Q –

Dear Angela,

The reason for my writing is to let you know that my wife received a very nasty 1-star review on Amazon. She is devastated by the review and is fearful it will prove a death knell for her book’s prospects in the market place.

My wife’s book has appeared in the top 100 in several categories on Amazon almost continuously. 

If you have any advice or suggestions I would so love to hear them. Thanks for listening, Angela, and for everything you do.

---

A – 

Please give her a big hug from me, and and tell her this happens. Sometimes it’s a nasty neighbor or someone else you know. Amazon won’t remove those.

Or, sometimes it’s just a reader who didn’t like a particular book.

To counter that one-star review, you and she can try to get more 5-star reviews. We teach authors how to do that here:

EPISODE 44: How to Get Free Book Reviews from Popular Reviewers Who Have THOUSANDS of Followers!

One star reviews, unfortunately, come with the territory of being an author.

I wrote a political book under a pseudonym and received a one-star review (from someone who had not even purchased the book – it was an “unverified”), who clearly didn’t agree with just the title of my book. It was obvious from the review that the person hadn’t read the book, but Amazon wouldn’t remove the 1-star review.

One of our authors wrote a book about being abused as a child. Some of his family members got upset with him, and gave him one-star reviews on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com. Amazon wouldn’t remove them, but B&N did.

Another author had a beef with an old neighbor. That guy didn’t read the author’s book, and his “book review” trashed the author and his family. It wasn’t a book review at all. It was a character assassination, and Amazon refused to remove that one as well.

RELATED

• EPISODE 34: When Fake 1-Star “Book Reviews” Are Actually Character Assassinations of Authors – 01 2026
• THE TO-DO LIST We Promised in Podcast Episode 44: How to Get Free Book Reviews from Popular Reviewers Who Have THOUSANDS of Followers!
• IS AMAZON REJECTING BOOK REVIEWS FROM YOUR READERS? We Found a Work-Around!
• AUTHOR ALERT! Can Your Book’s REVIEWS Get You Sued? Yep!
• KARMA! Man Who Sold Book Reviews Is Shamed Online
• Can You Republish Amazon Reviews? Maybe, or Maybe Not…
• “Amazon has deleted verified reviews from my book page! What can I do?”
• “Why won’t Amazon let my relatives post (fake!) reviews about my new book?”

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