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Fewer Reviews from Me

Amazon has banned incentivized reviews, meaning it is now prohibited to post a review of a product that you received for free or that you received payment for writing.

I’ve seen this coming and I agree with it in principle. From a practical standpoint, it won’t affect me greatly as my review queue is down to only one book and I’ve not been requesting nor receiving books to review for a while.

I will continue to review stuff I buy, both here and on Amazon, when I find something really exciting. I may still review free books on this blog, and as always, if I am reviewing a book that I received for free, I will put this note at the end of the review: Disclosure: I was given my copy of this book by the publisher as a review copy.

UPDATE October 18, 2017: I have learned that my understanding of Amazon’s policy was stricter than what Amazon intended. The Community Guidelines state it more clearly in the Promotions and Commercial Solicitations section: “Book authors and publishers may continue to provide free or discounted copies of their books to readers, as long as the author or publisher does not require a review in exchange or attempt to influence the review.” So, I again feel free to post reviews on Amazon for materials I received for free, provided I am not required to do so and the provider has not acted in a way that attempts to influence the review.