Review Group discussion

The key thing to remember when trying to leave a review on any Zon site that is not your own country is NOT to make a new account there.

To get to the book on the site you want, go to the book on your regular Amazon site and change the amazon.com to amazon.co.uk (or the other way around) in the address bar and leave all the rest of the address the same .

If you are confronted with a sign in screen, just sign in with your own, regular account details and you should have no problem.

I have never purchased anything from Amazon in India or Canada or Australia, but I have left reviews on all those places by signing in with my UK account, so I know it works. As long as you are an Amazon customer in good standing in your own country, you can post a book review on any Amazon site.

If you purchased the book it will only show up as 'Verified Purchase' on your home site though.

Hope this helps anyone who is struggling and also puts to bed the myth that you need to make purchases from a foreign Zon to be able to post a review there.

E.M. wrote: "The key thing to remember when trying to leave a review on any Zon site that is not your own country is
NOT
to make a new account there.

To get to the book on the site you want, go to the boo..."


Thanks for that E.M. It is very useful for members in the GSRG group as well :-)

G.J.

Once you are signed up.to Amazon...that's it. You can go anywhere.

I had no idea - thanks for this!

L N is correct. I often post reviews on sites other than my own.

As a USA az customer, I tried the above trick. I had no success. I never created a UK profile, but when I browsed to my UK profile pages after attempting a UK review, it had all my info, including my credit card (entered on the USA side). I dealt with both state-side and UK-side customer service. Long story, but the UK guy deleted my "UK profile" believing it to be the fix to my problem, and it erased everything across all marketplaces, including order history and the book reviews connected to my username on the USA side. I'm trying to get that restored somehow. It's a mess. I've been on the phone for hours. The customer service on the USA side confirmed that the process as explained by the moderator E.M. should work and said my situation is an anomaly in his experience. He said that my username profile record shows that things were not working correctly. I don't know if I can post to the UK site without spending 40 GBP.

Ugh. Sounds like the British guy wasn't familiar with the process of posting to different zons.
Which is embarrassing.

As we can post to the US without spending US funds, I can guarantee you will be able to post to UK and AU, CA and probably all the others if you wish without spending local currency.

Thanks for sharing.

Hey guys, I just got completely blocked by amazon.com: insufficient purchases to add a review. (I had added the review successfully on the UK site.)

I tried your method above, E.M., exactly as you describe it, starting from my amazon.co.uk account and changing the address field to amazon.com; but I'm sorry to say it didn't work. As soon as I tried to add a review, I got the same message about not having sufficient purchases. (I even clicked the Write a Review button on the UK site and then replaced .co.uk with .com in the address field—but that still brought me to the same error message.)

So, does this mean no more reviews outside of our 'home' Amazon site without spending a lot of unnecessary money???

I fear that the Mighty Zon have just changed the rules on us again indeed, Steve. If so they are invalidating this thread.

Same thing happened to me yesterday. I've always been able to post a review on Amazon.uk but they blocked me yesterday for not spending 40 GBP. I'm in the U.S. and was able to post a review on Amazon.com.

I've heard of a lot of people now with the same experience. I'm afraid your fear, E.M., has become fact.

What does this mean for the Review Group?

Steve wrote: "I've heard of a lot of people now with the same experience. I'm afraid your fear, E.M., has become fact.

What does this mean for the Review Group?"

It doesn't mean any issue for the review group Steve. Let's not make a huge deal out of it. Agreed, they have changed the rules. I have always been able to, as a Brit, to post to Amazon.com until yesterday and got the purchase message too. I have bought things on Amazon.com in the past but obviously not in the last year. Most of us authors are delighted to get a review in our own County for Amazon. If it's both, it's a bonus, but frankly I've rarely had reviews posted on both anyway.

Yes, sure, I agree with what you say. It's OK for us—we're happy to have reviews on the US site. But it's a little hard on our US colleagues if we're unable to post to amazon.com, because they're not getting the reviews where they most need them.

Yes but there's load of authors from the US on here too, probably more than UK authors. It works both ways. US authors can no longer post on Amazon.uk either without the same message. Goodreads is international, so I fail to see what the issue is. The whole point of these review groups is to actually get an Amazon review, because many only leave on Goodreads or don't leave at all once they've read a book.

Well, the issue for me is that most of my friends and connections are in the UK, so if I recommend my book I'd like them to see a good number of (mostly positive!) reviews on amazon.co.uk. But because amazon.com is the largest site, I'm also happy to see reviews there.
But for US authors, the second bonus doesn't apply: they have few connections in the UK, so a UK review doesn't matter so much. Which means our UK reviews are not doing them as much good as a US review would.
This applies to new self-published authors, where friendship networks are still important in getting a book known. Which I think applies to most of us in the Review Group.

