Amazon Review Policy Revisited & Growing International Markets
Dec
12, 2011 |Filed in:
Uncategorized
A slight follow up from a previous post. You remember I posted about Amazon’s changing review policy? Well, thanks to Lisha Cauthen‘s amazing Sunflower Scoop, here’s the latest response from Amazon, but it’s not particularly satisfying:
Last week, we reported how book review and publicty company Reader Views was banned from posting their reviews on Amazon.
The post garnered debate among our readers. According to an email from Irene Watson, the founder of Reader Views, Amazon has banned reviews from 15 sites.
In response to our posts, an Amazon spokesman emailed us explaining the policy for reviews posted on their site: “Paid reviews are welcome in the ‘Editorial Reviews’ section of a book’s detail page. Reviews written for any form of compensation other than a free copy of the product are not allowed in the Customer Reviews section.”
Amazon also gave us links to its Customer Review Guidelines and its Editorial Reviews.
We asked Amazon about why Reader Views specifically had their reviews removed, but did not receive a response.
And now for more heartwarming news:
As many of you know, I have a particular interest in China’s growing literary market. Earlier this year, the PRC announced that they are actively pursuing literature about China, but written in other countries. Specifically, they want positive views of China’s history.
Just last week, the following article was published on Shelf Awareness:
Dangdang, which is often called the Amazon of China, plans to launch its own e-book platform later this month. Yi Wen-fei, the company’s v-p, said there are currently 50,000 digital books ready for purchase from more than 100 publishers, PaidContent reported, noting that Dangdang’s digital books will be available “on its own apps for iOS and Android, which are believed to be launching soon, and on its own-brand e-reader which should appear in the first quarter of 2012.”
Dangdang now joins competitors Hanvon and Shanda in the Chinese e-book market, but will have a dramatic impact on those two companies, “who effectively have a duopoly on the digital publishing market to consumers in China,” paidContent wrote.
One of my readers and friends, Giora, has contacted Dangdang to see if this includes works in English. I’ll let you know if we here anything back. What about you? Would an opening market in China encourage you to submit overseas?
I contacted literary agents and book publishers in China to get my book published there in English. Most didn't answer my e-mail. There is a long process to get books approved by the Chinese Government before getting the book published in China. Most Chinese book publishers expect the author to pay for publishing the book. I wonder if the Government will have to also approve E-books. I plan to submit to Dangdang in English when they are ready.
Wow. This is pretty interesting. I'm not very up-to-date on China's doings, but this sounds like a good thing to me.
I don't know how it might affect me, but interesting to read Giora's comments, too. 🙂
Thanks, Giora and Janet! I guess to me it means that the market is at least acknowledged. It's there. They have built it. The literature will come. LOL Seriously, where there's money to be made, someone will make the opportunity to take advantage of it.
I am not very familiar with the Chinese market, so this post sure was very informative for me.
This doesn't relate directly to your post, but I've been meaning to ask you for a while if you'd post (or re-post) your story on how you fell in love with China and wrote/are writing a book about it.
I almost sort of picked Greece randomly for one of my books and in the process of researching/writing I have fallen in love with Greece, both historical and modern.
Anyway, just curious.
Wow. I've never had anyone REQUEST a repost. I'm flattered. I'll try to find that for you, Margo.
Thanks for dropping by, Rachna!