This week, while checking something on my Amazon UK book page for THE PRINCE’S MAN, I got a shock.
Instead of the 49 reviews it’s had for some time now, suddenly it was showing 77!
I know it’s selling steadily, but that’s a lot of new reviews all of a sudden, and I was eager to check them out. As I did so, I became confused – I could only find one new review.
Of course, every new review is precious, but what was going on with the numbers?
So I checked out the same page on Amazon US, and discovered 36 reviews had suddenly become 76.
And then I twigged – Amazon must have amalgamated reviews over the two sites.
Now before you tell me that the figures don’t add up (49 + 36 doesn’t = 77, or even 76) that I can explain.
Before Amazon became picky about readers only being able to review on their home site, many kind reviewers would leave the same review on both the US and the UK sites, so these duplicates have obviously been scrubbed.
But I don’t care! I’m thrilled with this positive step, because passing the 50 reviews, and then the 75 reviews is fantastic news, as these two magic figures have big implications for the visibility of a book. If you aren’t aware of this, take a look at this post from The Book Designer
I have no idea why the number differs between the two countries, but as it’s only by 1, I’m not stressing about it.
So here’s the latest addition to THE PRINCE’S MAN reviews – short but sweet.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2020
Format: Kindle Edition
Very good story line. I liked the characters, even the surprised ending of who really was the Bastard. I recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy.
I found myself picking of this book to see what will happen next. Looking forward to her next book.
See why I’m happy?
Word of warning: this doesn’t seem to be happening to all books/authors yet, so before you get too excited, I should check out your own review numbers first. Fingers crossed it’s the start of things to come for everyone.
deborahjay 
About blooming time! Why it has taken them so long to do what was obviously right, defies logic!
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My thoughts too. I really don’t understand why the different country sites are so…different. It just doesn’t make any sense when we have a www. I’m currently prepping a post on Amazon categories, and have been shocked to discover HOW different the categories are for the same book in different countries.
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Maybe they will centralise those too?
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I wish!
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High time they put their customers first!
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Great news and thanks for sharing this, Debby. ❤
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Fab, isn’t it? And about time.
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This is good to know so the numbers of reviews on both sites should now be the same.
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Have you checked yours? I don’t trust Amazon, sometimes they seem to do these things with a random choice of authors just to try something new.
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No, but I am going to this afternoon. Thanks Deborah.
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That’s great news! Woo hoo. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
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I do hope so – at the moment it isn’t across the board, but hopefully it will be eventually.
Amazon is rather prone to picking random authors to test out new ideas, I’ve noticed, so I should go check yours before you celebrate.
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Good idea. I hadn’t noticed any change in the quantities of reviews, but I also wasn’t really looking for it. It would be a great change!
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Congratulations to all of us, this is great news. Thanks, Deborah.
Happy Trails!
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If they roll it out across all authors, it certainly will be, but it isn’t universal yet.
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Excellent. xxx
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I agree. It’s about time! What about other countries, though? I have a 4* review on Amazon.in (india) that won’t appear on either.
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It makes sense to us. If only it did to Amazon too…
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Don’t know what planet your living on, but here on Earth both the Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk revues remain separated. What your talking about is how it used to be until a few months back – no more…
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It’s a new departure for my books – never happened before but it has happened now.
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Reblogged this on Have We Had Help? and commented:
Cart before the Horse???
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I didn’t see that. This is great news. Thanks for alerting me and us!
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Doesn’t seem to be happening to many, I only know it has happened to mine. Would be a good move if it was applied across the board.
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Thanks for this Deb. I better do a spot check ❤
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I’m wondering if it has only affected UK authors so far – they are the only ones reporting the change, and not by any means all of us. Do let me know if your numbers change.
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Just checked! Woohoo, yes, they’ve combined mine too! My first book Conflicted Hearts sitting at 74 reviews. Breaking barriers with you! ❤
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Excellent! And near enough, snap!
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🙂
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Hi! I went and looked. I’m in the US. I checked my books in UK. They took away half of the reviews I have in the US from my UK page. Also, my first edition (with my now closed UK publisher) is showing up and superseding my new and improved second edition with a new publisher in the US. In addition, this week they boosted my book’s prices by an additional 8 dollars US and are selling cheaper copies (The Used bar) that they have through Book Depository (A company Amazon owns). I’m furious. I’m hoping it’s temporary. So frustrating, but I’m happy for my UK author friends and their doubled reviews.
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How annoying for you – I hate it when they mess around with our prices.
Several of my US friends are reporting the same amalgamation of reviews on both US and UK sites as I have seen – hopefully they will roll this out across everyone’s books in time,
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Sorry I’m late chiming in here, Debby, but I’m still working on a lot of backed up emails that I can’t bring myself to scrap, yours being one. Glad I kept this. Believe it or not, I check my reviews every day. The links are at the top of my browser, so I just click through to see if any have been removed. (That was the bigger issue for a while.) Imagine my surprise when I found every one of my books had a whole bunch of new reviews overnight! Not quite as big a jump as yours made (congratulations!) but from 2 to 12 new reviews, even on older books. I was SUPER happy, too, because it looks better on the pages, whether they are .com or .uk or whatever other dot they might be.
Oh, and the reason I check daily is so that I can copy every new review and save it to my master Word document, in case it should ever be removed, as we know can happen. I want them if for no reason other than it makes me happy to read them now and then, or to quote from one in a graphic or banner.
And while I knew that every review moves your book up a wee bit in the rankings, I didn’t know about the magic numbers of 50 and 75. (Or if I did once, I’d forgotten it.) Thanks for that info, and congratulations on seeing your numbers climb. It’s a great feeling!! And btw, I have your latest on my Kindle, but I fell so far behind after I … FELL … I haven’t gotten to it yet. Being this far behind on books I really WANT to read can depress me if I think about it too long, so I try to block that thought and just keep working my way through my TBR list. I WILL get reach it, and I WILL review it! (I already know I’ll love it!)
Great post! 🙂 Hope you are settling in and loving your new home more every day. 🙂 ❤
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Better late than never (cliché alert, cliché alert 😀 ). No, really , I do understand. I sometimes have to go back a couple of weeks to catch up on emails I’ve stored but not had time to deal with. Totally understandable, considering the things life keeps throwing our way – like, falling.
I’m delighted you , too, have had the benefit of this seemingly random Amazon move. I’m hoping everyone will, and then I’ll feel I wasn’t jumping the gun, or giving false hope, as a couple of other authors have thought.
I used to keep all my reviews, like you. Perhaps I really should do so again, as Amazon can be so truly fickle. When I get a spare moment…
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When I get a spare moment…
*Me, falling over laughing!* Oh, for the days when there were one or two of those happening now and then.
And I say, save your reviews! There might come a time when you’ll be super glad you did. If nothing else, you can look through them for good quotes now and then, and those come in handy, especially for promos, grahics, etc. It can’t hurt to have them stashed somewhere. 🙂
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