Goodreads Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors discussion

I was happily writing a thank you comment to Benny's review on Amazon.com for my novel "Religion Without a God" but when I came to press send/comment/whatever I received the message "Only those of good standing with the Amazon Community may leave comments"

Have any other authors encountered this?

Earlier this year I was inexplicably banned for life from leaving reviews on Amazon, with a vague generic email mentioning knowing the creators of the books/films I reviewed (no such luck) or receiving payment for reviews (again no such luck...but I wouldn't, it's naughty and misleading to customers!)

I let it go but now this is apparently interfering with my ability to interact with readers and give thanks for kind reviews I believe I need to raise it again!

I had only left a single review in the year or so before the ban email, for the film "Gods of Egypt."

I left a review to balance out the many quite nasty reviews which had nothing to do with the quality of the film and were factually unfair. At the time I assumed someone at Amazon who hated the film, or did not think Brenton Thwaites was adorable, took exception to my review defending it and engineered the removal/ban.

I would only change the review it to add that the scene where cloned copies of the God of Wisdom were librarians was rather too silly and reminded me of the Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, another sad moment in film history!

Anyway, this is the infamous review that seems to have got me banned:

Impressive mythological adventure with great effects and a good heart

An impressive and enjoyable mythological epic with the same sort of feel as the original Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts, but with updated and more ambitious special effects and a conscious eye to detail. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is surprisingly faultless as Horus, and Brenton Thwaites looks adorable in every scene - those eyebrows!

The way Egyptian religion and the gods were represented was superb! The film should have been more successful but was sabotaged by campaigners for ethnic diversity which seems rather off target - according to the latest DNA data from Middle Egypt, Ancient Egyptians were genetically a Mediterranean people ("The mummies' closest ancient relatives were found in the Near East and Europe" - CNN and others 23 June 2017 ), and the vast majority of actors used looked suitably Mediterranean, hence appropriate: ironically the exceptions who are less appropriate are one fair haired goddess, and black actors for the god Thoth and the High Priest, all of whom acted well. Definitely worth watching, and owning on blu-ray!

Did anyone else enjoy the film? Have you been banned unfairly? You don't need to be in BOTH categories to reply! In fact, anyone can reply!

I haven’t been banned and this is the first I’ve heard of Amazon banning reviewers for life. It sounds massively unfair, which fits their playbook unfortunately. Since when is knowing the creator grounds for a permaban? They have been known to remove reviews with a personal connection, but this seems a step beyond.

Caitlin wrote: "I haven’t been banned and this is the first I’ve heard of Amazon banning reviewers for life. It sounds massively unfair, which fits their playbook unfortunately. Since when is knowing the creator g..."

Hi Caitlin,
It does seem harsh. Amazon have to try to ensure reviews are honest, and it can't be easy for them to do that, but in this case I didn't even know ANYONE in books or movies, so it must be an error of some sort, in which case it would be nice if they could fix it. Someone suggested it could be for reasons of offence but there was nothing in the email to suggest that, from what I remember, and I don't really believe Amazon could find anything offensive in the review. Even if I was reinstated I would be very cautious about leaving any review now I know what could happen, but I would like to leave a thanks for the reviewer. Maybe it's for the best not to, but I did read advice somewhere to always thank reviewers for their time, even if the reviews are not good.
Guess I won't be doing that.

I got a rejection on a review I posted and told that I too was "not in good standing" I think its because I was trying to post on .com when I had bought the book on .ca. I was later able to post the review on .ca

I think they are clamping down on people reviewing "review copies" without buying them through Amazon. You can still add these reviews through your author page.

I agree with Liza Rose. If you haven't bought the film/book through Amazon, you can't leave a review. But as an author, you can add editorial reviews from credible sources for your own works through Amazon's Author Central. But banned for life? It is often hard to know what you've done wrong with such a lack of communication.