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Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
Amazon gives you the ability to vote whether an individual review was helpful or not. However some people abuse it and vote not helpful on valid reviews just because they don't agree. That's why I intentionally never review controversial or passionate items (sad to say). Now Amazon has recently added a feature that validates that the reviewer actually purchases the item on Amazon, similar to jswolf's suggestion.
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Yes, I think the "helpful/not helpful" button has the potential to be just as abused as the star rating system. Some of my reviews on Amazon have garnered one or two "not helpful" ratings, which is frustrating, as I put a lot of work into the reviews to be specific. Even if you don't agree, surely the specific comments were helpful!
I haven't seen this feature of validating that the reviewer has purchased, is it also effective on ebooks? That would be frustrating. When I review, I put the reviews on several sites (Amazon, Smashwords if applicable, and Goodreads), and I already can't review on Smashwords unless I "bought" it on their site.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dlmartin6
As a reader, I do look at all the reviews [to a point] especially the 1 and 2 star reviews to see if there is a valid complaint about the book. Usually it's just a one sentence review along the lines "this book sucks." I ignore all these because obviously it's just a vicious attack.
I review books and post my reviews on both my blog and Amazon. I spend a good amount of time composing my review highlighting good points in the book, but also pointing out problems that I find as well. I've had authors thank me for a 3-star review because I had pointed out a problem that the author hadn't seen before.
Reviews though are ultimately for the reader to help them decide whether or not they will buy this book. That's what I keep in my mind when I write a review.
Deb
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I also read reviews and pay particular attention to the specifics mentioned. The stars don't mean a lot to me as a consumer (I only give them as a reviewer because the world seems to work in stars
), but the specific comments made are important to me. When I see several reviews blasting grammar, I know that's a book I won't touch. If reviews are complaining about the genre or the ending or the price, then I can ignore them. I really don't get the reviews that say "I couldn't even read past page 7 because I don't like sci fi" and then give it 1 star. Really? You don't like the genre, you never even read the book, and you're rating it? I also hate the reviews that just say "what an amazing book! This is the best author ever, I love every one of her books!" That tells me nothing except you drool when you hear this author's name. As long as I'm sharing, the reviews that are really just protracted summaries are equally annoying. They are like trailers that give away the entire movie.
I write reviews for indie books for two reasons. One reason is to inform potential readers what I thought of the book- maybe others have different ideas about what makes a good book, but hopefully I've included enough specifics to let the reader make her/his own informed decision. The second reason is that I want quality authors to rise to the top and gain an audience and continue writing so I can (selfishly) continue reading quality books. I don't write reviews *for* authors, per se, meaning that I'm not going to give glowing reviews to every author just because, but I do want to encourage the success of good authors by (hopefully) increasing their readership. I also want to give authors feedback on things that worked or didn't work for me.
I'm only one person with my own opinions. I know some of my reviews have probably not made me new author friends. But I promise an honest review, and that's what I'll give. Authors can take or leave what I write, but, for the most part, they have been appreciative of my efforts. Readers can take or leave what I write as well. Even my mediocre or not-so-great reviews can attract an audience to the book. There was one book I reviewed that wasn't high on the stars and the author wasn't pleased, but I actually received two comments from others who were interested in the book based on my review. Reviews don't have to be stellar to garner interest, if there are specifics in the review that pique a reader's interest. I'm not a PR firm, and reviews do take a lot of time because I think a lot about what I want to convey to others. I just really like books!