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Originally Posted by Penforhire
The average review by non-professional readers is worthless to me even when it sticks to content.
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See, I'm the complete opposite. I have nothing in common with a "professional reader" so why would I give their reviews more weight? I'll choose everyday, average-joe reader reviews every time. They're usually much more relevant than the navel-gazing "professional" variety.
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Originally Posted by Penforhire
Do you really find that if everyone likes it you will too?
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Of course not. That's an overly simplistic view of how I and others use reviews (professional or otherwise) to help make purchase decisions.
Many people's positives points are things that I detest in a book; and vice-versa. The negative reviews (based on content) are just as helpful to me. And I guarantee you; 200 5-star reviews praising an author's in-depth "World-Building" skills is a dead giveaway that I will want to avoid that particular exercise in filler and info-dumps. Reviews usually help me NOT purchase something... not the other way around.
The same way that I can translate 100; "I can't wait for book two!"'s into "book one has no proper ending... wait until the series is complete."
The only thing that isn't helpful to me is wading through page after page of irrelevant (non-content based) reviews for the relevant ones (content based)--be they negative, positive or amateurish.