Is there any policy on Good Reads authors rating their own books?

I read a fairly innocuous kids book and the author had given herself 5 stars for that and for her other books. Does anyone but me feel that this is like doing your own job review at bonus time?

Library Lady, I think authors can rate & review their own books how they like. I expect authors to give their books 5 stars, although I notice some authors refrain from rating and just add their books without comments. I don't mind. I figure it's easy to see who's written reviews and it's clear when a Goodreads member author has rated &/or reviewed a book that they've written. Then it's up to other Goodreads members to put that information in context.

I think that it should be left up to the authors themselves whether to rate their book or not. After all, they have joined GR and are users just like everyone else.

If the author does choose to rate their book, I would wonder a bit if they choose to rate it less than 5 stars... I mean, if the book's own author doesn't like it enough to rate it 5 stars, why should I?

Unlike job reviews, ratings/reviews are open to input from all members. Authors rating their books is fine; authors creating fake accounts or pushing friends to give them high ratings would not be. ;)

Rivka got it right. I rather like it when an author rates their own book and gives a little blurb about it - that's often some really interesting content.

And I agree with Becky. If the author doesn't love their own work, who will?

I would expect an author to try to give their own books a leg-up, its all part of their promotion efforts. What I am just seeing that I don't like though is adding a couple of lines or three signature with what books they have written. I like the no-signature look of GR, its clean. These sigs when you have seen them continually start to look very spammy, or at least to me.

Agreed.

I have to agree with that as well.

I'm afraid I also agree re the signatures.

The signatures are driving me crazy.

Wow, I'm surprised that people generally seem to be all for authors rating their own stuff. I've been involved in a couple of other ratings sites (not books) and such things are expressly forbidden. I personally find it quite obnoxious and it tends to prejudice me against the author right away. Whatever happened to humility?

It died along with the midlist.

I don't see why rating your own book on a social and informal site such as this should be forbidden. As far as I'm concerned, if an author publishes their work, it's because they think it's great and they hope others will too.

I can see not wanting to receive book recommendations directly from the author, as this could fall into the realm of spam. But a rating will only be seen if you are looking at the book on your own, no intrusion necessary.

Wow, I'm glad I read this thread. I have never rated my own books on GR because I thought it looked kinda silly. I mean, what author is going to give her/his book less than 5 stars, ya know? So I have always let my readers rate all my books at GR. I think their opinions carry more weight than mine as far as convincing people who don't know my books to give them a try.

As for sigs, I have always used one at GR. Love it! Know why? Because with a sig I can forget about promotion and just have fun at GR like any other book addict. And my readers love my sig and often thank me for using it. It tells them how to find my books blog and my naughty author blog (which they love) without ever having to ask me. So they never feel like I'm pimping my books, because I never talk about them here unless someone asks me to. I don't have to with a sig.

So, yeah, I'm all for authors using a text sig at GR. Beats having them post spammy book promotion threads in groups that are totally out of place.

The kind of sigs that bother me at forums are those with heavy graphics that take forever to pull up. I'm soooo happy GR doesn't allow those. But like I said, a text sig takes care of all the promotion an author would need to do at GR. In fact here is mine, so you can see what my readers like about it.

xoxo
Laura Stamps
Author of Erotica and Paranormal Romance Novels
http://www.LauraStamps.blogspot.com (excerpts from all of my novels)
http://laura-stamps8.livejournal.com (my naughty Author Blog/updated daily)

Laura I see your point but your signature is typical of the signatures I was complaining about. You might note that the next four comments all agreed with that point of view.

People who are unhappy about an author's self-promotional tactics might not be sympathetic to an author's work either. At least that has always been the general consensus on previous threads of a related nature.

The majority of posts are under four lines in length. I don't really like seeing an author's extra four lines of advertising under that.

When I see a signature from an author who posts in a group only occasionally, I don't mind too much. I'm probably not going to check out the book, but it's pretty easy to ignore. But when an author is an active member of a group and his or her every post, no matter how short, ends with the same 3 or 4 lines of self-promotion, I start to feel spammed.

...And my readers love my sig and often thank me for using it

Laura - you have 139 comments on your home page, many more than most people. Some of them refer to your books, but I don't see any of thanking your for your signature at all.

I think signatures are unwanted commercial advertising, aka spam and just like spam there is no way I would check out the product or site.

SF SQRL - what was the midlist?

Signatures = spam, pure and simple. I think they should be banned. I agree with JG except I'm less tolerant. When I see a signature promoting books and websites in threads I wonder if the author is really contributing to the thread just to be there promoting their books.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that author self-rating should be banned, but in all honesty, when I see an author doing this I find it to be rather tacky and as Muzzlehatch said, lacking humility. Like Laura said it just seems rather silly, because what author in their right mind wouldn't give their own book 5 stars. I have on occasion looked up a book that had no other ratings or reviews except the author's which I find completely unhelpful in making a decision whether to read it. If I were an author I would not self-rate. In my opinion, that job should be left up to the readers.