I just cannot understand where you're coming from I'm afraid or what your gripe is. How do you know what connections a US author has? You are making sweeping generalisations. My book has been read far and wide from people in France and recently in India (and they have only left a review on the India and French amazon sites) which I am grateful for. I don't have any friends on these Goodreads review sites. I am new here and don't know anyone. Isn't that the point, that reviews are impartial. I don't rely on friends to leave reviews. I rely on the word of mouth of my book getting out there. As long as I have an Amazon review I am happy. And I am grateful to get a review on my own countries Amazon site. Let's be grateful here and stop whinging.

I think you’re creating a problem where there isn’t one. I’ve got no axe to grind, I’m just concerned that we all get the best deal. Obviously we’re coming from different perspectives, so let’s just leave it there.

But YOU are creating an issue and saying how does this bode for the review groups? What best deal is there? If Amazon have changed the rules there's nothing anyone can do. So focus on simply being able to receive a review. We are all entitled to respond to what you say Steve. I don't like negativity, which I feel you're creating. And I don't want to see it on the review groups.

OK, one last comment: Why do you think until now the rule has been on this and other review groups that reviews must be posted on BOTH amazon.com and amazon.co.uk? Did they do that for nothing? No, they did that because it was the best deal for authors. That possibility is now gone. That's a negativity I did not create.

In an ideal world, yes, it's advantageous for us to have reviews in as many locations as possible, but it's hardly a disaster if they only go on one of the sites.

If the rules have been changed on the Zon, the rules will change here to meet that. This is not the first time the rules here have had to adapt to the rules of our corporate master the Mighty Zon and I am pretty certain it won't be the last.

I am sure we'll get a post from Emma confirming any necessary rule change in due course.

in any case, if Zon has instigated this new rule, what are we to do about it apart from adapt?
Arguing about it here isn't going to change anything. if people no longer want to participate in groups that is their prerogative.
I'm certainly not going to change the group dynamic to only allow participants from certain parts of the world to join rounds.
Posting on Zon will remain a requirement, but if it has to be only your local zon, so be it.

You never know, gathering reviews from other parts of the world may increase your global reach.

Emma wrote: "in any case, if Zon has instigated this new rule, what are we to do about it apart from adapt?
Arguing about it here isn't going to change anything. if people no longer want to participate in grou..."

Exactly, I agree

What I have noticed lately is that you can post a review in anyone of the zon sites and they get copied to all the others (only check about six so not 100% sure all)

I haven't seen that. All it shows you is what's on the main UK or Com sites underneath, none of the others.

Justin wrote: "What I have noticed lately is that you can post a review in anyone of the zon sites and they get copied to all the others (only check about six so not 100% sure all)"

That's interesting. But that would be from amazon.com, right, to other sites? I haven't heard of it happening the other way round. Have you seen that?

Thanks for your comment, Emma. You've answered my original question about how these changes would affect us—i.e., not at all! Which is great.

Just to be the Devil's Advocate, reading and reviewing is work. Giving a free review copy costs money. We do that in review groups to get reviews. If a US author can't get an Amazon.com review from a UK author they may be less inclined to join a group with a bunch of UK authors. I really have no idea why there are country specific rules, it's not like books have borders.

I agree with you, Chis. I've been following this thread because I tried to post a review for the reading group on Amazon UK and it was rejected. I think it's unfair that the reviews are Amazon country specific. The reviews should be universal.

Chris wrote: "Just to be the Devil's Advocate, reading and reviewing is work. Giving a free review copy costs money. We do that in review groups to get reviews. If a US author can't get an Amazon.com review from..."

Giving a free digital review copy cost absolutely nothing. And .uk is the second biggest book buying market in the world, so I don't suppose having reviews on .uk rather than .com will adversely affect sales. Getting reviews on some of the smaller zon's might even increase sales as there are fewer reviews on those sites, so each one is more important?

As I said, we will not be having different regional rounds. That is discriminatory as it implies reviews from certain places, and therefore the authors/reviewers from those places, are more valuable than others.

Giving your stuff away, time and books is an expense. Sure it's an investment, but to pretend it is free is silly. However, the bottom line is the important bit, why aren't reviews universal? Of course I don't expect that to be answered here, but rather by Amazon. I don't think there is anything we can do about it, but to keep on keeping on.

Amazon seems to have significantly shifted their stance on where readers are allowed to post reviews.

