Another thing I learned last week at NINC involves posting reviews at Amazon. Many of us have noticed – or been notified of – reviews being removed from the Amazon website, because Amazon perceives that the reviewer and the author know each other. This is obviously an effort to keep people from abusing the review option by having all their friends give their book five star reviews, but is kind of annoying for reviewers who receive copies specifically so that they can post an honest review.

The solution is this: so long as you include the language “I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review” in your review, the review won’t be removed.

I would include this language as well if you win a copy of a book in a contest or giveaway and end up reviewing it. If the book was gifted through Amazon, Amazon will know it, and this will ensure your review doesn’t evaporate after you spend the time to write it.

How simple is that? And now we know!