Is there a way to make it so that Amazon never recommends a certain author to me?

[Ginevra]

I mean, not that it’s a big deal. My worst-mistake book from last year just won’t go away because the author has written a new piece of vapid drivel, which Amazon apparently thinks I want to know about. So it keeps showing up on my Kindle opening screen. 

I will survive if I can’t do any5hing about it. I just wondered if anyone is aware of a setting like, “Never notify me of this author’s new books.” 

[mlktwins]

If you go to Your Account, Your Recommendations, Improve Your Recommendations, can you find that book you purchased and mark it Do Not Use For Recommendation?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Arctic Mama said:

But is it Rachel Hollis? 🤣

She is literally all I can picture with the words “vapid drivel”!

Well noted. Very astute. 

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

If you go to Your Account, Your Recommendations, Improve Your Recommendations, can you find that book you purchased and mark it Do Not Use For Recommendation?

Thank you! I did this; now we’ll see! 

[cave canem]

58 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

But is it Rachel Hollis? 🤣

She is literally all I can picture with the words “vapid drivel”!

Oh no!  Now I am going to have to go check her out.

[alisoncooks]

Ha!  I recently got the Amazon recommendation for her new book, and the only reason I ever looked at her first book listing was because of your other thread. The second I saw this title and the poster name....I KNEW what was coming. 

[Heatherwith4]

I instantly knew which author you were talking about when I read your post.  😂 

[shawthorne44]

Now I know who to avoid.   I don't avoid many.  

When they first started to do the recommendations, they got a scathing email from me.  I'd bought a book documenting the evil deeds of a politician.  Then they recommended the autobiography of that politician.  

[shawthorne44]

3 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

Careful, your eyes may permanently roll to the back of your head, a side effect I’m sure Quill is trying to avoid! (hence the request to permanently block the author recommendation)

 

I have rolled my eyes so hard before that then I said, "Ouch" because it hurt a bit.  

[vonfirmath]

1 hour ago, Arctic Mama said:

But is it Rachel Hollis? 🤣

She is literally all I can picture with the words “vapid drivel”!

 

That's who I assumed Quill meant. Yes and she has a new book out now (That is getting claims of plagiarism)

[TechWife]

1 hour ago, cave canem said:

Oh no!  Now I am going to have to go check her out.

No, you really don't. You won't miss a thing and you'll be grateful you didn't waste your time!

[Lady Marmalade]

2 hours ago, Arctic Mama said:

But is it Rachel Hollis? 🤣

She is literally all I can picture with the words “vapid drivel”!

ROFL! I had the same thought.  The exact words that rolled through my brain were "Surely she's talking about the new Rachel Hollis book".

[theelfqueen]

I have not read or looked at the first book. But I think they're pushing the sequel a lot because it is showing up in both audible and kindle ads for me, too

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, cave canem said:

Oh no!  Now I am going to have to go check her out.

DON’T DO IT! Amazon will keep sening you her damn picture everytime you open your kindle, log onto Amazon or open Audible! 😂

[PrincessMommy]

I've never even heard of her.  Have to check this out.  

[cave canem]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

DON’T DO IT! Amazon will keep sening you her damn picture everytime you open your kindle, log onto Amazon or open Audible! 😂

Nah.  I get all my reading from the public library.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, vonfirmath said:

 

That's who I assumed Quill meant. Yes and she has a new book out now (That is getting claims of plagiarism)

Ooooh! Exciting! 

Also, proving the world does in fact have a Negativity Bias, my GRs review of her book is hands down, my most popular review. It has been “liked” around a hundred times and commented on several times. 

[Junie]

As soon as I saw that this thread was Quill's, I immediately thought, "Oh.  That stupid wash your face book."  :)

Good luck, Quill!

 

ETA:  I've not read the book, so I don't know if it really is stupid.  It's just what I've heard. 😉 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Junie

[Selkie]

It's bad enough Amazon is pushing her, but what is with the huge Rachel Hollis displays in every store I've been in lately? Bookstores, Walmart, even Michael's has a big pile of her books front and center when you walk in the door.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Selkie said:

It's bad enough Amazon is pushing her, but what is with the huge Rachel Hollis displays in every store I've been in lately? Bookstores, Walmart, even Michael's has a big pile of her books front and center when you walk in the door.

I would be tempted to go armed with sticky notes to put on the displays: “This is drivel.” 

Some people love her. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t get it, though. 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

Ooooh! Exciting! 

Also, proving the world does in fact have a Negativity Bias, my GRs review of her book is hands down, my most popular review. It has been “liked” around a hundred times and commented on several times. 

Link please? I've never heard of this author. I have no clue if you're talking about fiction or non-fiction even. Will my curiosity get the better of me? Probably.

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

Link please? I've never heard of this author. I have no clue if you're talking about fiction or non-fiction even. Will my curiosity get the better of me? Probably.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36223131-girl-wash-your-face

Non-fiction, sort of self-help/motivational, ostensibly “Christian” (though I find it laughable); the author is a “lifestyle media” guru. I wouldn’t tend to even know what that means, much less have known who she is, but a friend raved about her on FB so I foolishly bought. 

She’s kinda like a female Tony Robbins except much more pretentious and full of herself. 