On April 9th, I was able to post a review to Amazon UK with my US account. On or about April 14th, I tried to post a review with the same account and received this message:

"To submit reviews, customers must make a minimum number of valid debit or credit card purchases. Prime subscriptions and promotional discounts don't qualify towards the purchase minimum. For more information, see our Customer Review Guidelines. If you have another account and you have already used it to make a purchase, you can sign into that account to write a review."

My valid purchases on Amazon US had always allowed me to review on other regional sites in the past, so I contacted customer support.

Their first response:
"To write a Customer Review, you must have used your account to make at least £40 in purchases on Amazon.co.uk in the past 12 months. Once your order has dispatched, you'll be able to write your first customer review (Promotional discounts don't count toward the £40 minimum).

I've reviewed your Amazon.co.uk account for (email address redacted) and I see you haven't made at least £40 in purchases on this account in the past 12 months. To post a review from this account, you'll need to meet this purchase requirement.

If you've made purchases in the past 12 months, you may have done so using another Amazon.co.uk account. If you've forgotten your password, you can request password assistance here...
I hope this helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon."

My response:
"In the past I have been able to post reviews to Amazon sites like Amazon.co.uk with this account because I have made enough qualifying purchases on Amazon.com. Has this policy changed?

The books I review on Amazon.co.uk are ones that I have purchases on Amazon.com. Because I live in the US, I'm not able to make purchases on Amazon.co.uk, but I still want to be able to leave a review letting UK readers know how the book was. Does Amazon no longer allow readers to do this? It seems unfair to authors and readers alike."

They gave the same response to my second message, and added:
"I understand that I haven't been able to address your concerns to your satisfaction. However, we won't be able to offer any additional insight or action on these matters. Once you've met this purchase requirement and your order has shipped, you'll be able to contribute a review. I hope this helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon."

Further attempts to obtain an explanation were met with the same scripted response.

My interpretation: "Our policies have changed, to the detriment of authors and readers alike, and we're not going to explain why. Please feel free to buy each book on each regional site if you'd like to post a review!"

Long story short, at this point it's safe to say that it's not user error causing readers to be hit with a "you haven't met the requirements to post a review" error when attempting to review on Amazon sites other than their own.

Thanks for sharing your experience Leland.

You've confirmed the experience of others with some actual info from Zon.

Thanks for the explanation, Leland and Emma. So, it looks as if UK amazon site is out for us US people. A shame. I thought Arvidson deserved a review on the UK site. Ah, well. Ours not to question why because the why answer doesn't appear to make good sense.

Great News!

The Mighty Zon seems to have changed its policy again!

Today I posted reviews to the Zon US - and they went through!

I'll add a few more !!! as I do my HAPPY DANCE!!!

Oh cool!
As I've always said, the mighty Zon works in mysterious ways and us poor mortals will never know its purpose.

Hmmm. After reading this, I tried to post my last review on Zon US—no joy. Exactly the same notice as before…

ZOn giveth, and Zon taketh away...

…blessed be the name of Zon!!

Does anyone have an explanation for why Amazon.UK doesn't link reviews to any of the other amazon sites? I mean I left a review on a book for the US site and it was linked to every other version of amazon but UK.

Same thing if you are in Canada. I shop on Amazon.ca, but those purchases do not qualify me to post on Amazon.com. This discussion header suggests there's a solution to this. ( aside from shopping on the US site..) Is there?

Mary wrote: "Same thing if you are in Canada. I shop on Amazon.ca, but those purchases do not qualify me to post on Amazon.com. This discussion header suggests there's a solution to this. ( aside from shopping ..."

Mary, I think that was years ago. Since then (back in April 2018), Amazon changed its policies. Now one must spend a minimum amount in a "zone" (US, Canada, UK, etc) in order to write reviews in that zone. So the messages from before that applied to the outdated policy.

It is what it is. While of course it would be lovely if every review I got accumulated in one place, since we cannot control what Amazon does, I just enjoy having individual reviews scattered about the world.

Hi all - I'm in Australia but I can also review in the US. However, I can not review in the UK, nor can I purchase something in the UK because of the COVID situation. Granted, Australia is a minor market, but would the group accept a US/AU?Goodreads posting? (All of the tips and tricks to post world-wide above do not work for me).

Stella wrote: "Granted, Australia is a minor market, but would the group accept a US/AU?Goodreads posting? (All of the tips and tricks to post world-wide above do not work for me)."

The post probably needs updating as Amazon changed it's policy a while ago.

Now, as long as you can post to your own Amazon, wherever in the world that might be, you are free to signup to the rounds.

Hope this helps.

E.M. wrote: "Stella wrote: "Granted, Australia is a minor market, but would the group accept a US/AU?Goodreads posting? (All of the tips and tricks to post world-wide above do not work for me)."

The post proba..."

Yes - solves my dilemma completely.