Thoughts on 1-star reviews....

[DArenson]

Consider the casual reader who's browsing for a novel to read. She sees a book with a low average star rating. What does she think? "Poorly written book."

Novels are a bit different than other products. If I review, say, an air conditioner, I think it's fair to complain about a high price. But with novels... I dunno. I tend to think that a review should discuss the words the author wrote. Not the price or formatting, which are controlled by the publisher.

Also: Sometimes on Amazon, I see readers review a Kindle edition of a book, and give it one-star because of a high price or formatting errors. But the review then appears for the book's other editions -- hardcover, paperback, etc.

[tubemonkey]

Should apps get one-star reviews for crashing?

Ask app developers and most will tell you that good user reviews and high ratings are the keys to selling apps. I'm not going to get into which reviews are real or written by friends. Nor am I going to talk about those nefarious instances where one app maker puts a negative review on a competing app (yes, it happens). But suffice to say the more positive reviews the better, and negative reviews that bring an overall rating down hurt. Bad.

You bet! Apps should work.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by DArenson

Also: Sometimes on Amazon, I see readers review a Kindle edition of a book, and give it one-star because of a high price or formatting errors. But the review then appears for the book's other editions -- hardcover, paperback, etc.

I'm always browsing, and I see this quite a bit. One kindle ebook I was looking at had a lot of 1 stars, so checked them out. They were all complaining about the actor chosen to read the audio book. Not helpful with an ebook review. I don't know if they made the mistake or Amazon is merging reviews.

Formatting I can see a 1 star. Bad formatting makes a book hard to read, destroys the flow of the story. Don't want that.

On the other hand, price complaint I think are uncalled for. I can see the price, thanks. I don't need anyone else's opinion on whether it's too high or not. And do they ever bother and revamp their review if the price of the book drops? Or should the ebook carry the 1 star rate even if they drop down to 99 cents?

I just don't think giving stars on prices is fair, or needed. Too expensive? Just don't buy it.

[Arrghus]

While it must be tough on authors to see 1-star reviews that make no comment on the literary merit of their work, I nevertheless support those who give a 1-star reviews because of genuine disappointment with things like formatting, and typographical errors. Reviews can be retracted, so the onus is then on the author and/or publisher to correct these errors and therefore kindly ask for the reviewer to retract their review.

That said, now that nearly every book has a preview on Kindle, there's less excuse to leave a bad review for formatting, when the formatting can be sampled quite easily.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

I read as many 1 star reviews as I read 5 star reviews. At the least, I'll get a grasp on the extremes of both ends. But, the 1 star reviews that are nothing more than "Oh, it's too expensive!" and nothing else, I tend to ignore.

[tubemonkey]

Let's say a book gets 5 stars for content, but also a slew of 1 stars for price and formatting issues. Would you still buy it?

[PKFFW]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Let's say a book gets 5 stars for content, but also a slew of 1 stars for price and formatting issues. Would you still buy it?

If the 1 star reviews were all for "price and formatting" I probably wouldn't. If only a couple were for formatting and the rest for price I might if I thought the price was ok. Particularly if the formatting errors mentioned were ones I thought I could live with.

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by DArenson

Consider the casual reader who's browsing for a novel to read. She sees a book with a low average star rating. What does she think? "Poorly written book." Novels are a bit different than other products. If I review, say, an air conditioner, I think it's fair to complain about a high price. But with novels... I dunno. I tend to think that a review should discuss the words the author wrote. Not the price or formatting, which are controlled by the publisher.

How are they different from air conditioners? They are a product which is sold to the customer for money, the end. Being a novel instead of an air conditioner or a widget or a loaf of bread doesn't confer upon them special status. If the customer shells out and finds the product was not worth the money, for whatever reason, they are entitled to honestly review about it and warn away other potential customers. It doesn't matter whose 'fault' it is that the product has whatever issue. If the customer is unhappy, they are unhappy. If they say why and you as a fellow customer don't agree with them, good for you and go ahead and buy it. And if you do read their comments and think that their issue might also be a problem for you, don't buy.