 

 

 

[Forget-Me-Not]

3 hours ago, Selkie said:

It's bad enough Amazon is pushing her, but what is with the huge Rachel Hollis displays in every store I've been in lately? Bookstores, Walmart, even Michael's has a big pile of her books front and center when you walk in the door.

Yep, there was a huge display in the front main aisle at my local Target. 

[Carol in Cal.]

I don't see how anyone who reads her blog could think there was much substance in a book she writes.

[easypeasy]

OMgosh! I read this, had zero idea who Rachel Hollis was... went to amazon and searched her name. As soon as her face showed up, I gasped! I am legendary for HAVING to finish any book I start. It's a sickness. I started this book because it kept popping up on my "recommended' lists, and it was astonishingly awful! I thought I was the weird one, because she's obviously so popular, but it was offensively, eye-roll inducingly, awful.

At some point, I realized that I didn't have to put myself through this nonsense and I stopped the audio book. It was the only book I didn't finish last year.

I'm not alone! (and definitely not wanting to read anything else she's written - ever)

[Guest]

7 hours ago, easypeasy said:

OMgosh! I read this, had zero idea who Rachel Hollis was... went to amazon and searched her name. As soon as her face showed up, I gasped! I am legendary for HAVING to finish any book I start. It's a sickness. I started this book because it kept popping up on my "recommended' lists, and it was astonishingly awful! I thought I was the weird one, because she's obviously so popular, but it was offensively, eye-roll inducingly, awful.

At some point, I realized that I didn't have to put myself through this nonsense and I stopped the audio book. It was the only book I didn't finish last year.

I'm not alone! (and definitely not wanting to read anything else she's written - ever)

Out of curiosity, I looked on GRs at the new book. It is cram-packed with five-star reviews. I seriously do not get it. I badly hope this isn’t indiciative of our larger society and what passes for a great book or a great writer. 

[LucyStoner]

I haven’t so much as read the jacket flap of the first book and I still get bombarded with ads for the second book.  I read the title of the first one and immediately put it in the “NO” pile in my head.  

[vonfirmath]

6 hours ago, Quill said:

Out of curiosity, I looked on GRs at the new book. It is cram-packed with five-star reviews. I seriously do not get it. I badly hope this isn’t indiciative of our larger society and what passes for a great book or a great writer. 

 

I fear it is.

 

[TechWife]

Y’all - An add for the book in question showed up on my Kindle today. It’s everywhere - an invasion off poor self help books...

[Katy]

I've found giving something a bad review usually stops the recommendations and ads.

[Lady Florida.]

OMG I opened my Kindle yesterday and guess what was there? I have the one with special offers because it was cheaper and because sometimes I actually get good recommendations through the offers. I was reading in a waiting room and when I opened the Kindle and saw that recommendation my first thought was "I have to post this on @Quill 's thread".

[Lady Florida.]

10 hours ago, Katy said:

I've found giving something a bad review usually stops the recommendations and ads.

She did. At least on Goodreads she did, and GR is owned by Amazon. I suspect that's part of her frustration  - that she gave it a bad review and keeps getting the author recommended to her anyway.

[Lady Florida.]

17 hours ago, TechWife said:

Y’all - An add for the book in question showed up on my Kindle today. It’s everywhere - an invasion off poor self help books...

I posted before going back and reading the latest posts. Apparently we don't get tailored ads on our Kindles. 

[Lady Florida.]

On 3/20/2019 at 4:14 PM, Quill said:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36223131-girl-wash-your-face

 

 

 

OMG she rated her own book! I was browsing through the reviews and saw her name as the reviewer and a 5 star rating. There's a "rated by author" note next to the review but is this something authors do on Goodreads? I don't follow or even pay attention to authors on GR unless I'm checking their page to see when the next book in a series is coming out. If authors rate their own books I was ignorant of that fact. Or is she just showing how clueless and arrogant she is?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Lady Florida. said:

OMG she rated her own book! I was browsing through the reviews and saw her name as the reviewer and a 5 star rating. There's a "rated by author" note next to the review but is this something authors do on Goodreads? I don't follow or even pay attention to authors on GR unless I'm checking their page to see when the next book in a series is coming out. If authors rate their own books I was ignorant of that fact. Or is she just showing how clueless and arrogant she is?

I think I saw that back when I wrote my Burn Book review. I think it said something like, “Because if I don’t think it is worth five stars, what hope is there?” *hard eyeroll*

I don’t know how far in the minority she is to do that, but I personally have not seen other authors do it. Most have the decency to favor-for-a-favor boost their cronies. Then at least it’s not so obvious they have no clue. 

[Guest]

I have concluded that Rachel Hollis must be “doing favors” for someone in charge of Amazon ad placements. Because - geez. Girl, get off my dang computer. 

[RootAnn]

On 3/22/2019 at 1:05 PM, Quill said:

I think I saw that back when I wrote my Burn Book review. I think it said something like, “Because if I don’t think it is worth five stars, what hope is there?” *hard eyeroll*

I don’t know how far in the minority she is to do that, but I personally have not seen other authors do it. Most have the decency to favor-for-a-favor boost their cronies. Then at least it’s not so obvious they have no clue. 

My DD was looking through book descriptions on something today to find some new books to read & commented that the author gave herself a five star review. I immediately thought of this thread and asked if the book was by Rachel whatever-her-name-is. It wasn't. So, guess there is at least one other author who does this. (That type of book is very far from what she'd be looking for, but I had to ask anyway.)