I think reading this as you have "That means that every time somebody mentions a book, we "will" make it into a link." is not correct.

I strongly agree with demerphq's sensible reading.

They say that the product references can contain and look like whatever you want -- they don't have to have a review or description.

I would be pretty confident that placing product references and links on the for-sale page managed by the PM editors (or whichever PM group) does not oblige you to also put a link up every single time any user mentions a book or album title in the chatterbox.

(Surely some of Amazon's other affiliates also have chat or forum areas; I bet Amazon doesn't patrol them looking for book titles that weren't linked and accompanied by a cover photo and short review.)

The only thing you *must* do is include Amazon links for all of the relevant products on the for-sale page. From a corporate point of view, those are the "products you selected to list on your site" and every other node and comment is just community conversation, rather than an official selection of a product for inclusion on the for-sale page.