If Barrack Obama can vote for himself, an author should be allowed to rate their own book. One rating won't affect anything.

We don't officially support signatures, and there is little we can do to stop people from including them in the body of their posts. Personally they don't really bother me.

As someone who uses a signature - I of course support them...But I think its simple - Have the Moderator of the group make a policy - post it then ask people to follow it.

As to people just posting to put out a signature I think you can tell if a person is contributing to a group or just there to advertise. Besides there are a lot more efficient ways to advertise then spending hours posting on various subjects. I know I post alot but it is because I'm interested in the topic/discussion. I don't like "blanket" rules that punish all people without context.

The cards are stacked enough against new authors and readers are almost always looking for new talent - why not provide a "discrete" way of brining the two together.
--
Wife of fantasy author: Michael J. Sullivan
The Crown Conspiracy (Oct 2008) - Fantasy Book Critic Review
Avempartha (April 2009)

That's cool, Lily, and it's one of the great things about Goodreads...there are all kinds of readers and people and opinions here. Love it! And many readers might not know this, but book publishing has changed dramatically in the last five years. Most authors these days (all those published by small press publishers and even some with big publishers) have to do all the marketing for our books, which means we also pay for it all, which comes out of the tiny 70 cents (sometimes a bit more, often less) in royalties many of us receive per book sold. So social networking sites are a great, low-cost way to do this. And a sig allows us to do it without posting totally spammy threads in groups, which I find aggravating.

Thanks for mentioning the comments on my profile page! Those comments are mostly from people who have just become my GR friends, but I think some of them do mention they are looking forward to checking out my books, which they know about only because of my sig. They just don't say the word "sig" in their comment (LOL). But most of the positive comments I receive about my sig come through PMs and emails. And I get a lot of those every day. One of the many things I love about GR...we have so many ways to chat with each other besides posting a comment on a profile page! :)

Like Robin said, I also think of a sig as a nice way to bring authors and readers together, rather than spamming the daylights out of everyone. So far I have had no complaints about my sig from my readers, the members of the groups I belong to, the reviews I comment on, or the groups I co-mod, so that lets me know I'm on the right track with my sig as far as my target market is concerned. Always good to know! :)

xoxo
Laura Stamps
Author of Erotica and Paranormal Romance Novels
http://www.LauraStamps.blogspot.com (excerpts from all of my novels)
http://laura-stamps8.livejournal.com (my naughty Author Blog/updated daily)

There are 7 anti-signature comments on this thread and 2 pro-signature, both from signature users, and Otis who says GR doesn't support signatures but they don't bother him. In other words signatures didn't get any positive support except from users. Doesn't that say that they might be annoying people to the point of being counterproductive to the marketing effort?

In another thread discussing the same subject, an author reduced her signature to one line. I still don't like it at all, but I appreciate the compromise: its a little less in-yer-face. Laura you don't think five lines of a signature attached to every single message isn't a bit much?

I am not at all against Goodreads authors and have suggested to GR that there could be an Authors' tab featuring new books weekly/monthly etc. and with links to authors' web sites and even the potential for blogs on the GR author sites. But the admin didn't take me up on it.

Thanks, Petra, I appreciate your input! No, I don't think five lines in my sig is a bit much, only because my market at Goodreads doesn't think so. If my market said something about it then I would think about changing it. And I co-mod two groups here and never hear complaints. But that's the wonderful thing about Goodreads. There are over a million members right now and many many different markets/genres represented. Mine are romantic erotica-addicts rabid for new erotica, so they really like knowing about the links in my sig. I also put the link to my naughty blog in my sig because it is a daily blog hugely popular with my market. So I stay within my market here at GR, and that may be why I get no complaints. But this Feedback group is outside my market, and the people who complained about sigs in this thread are probably not romantic erotica addicts (meaning they read 200+ erotica novels every year).

The fact is Goodreads is a sales venue for authors. There are only 24 hours in the day and much of that is taken up with marketing if you are a small press author. We're not in bookstores (chains), so no one would know about our books if we didn't market like crazy. And some of those hours every day have to be spent writing. I am a fulltime author and just met my last book deadline for the year two weeks ago. That was the fifth deadline for this year, which means I finished five books this year (yeah, my brain cells are mush right now *LOL).

So you can see the marketing I do every day has to be time-efficient. I sell a ton of books at Goodreads through my sig. And that's the only marketing I do here. I'm thrilled it doesn't bother Otis, because if they passed a rule where I had to get rid of it then it would drastically reduce my book sales here, and I would probably have to leave Goodreads and go to a marketing venue that would net more sales for me. But that's another wonderful thing about Goodreads...it's sooooo author friendly, and we really appreciate that.