I don't agree with leaving one-star reviews for products one doesn't purchase. But once I pay money, reviewing it is fair game, whether it's a book or something else. If the author's feelings are hurt because somebody found the price too high for what it was, or because poor formatting affected their reading experience, them's the breaks. They put their product out there on the open marketplace, and so subjected it to fair customer scrutiny. It being a book instead of another product does not confer upon it special snowflake status.

[JimKal]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

I agree with this. If the price is too high too high for someone, it's too high. Don't buy it. I don't see how a review saying 1 star "because it's too expensive but I haven't bought it -obviously- because it's too expensive" is helpful to readers or authors? It doesn't give the readers the information they're looking for-the price is listed right there, a one star review isn't going to make the price more obvious. Now, on the other hand, if the reviewer says "this book is good for these reasons, not so great for these, but I really don't think it's worth 11.99 and I wish I hadn't bought it for that price..." that's helpful. Maybe the things the reader liked about the book are the exact things I've been looking for in a book, and maybe that price point is fine with me. Or maybe the book intrigues me, but I'll go ahead and look for it at the library or wait for a sale because that price is a deal-breaker. Or maybe I don't like any of the "good" points in the review, so I know it's definitely not worth my money.

Isn't just not buying the book the way to send a message to the publisher? I know many authors who do experimentation on price points to see what price gets the most sold and/or gets the best profit. Not selling any would be a pretty clear indication that price point isn't right.

This is very well said. We all have to make decisions about the price of an e-book, a book, a car, or any other product. Price is a factor for all of us to consider. I too am interested in a review of the book. If someone feels the price is so high they won't consider buying the book then let the publisher know. Post on that website or , horrors, send them a letter. Telling the rest of us the price is too high is to be dismissive of our decision to think for ourselves. It might even be insulting to some.

I do find it helpful when reviews point out formatting and grammatical errors. I think it appropriate to lower the rating if they are significant. I tend to find one star reviews based on content helpful but I tend to add a comment to one star reviews, when the product hasn't been read, to say that it really isn't a review.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That is a 1 star copy. If I could give it less, I would have.

But, if it's only $.50 then it would get a five. That seems to be the idea for some.

[Anke Wehner]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I wouldn't mind a system that had five stars and an N/A. Honest people could use N/A when they thought the book was good but the editing was horrible or the price outrateous. The dishonest could, as they do now, keep using one star.

Yes. I like sites where you can write a review, but don't have to leave a rating. I can write "I did not like this at all because [reason], it was just not my cup of tea", which is useful for people who dislike the same things I do, or like the things I dislike, but the author is not "punished" for me reading a book that wasn't to my taste by having the average rating dragged down. Or I can mention why I stopped reading a few chapters in.

(Since I read quite a bit indie/self-published stuff with relatively few ratings, the impact of one low rating can be pretty big.)

[Barcey]

The one star reviews based on price are protests and not reviews. I don't have a problem with them as long as it states why. They apparently work because they sure get a lot more attention then (ignored) letters to the author or publisher.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Postulate: a lousy book is a waste of time at any price.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Let's say a book gets 5 stars for content, but also a slew of 1 stars for price and formatting issues. Would you still buy it?

Yes, provided I agree with the price, of course. I might grouse about the formatting later, but it is not a deal breaker when reading a really good book.

[Skibble]

Originally Posted by Arrghus

That said, now that nearly every book has a preview on Kindle, there's less excuse to leave a bad review for formatting, when the formatting can be sampled quite easily.

Even though I don't have a Kindle, I do go to Amazon to see if there is a preview available for books I'm interested in purchasing. I must be interested in some obscure books, because there often isn't one. There aren't on other sites, either. So for those books, I do appreciate reviews that mention formatting errors.

I have also found that the preview is sometimes of the paper edition rather than the ebook. Not too helpful, since formatting mistakes seem to creep in during the conversion. But again, perhaps I am looking at obscure titles.