Amazon Killed The Book Reviewer Star

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't understand what you mean by "keep whatever item I am reviewing". Surely you can only review an item after you've bought it, can't you?

Sorry, I should have been clearer.

I've been writing reviews on my Amazon purchases for years and cracked the Top Thousand Reviewer level on that basis, but I was also asked to become one of their Vine Reviewers. You have to be asked to join the Vine program; they don't accept volunteers . As a Vine reviewer I get a monthly newsletter that offers items for review. Whatever I pick to review, I can keep. There are limitations on the number of items you can pick and you can only pick new items if you've already written reviews on a fixed percentage of the Vine items you've previously chosen. You are also not supposed to give away or sell the items you've received through the Vine Program. The items offered can be anything that Amazon sells and are supposed to be targeted to the reviewer, but the targeting is broad. Most of the items offered are pre-release, probably to get word-of-mouth going. A lot of the books are ARCs.

But I've never been offered a Kindle to review yet....

[armanos]

Fascinating read.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Sorry, I should have been clearer.


But I've never been offered a Kindle to review yet....

Ha! Good luck with that--seeings as it's one of the most reviewed products out there! But you let us know when you get that offer. I'll definitely go read that review!

[rdfry]

Personally I don't view reviews on books to be that important. I read the synopsis and if the book sounds interesting i will read it. I have found that reviews, can be detrimental to completely enjoying some books. I have read books that have had bad professional reviews and throughout the book I kept looking for the problems the reviewer was talking about, never could find any.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by rdfry

Personally I don't view reviews on books to be that important. I read the synopsis and if the book sounds interesting i will read it. I have found that reviews, can be detrimental to completely enjoying some books. I have read books that have had bad professional reviews and throughout the book I kept looking for the problems the reviewer was talking about, never could find any.

I agree. I recently had two books on my wishlist. Reading too many reviews made me wonder if I should read either one of them! But I sampled the one and it seems really up my alley! I'd have bought it already, but it's one that's a little more expensive than not--so I'm still on the fence on it. But I usually enjoy reading reviews more AFTER I read the book!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I agree. I recently had two books on my wishlist. Reading too many reviews made me wonder if I should read either one of them! But I sampled the one and it seems really up my alley! I'd have bought it already, but it's one that's a little more expensive than not--so I'm still on the fence on it. But I usually enjoy reading reviews more AFTER I read the book!

I've had it happen both ways. Where I would have bought the book but didn't after reading the reviews and the opposite...buying the book which on initial review did not seem right for me, but was.

[Angst]

Originally Posted by wizwor

Formal reviews are the opinion of one reviewer. They are a great tool for prejudging a purchase. Crowdsourced reviews are also a great tool. The sheer number of reviewers and overall opinion is just one aspect of analysis. 'Most Helpful' reviews usually get a closer look from me. The content of reviews is also meaningful.

I don't think Amazon killed the professional review. We simply have more data to work with. Each of us weights data differently. Some will always trust this reviewer or that while others will go with popular opinion.

Indeed.

Should one give more weight to the crowd sourced review of Twilight or to the formal critical review of the same book?

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by Angst

Indeed.

Should one give more weight to the crowd sourced review of Twilight or to the formal critical review of the same book?

Is a book like Twilight meant to be critically reviewed? Outside of its genre I mean?? I suppose you could critically review anything, but would the effort be worth the results? Another subjective question, as is everything.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

Is a book like Twilight meant to be critically reviewed? Outside of its genre I mean?? I suppose you could critically review anything, but would the effort be worth the results? Another subjective question, as is everything.

It's always fun to critically review really popular books. Deconstructing Meyer's crypto-Mormonism...

[NickyWithNook]

My sister told me she only reviews if she likes the books, and I told her to reconsider that because if people does that it could skew the reviews. I hope people review books they like and books they don't like. I'm not good at reviewing at B&N or Amazon, but I do review just about everything on Goodreads.

I am more interested in what people say in their reviews than how many stars they give. A 5 star review saying it's just the kind of book I hate makes me move on. A 1 star review saying someone hated it because of something I like in a book makes me curious about it.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by NickyWithNook

My sister told me she only reviews if she likes the books, and I told her to reconsider that because if people does that it could skew the reviews. I hope people review books they like and books they don't like. I'm not good at reviewing at B&N or Amazon, but I do review just about everything on Goodreads.

I am more interested in what people say in their reviews than how many stars they give. A 5 star review saying it's just the kind of book I hate makes me move on. A 1 star review saying someone hated it because of something I like in a book makes me curious about it.

Don't get me wrong; I prefer some short words about the book in review, but there have been books I've just given a star rating for my own reference. They are usually 3 stars and for me that means I just didn't have anything particularly noteworthy to say. The book did its job and I'm done and moving on. So I get why people leave the stars and respect that. Doing reviews can become a lot of work, especially if you are typing in two or three paragraphs. I used to religiously do reviews for everything I read; I don't anymore. I simply don't have the time or energy.

[NickyWithNook]

I guess I wouldn't necessarily expect much if anything in a 3 star review. It seems like if you like a book so much that you give it 5 stars, or dislike it so much that you give it 1, you might have something to say about it, though.

[Scott Nicholson]

Amazon is half entertainment, half online retail store. They would never take the playground away from anyone with a credit card...

[Angst]

Some noteworthy Amazon reviews:
whole milk
bic pen
toilet seats
acupucture device
uranium ore
book review
playmobil security checkpoint

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That doesn't help. If there are several editions of a DVD, Amazon will tell you that a reviewer has bought a version of it, but what's being said is that it may be a very different version to the one that you're considering buying, and there's no way to know which version the review is referring to.

Under the name of the reviewer and the verified purchase is a line that says, "This review is from:" followed by a link. That link goes to the specific edition being reviewed.

This only works for that specific review. The aggregate score remains the full panoply of differing editions.