Reviews Q&A January 7th. Takeaways · Royalty Guild. Amazon KDP Kit

Reviews Q&A January 7th. Takeaways

We had a great, deep conversation yesterday.

asked very important question about getting out of authors' bubble to get reviews. There are answers ready, but we will announce it next week.

The full video recording for Premium members is available in the Classroom.

And those are my takeaways from the meeting:

Amazon’s Aggressive Review Sweeps

Historical Context: While Amazon typically increases scrutiny during the holiday season, the recent "swipe" was exceptionally aggressive, with some publishers reporting 30% to 50% of reviews deleted.
Algorithmic Targeting: Amazon's systems have become almost entirely algorithmic, searching for "outliers" from normal human patterns rather than specific individuals.
The Virtual Assistant (VA) Problem: A primary cause for recent account terminations is the use of VAs from platforms like Upwork or Fiverr who post fake reviews using flagged or low-activity accounts.
Risk Indicators: A key indicator of a flagged account is the "pending approval" time. While the standard is three days, accounts under scrutiny will see longer wait times. Adriano suggests never having more than two reviews pending approval simultaneously.

Best Practices for Review Safety

Prioritize Verified Paid Purchases: Verified purchases (at price points like $0.99 or $2.99) are the safest way to show Amazon a real transaction has occurred.
Avoid Unverified and KU Reviews: Standard unverified reviews and Kindle Unlimited (KU) reviews are currently heavily targeted.
KU Limitations: Kindle Unlimited reviews often do not show as "verified" unless the book is read on an official Amazon device or app; reading via the Kindle Cloud Reader (web browser) will not trigger verified status.
Natural Review Timing: Reviews should ideally be posted between 5 and 7 days after purchase to appear natural.

Sustainability and "Coin Inflation"

The Ponzi Scheme Risk: Adriano argues that many review platforms are destined to fail because they allow "coin inflation". This occurs when users receive more coins for posting a review than they spend to receive one, or when they can buy coins without anyone actually posting a corresponding review.
System Imbalance: If the ratio of reviews posted to reviews received is not one-to-one, the system eventually collapses when users try to spend their accumulated coins and find no reviewers available.

BookVillage Platform Strategy

Interaction Management: Unlike other platforms, BookVillage limits repetitive interactions between the same users to mimic the natural behavior of an author's email list.
VA Detection: The platform is developing a browser extension to detect if a single Amazon account is "jumping" between multiple BookVillage accounts, which is a common sign of a Virtual Assistant.
Mandatory Delays: To ensure compliance and natural patterns, the platform makes it impossible to post a review in less than five days.

Appealing Amazon Sanctions

Bot-to-Bot Communication: Because initial Amazon enforcement is almost entirely bot-driven, appeals should be brief, logical, and factual rather than emotional.
Triggering Human Review: Appeals should include specific keywords like "Please escalate this case to a human" or "customer support team" to move the case out of the automated loop.

Guild members can get access to BookVillage under special conditions:

The first 30 days are free
Performance guarantee (if you didn't get enough reviews in the first month, you can ask for one more free month)
The next 2 months are 25% off ($15 a month)
A fixed price of $20 forever, as long as the subscription is active. Even if the price is raised for other users.

What are your takeaways? What is your strategy for reviews in 2026?

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