Quote:
Originally Posted by frankelr
The place of the screening editor can be replaced and bettered by consumer ratings.
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I have to disagree. 99% of consumer reviews (both good and bad) I don't trust. They so obviously don't know what they're talking about.
I'm not going to call out particular authors/books. That's not my point. But I have seen glowing consumer reviews for books that have been poorly written, brainlessly plotted, and carelessly edited.
I've seen consumer reviews trash a good book for trivial and frivolous reasons.
Yes, not every book will appeal to every reader; opinions will vary. But I see far too many consumer reviews that are glaringly amateur, and not in the good sense.
I won't say that there aren't any good self-published works or that bad books aren't published by major publishers. My experience is that there are certain publishers/authors that I can generally trust for a good product. I have found some trusty smaller, indie authors as well.
But they are fewer and far between; you have to wade through more slush and consumer reviews for many of these seem to be predominantly FFF: Friends, Family, and Fans.
So, I'm cautious in my approach to self-published works.