[BillSmithBooks]

I think using only "verified purchasers" is problematic because if one is willing to pay people to review your book, one is presumably willing to chip in another $0.99-2.99 to said shill to buy the book first.

And now that we know that Amazon will remove a book if people complain about removed books...well, the literary equivalent of 4chan could have a field day:

Pick an author you don't like*. Buy book. Post a review so obviously insincere that Amazon will no doubt remove it. Complain to Amazon. Get book removed.

* Or pay your friends to go after a competing author.

Rinse, repeat as desired.

Yap about it all over the Internet. Be sure to paint Amazon as the big/bad evil censor, especially since they are arbitrarily determining who is an illegitimate reviewer and who isn't in a very non-transparent way.

And ultimately, I have very little doubt that Amazon is going after small indie authors on this -- I have very little doubt that some mainstream publishers are using roundabout methods to get paid glowing reviews posted -- considering the tailspin and fear NY publishers are going through now, I have little doubt that *some* people in the industry would resort to this if they thought they could get away with it.

I think Amazon would have been better off letting the paid reviews stand and let the tidal wave of "this is crap" reviews drown out the paid shills.