Though I'm actually surprised that Amazon does take down reviews at the request of the author. Do you know if they require some reason beyond the author disliking the comment? Does it have to be inappropriate or personal?
Amazon will take down reviews at the request of anyone who can make a case for it. If an angry fan writes in and says "this @#$#@ review contains spoilers so I'm never buying a book from your site again", they'll take the offensive review down. Likewise, someone can write and say "this isn't a review; the reviewer even said they didn't read the damn book", and they'll take it down.
It doesn't have to be the author making the request; someone just has to be offended enough to do it.
I will say that I for one frequently *do* use Amazon reviews to find books, though less so for fiction than for research. They're invaluable for figuring out which of say ten books on a subject is the one that people in the field actually like and use.
My husband said the same thing after he read this; he finds the good reviews very helpful in choosing which books to order. I don't order research books on-line, yet -- I have to be able to pick 'em up and read a good enough chunk that I feel it will be relevant to my needs, which are often fairly specific. He doesn't look at ficition at all on-line, though.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-10-24 11:46 pm (UTC)Amazon will take down reviews at the request of anyone who can make a case for it. If an angry fan writes in and says "this @#$#@ review contains spoilers so I'm never buying a book from your site again", they'll take the offensive review down. Likewise, someone can write and say "this isn't a review; the reviewer even said they didn't read the damn book", and they'll take it down.
It doesn't have to be the author making the request; someone just has to be offended enough to do it.
I will say that I for one frequently *do* use Amazon reviews to find books, though less so for fiction than for research. They're invaluable for figuring out which of say ten books on a subject is the one that people in the field actually like and use.
My husband said the same thing after he read this; he finds the good reviews very helpful in choosing which books to order. I don't order research books on-line, yet -- I have to be able to pick 'em up and read a good enough chunk that I feel it will be relevant to my needs, which are often fairly specific. He doesn't look at ficition at all on-line, though.