Somehow when Freddie Mercury wrote that line I doubt he realized how much it would be used and how appropriate it would be to so many situations.
In this case, the situation is Amazon and its overzealous, hyper-obnoxious tendencies to target honest bloggers, suppressing their reviews and harming blogger, reader, and author in one fell swoop. It begins with the single review that takes forever to post after several back and forth emails in which Amazon says the review cannot be posted because it violates the Terms of Service (TOS). How does it violate? Well, that's anyone's guess. Amazon will not tell so it is up to the blogger to figure out what is offending on that particular day. Swear words? Slightly spoilerish words? Unacceptable phrasing? Sometimes it takes several people speculating to find that needle in the haystack.
But in the end the review gets posted and all is well... or not. The blogger can be hit at any given moment in time with the dreaded email from the Amazonian machine. You know the one...
"A Message From Amazon Review Moderation
From: review-appeals@amazon.com
Hello,
We have determined that you have violated our Customer Review Creation Guidelines. As a result, we have suppressed all of your reviews and you will no longer be able to post reviews on Amazon.com.
We made the decision after carefully considering your reviewing account. The decision is final.
Review Moderator, Amazon.com"
THE DECISION IS FINAL
The words are haunting and they are devastating in the extreme. Now, the blogger who, more than likely has never intentionally violated anything in their life, much less an Amazonian rule, is now without recourse. Their reviews are gone. The readers cannot benefit from the review. If the reader is a follower of the blog then they no longer have that trusted source for whether the book stands up to their standard. The author suffers because now, one of the reviews that they value so intensely is gone... just gone. No warning, nothing... just gone.
For big name authors, one review here and there means nothing. But to the little authors, struggling to swim in this overflowing sea of other authors, one review can mean the difference between 49 and no help from the Amazonian algorithms and 50, where a tiny glimmer of help from Amazon begins to exist. One review can make the difference between a good day and a bad because believe me, losing one single review can tarnish a day so thoroughly that recovery may take days.
When one blogger's reviews are suppressed, some authors lose multiple reviews. When a blogger recently got nailed by Amazon (again no warning whatsoever), I personally lost 9 reviews. NINE! I have eleven books currently available on Amazon... nine of them lost one review. Crushed, heart-broken, utterly devastated... these words simply don't cover the emotions that slam an author when these things happen. Bloggers... they lose hundreds of reviews. Hundreds of hours of writing reviews for authors. I can only imagine the emotional devastation.
Now I understand that Amazon had... has a rampant problem with dishonest reviews and reviewers. I get that. But penalizing honest reviewers because the algorithm targets them one day is ridiculous. That there is no way to appeal the decision is beyond unreasonable. At what point do authors, bloggers and readers finally say 'F*** you, Amazon, we're going to take our business elsewhere... where we don't have to live in fear of your big damn thumb crushing us on your whim.'? At what point does Amazon's choke-hold on this industry become a fight-able monopoly?
As independently published authors, bloggers, and readers, we are in this battle together as it affects all of us. And we are only as strong in this battle as we are strong together. Is it time to stand as one and take on the great Amazon machine?