[anamardoll]

I'm a hobbyist reviewer on Amazon (Rank #122 as of today, lol) and these "Kindle Bombs" are certainly a source of contention among reviewers.

It's interesting to note that the Amazon review guidelines used to specifically prohibit including pricing information in a review because (and I'm paraphrasing) "prices change over time".

I actually had reviews in 2007 that had price information edited out by an Amazon editor before I understood that saying "for the current $10 price-tag, this is a good deal" was not allowed - they didn't want people providing ANY kind of price information in reviews. I presume this was because prices on Amazon fluctuate wildly on many items - Wootch and other programs are widely used to price-watch for the dips and dives. I also presume that Amazon didn't want customers looking at a $15 item, seeing a "great $10 deal" review, and deciding to wait for a price drop before buying.

Interestingly enough, not too terribly long ago - in fact, about the same time as the Kindle bombing started and the hobbyist reviewers started complaining that they were being hit by campaign votes - the Amazon review guidelines were edited to remove that prohibition against pricing. Can't imagine why - probably a coincidence. (Hitchhiker quote comes to mind that 'anyone who even notices, let alone calls attention to this fact, will be sued into oblivion', haha.)

I'm a big fan of boycotts and of using social media for public outcries. I've made Facebook and Blogger announcements in the past when I felt like a corporation was screwing me over, and I'm not ashamed of that. I get the "1-star if not $10" sentiment, completely. Unfortunately, a lot of the angry pitchfork mob seem willing to lash out at EVERYONE - the author, Amazon, the reviewers who rated the *content* instead of the price (and since Amazon has a habit of helpfully lumping all reviews for a book onto ALL the pages for that book, this means you could conceivably not even know a Kindle version exists and yet still get hit by Kindle bomb votes) - in their anger.

It's...frustrating for the people who get slammed, I can say that much. I've seen favorite authors of mine get Kindle bombed because a paperback edition from 2005 was priced at $6.50, but the new ebook version with the shiny new cover and corrections was priced at $6.99. When you're a fan of that author, and you're desperately praying that all her OTHER books get ported over to electronic form, it's painful to watch that - there's a fear that the publishers will just throw in the towel and say, 'eh, not worth it'. Especially when you believe, as I do, that the publishers would like ebooks to die anyway.

What's most frustrating is that Amazon is encouraging the bombing, even going so far as to change their own reviewing rules - rules that they'd had for years and years - to support it. And they only did that because so many hobbyist reviewers complained that Amazon wasn't abiding by their own TOC and wasn't taking down reviews that literally said "I haven't read this, but it's 1-star until the price goes down." That was against Amazon's review TOC for two major reasons - price discussion and open disclosure of no experience with the product - but they still won't remove them. Instead, they changed the reviewing guidelines.

I really don't know the answer to all this, but this is my perspective: I think the publishers love the Kindle bombing because they'd just as soon not have ebooks to begin with. I think Amazon loves the Kindle bombing because they'd love to bully the publishers into submission. I think SOME (not all) Kindle bombers do it for the thrill of defacement and for the social aspect (there are threads devoted to Kindle bombing and slapping each other on the back) and that a .50 cent difference between a 6-year-old edition and a new one with corrections and a sexeh new cover is a red flag for fun bombing for SOME of them. I think readers, reviewers, and authors lose out. That is just my humble opinion.