WHY IS AMAZON READING MY EMAIL?

WHY IS AMAZON READING MY EMAIL?

So I wrote a book (Tradeoffs, a novel) over 30 years ago on a topic that’s suddenly relevant again – the compromises women make to get to the top of the career ladder.  A friend’s 30 year old daughter picked up an old paperback copy, read it, and urged me to update the research on which it was based and republish it.  So I did. On amazon .com’s KDP, with whom I’ve successful republished other out of print books. And I sent out a letter to my friends telling them and asking them to buy it and review it. Standard operating procedure, right?

One did so, but amazon refused to publish her review. An endless series of emails and phone calls later resulted in repeated suggestions to review their guidelines, and then this comment: “We have determined that this reviewer is a close friend of yours.”

How does amazon know why my friends are, and how do they judge the degree of closeness? After all, she and I do not share an address, a last name, or an account.  Her review did not reference anything about our relationship or use language that indicated anything other than that she had read this book when it was first published and that the author had tightened it up, which made it better.

After a series of complaints, I finally got something other than a canned letter, one that discussed the fact that because how they determine the degrees of closeness or separation between writer and reviewer is proprietary information, they couldn’t reveal why they wouldn’t publish her review. 

I know other writers whose friends have attempted to review their books and gone through the same rigmarole.  The only possible answer is that amazon has been reading my emails, accessing my contacts list, and snooping on my social media accounts.  I hope they’re reading this, too.