Amazon Cheats for Hillary

By Linda L Barton

I must admit that I'm not surprised, but as a published author myself, I find this rather upsetting.  We've all heard about Hillary Clinton's latest book, What Happened.  And any of us who followed the 2016 Presidental campaign saw for ourselves how the Clinton campaign was not working on all cylinders.  She ignored several states and couldn't seem to fill a room, let alone an auditorium with thousands of excited supporters like President Trump did.

We repeatedly heard, how a Hillary win was a certainty and anyone who thought Donald Trump had a chance was just plain stupid and delusional.  But rally after rally only proved the support for a potential President Trump was strong and growing. Then we all saw the rallies for Hillary Clinton.  I don't know about you, but when I saw pictures of empty auditoriums where they had everyone all huddled together for the photo-op, I laughed myself silly.  

Now, we have her latest book release.  First, we all saw the picture of her in Costco for a book signing.  Sorry, Hillary, NONE of us believe this whole 'I'm one of the people' ploy you're doing.  Then I received an email today with an article on how Amazon is removing her 1-Star reviews. WHAT???  How is this even possible?  

As an author, myself, I find this beyond offensive.  How many of us who have sold our books on Amazon would love to have those nasty 1-Star reviews erased from our book page?  I know I would.  I remember the first time I read my first 1-Star review.  I was damn-near suicidal.  The problem was I didn't get them because my story sucked. No, I got them because of a stupid act on my part of not making sure my debut book was free of typos.  I didn't learn of my mistake until I did an Amazon Free-Days promo and 26,000 copies of my typo loaded masterpiece were sitting on kindles around the world. Yeah, that's a tough lesson to live with, but my writing career survived.

So, why does Hillary Clinton get to hide her 1-Star reviews?  I hate to break it to her AND Amazon, readers want honesty.  They don't want to be tricked into buying a book with false reviews.  Here is a quote from Amazon on the subject: 

“Amazon said it has mechanisms in place to ‘ensure that the voices of the many do not drown out the voices of a few.’”

What??? Did I read that correctly???  If that's the case, they need to remove all the 1-Star reviews on my debut novel.

Here's a taste of Hillary Clinton's reviews for What Happened - 

It’s the same tired list of excuses why Hillary lost. Nothing new that we haven’t heard from her and her minions before. It’s a very fast read, but a waste of money. Cheaper just to Google, Hillary Clinton’s excuses. She blames everyone but herself - Michael V.

I wrote a verified purchase review, and it has been deleted 3 times. If Amazon doesn’t like what we have to say, don’t ask for input -BabaLaon

I’m a non-partisan who has actually read this book and have to agree with many of the negative reviews here. This pretty much sums up the book:
1) It was MY turn
2) The campaign was absolutely impeccable..without any flaws whatsoever
3) It was everyone else’s fault - Manuel Beiroo

This book is exactly what we all expected, full of anger and bitterness and no actual remorse or even the hint of personal responsibility. Sure she writes the ubiquitous " I take full responsibility blah blah blah...". In fact, she blames everyone but herself. From the Russians to her emails to Kellyann Conway and fake news, no one is left alone. The only good part of this book is the ability to relive the experience of the total and complete take-down of a woman who dedicated her entire life to her own enrichment from a guy who is the exact opposite. It's nothing but poetic justice and this book is great at reliving every moment of it - Michael.

So, there you have it.  Amazon is propping up a book in an entirely dishonest way.  I realize that I don't have the name recognition as someone like Hillary Clinton, BUT we are both offering a product to the reading public.  Readers deserve the right to leave an honest review, and it's up to the writer to take those reviews and move on. 

Now, I hope you don't decide to boycott Amazon for this because there are authors who have excellent books on there for your reading enjoyment.  We work hard and spend hours sweating over our computers bringing our stories to life on the pages.  I just needed to voice my opinion of this practice by Amazon of handling certain people differently than the rest of us.  The sad part about all of this is we all know she had a ghost-writer do the all work for her.  

Okay, I'll jump down from my soapbox now.  I just wanted to voice my protest at the way she is ALWAYS given cover.  Come on, Hillary put on your big girl panties and face the music like the rest of us must.