I agree with what's been said by Steven and ficbot. I am, by nature, a bit of a people pleaser, so giving constructive criticism about books was a somewhat difficult step for me. You can see on my Smashwords profile how I gradually got a little more specific about the things I didn't like. (I started reviewing books there first, this past spring.) I hate when I have read a book and see nothing but 5 star reviews and I think the book is more of a 2 or 3 star book. It's usually then that I see that the reviewer's other reviews are either all 5 stars, or the person has only reviewed that one book and nothing else, or reviewed only the books by that particular author (all 5 star reviews of course). Reviews like that are not helpful to me.
When I read reviews on books I'm thinking about, I love when there are a variety of reviews. I've seen a book where there were several reviews that were not very positive, but the things they pointed out as negatives were things I actually liked, or at least weren't deal breakers. The more critical reviews give me better information so I can decide if that book might be for me. The one major exception to the idea that I might still be interested in books with lower reviews is if a large percentage (not just one or two reviews) of reviewers note significant grammar issues. I know that a book like that will only annoy me and I will be so distracted I won't get into the story.
|