Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
But when you go to Amazon and see a bunch of 4- and 5-star reviews of a book, how do you know the reviews aren't paid-for reviews?
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It bothers me that some reviews may have been paid for by the author without disclosure to potential readers. It'd also be nice to know if a review
might be biased because it was written by a friend or relative, or someone else who wrote it as a "favor."
I do read some of the reviews before purchasing a book, but I carefully consider the comments. I suspect that some 5-star reviews are written by friends or relatives because they're just
too glowing! I'm very leery of those,
especially if there are only a few reviews. I put less weight on a review that doesn't also mention some of a book's shortcomings. Many of the 1- and 2-star reviews make very trivial, petty comments, so I usually discount those, but others do have valuable information.
I compare reviews to see if there's a common criticism among them. Poor-quality writing is one thing, but some reviewers just don't care for a book because it isn't their cup of tea (wrong genre, perhaps). But that doesn't mean that someone else won't enjoy it, so I try to get a feel for that.