also very flattered that he took the trouble to contact me through this site to alert me to the problem. I wish a few more people would take the trouble to do so, it might then come to Amazon's notice so they'll fix it!