As much as you hate sigs, please have mercy on small press authors for using them! When you ask us to reduce our sig you are asking us to reduce our income. And with the economy the way it is now another reduction in income is a frightening prospect. Okay, now I'm heading back into my market here at Goodreads, so I won't bother the people at the Feedback group anymore. See ya! :)

xoxo
Laura Stamps
Author of Erotica and Paranormal Romance Novels
http://www.LauraStamps.blogspot.com (excerpts from all of my novels)
http://laura-stamps8.livejournal.com (my naughty Author Blog/updated daily)

I'm all for supporting authors, and I don't think signatures should be banned, but I'm thinking all that sigature information could be put in members' profiles. Once an author's market knows about them, it's easy to check their profile to access all their information.

Just an aside: I do know about the way publishing works now and if readers are to have a wide variety of new books, it does seem to be imperative that authors do a lot of their own publicity. It's a shame but publishers no longer take many chances on new authors, especially those who write fiction. It's hard to get published and first books/new authors are only rarely nurtured by publishers, something that used to be routine.

JG (post #17) says it best. A four or five line signature after a one-line post feels spammy, as it is hard to ignore the signature in that context. While I prefer to not see signatures, I am not sure banning them is the best choice. So, once I feel I've been inundated by an unwanted signature from a particular user, I block them. I no longer see the signature everywhere as their posts are hidden & if the discussion doesn't make sense, I can choose to unhide the post, read it, & then hide it again.

It's tacky to rate one's own books, but it doesn't bother me and wouldn't necessarily prejudice me against the author.

Unobtrusive signature lines don't bother me at all. I would much rather see signature lines than self-promotion posts over a wide range of groups, relevant or not.

Going to check out Laura's naughty author blog now...

Simple signature lines don't bother me in the least. I'm one of those readers who will check out an author who is intelligently participating in boards that I belong to if he/she's talking about things other than his/her books. If he/she not posting messages about his/her books, how am I supposed to know that he/she is an author (other than checking out his/her profile)? Maybe GoodReads could put a designation next to the person's name in the message header that indicates he/she is a GoodReads author? That wouldn't be spam or self-promotion, but would allow another way for authors and readers to find each other.

Thanks, Nancy! If you're a oversexed girl you'll love the wicked posts on that LJ blog. And if you're interested in more of the same, as well as lusty talk about erotica, send me a PM. I mod a verrry active group here for women only. But it is a Secret group, so the only way to get in is through an invitation from me. I also co-mod a private group called "Erotica Discussions" which is coed. Kinda the same as my group only newer so it is much smaller and not as active. But we do have some fun men in it.

I agree, Sandy. There is no way to know someone is an author unless the author says so. And constantly talking about your books and spamming groups with threads about your books is a no-no IMO. Much better to just use a sig that lets everyone interested know what's what. And that brings me to the author profile. Last time I looked there was no "erotica" category we could chose to describe our books. So I have to use "romance" since it is my only choice. And there is no "Paranormal" category to choose from, so I have to use SF&F. Both of those (trad romance and SF&F) don't describe what I write. So someone lookng at my profile (if they take the time to read it, which would only be about 10% of the people who click on my name) will still have no idea what I write because of the limited classification choices.

You really can't beat an informative sig. It accomplishes so much more than most people realize. :)

xoxo
Laura Stamps
Author of Erotica and Paranormal Romance Novels
http://www.LauraStamps.blogspot.com (excerpts from all of my novels)
http://laura-stamps8.livejournal.com (my naughty Author Blog/updated daily)

Maybe GoodReads could put a designation next to the person's name in the message header that indicates he/she is a GoodReads author?

I love this idea!

I like Sandi's idea of putting "Goodreads Author" next to the author's names in the discussion posts, in the same position Otis has "Chief Architect".

Sandi - that is a good idea putting an icon or something next to a GR author's name. I do check out and have bought for my bookshop books from here. Needless to say, I haven't bought from nor do I intend to from anyone who spams me whether they consider it spam or not.

Laura - there are a lot of categories missing. I requested a Philosophy category to be added and got it so you might try requesting Erotica and see where you get.

Liz - really good idea. I don't like blocking people as I'm always interested in what they have to say in a thread I'm following but the annoyance factor from being, as you say, 'indundated' with the spam makes it a good option. One I'm definitely going to use!

Just a thought - but Goodreads authors who want to be known as such could always add it to the names as in:

Petra X GR author. (Except I'm not, although I am an author but I prize my anonymity). Maybe then as Sandi suggests people would click that and get all the info on the author's site and we wouldn't have all these spammy signatures.

I'm glad to see this discussion here--I've always avoided rating books I'd written, and wondered if I was alone in doing this.

It always seemed a little tacky to rate one's own books anyway, but what it really came down to, for me, is how can I possibly objectively rate my own books? I figure that's really something others are better qualified to do than me ...

This author's review of his own work cracks me up:

The Overwhelming Urge

If it's done in fun and with a sense of humor, I don't mind it at all.

That whole thread is awesome. Thanks Nancy!

That was a hilarious self-rating. Same as you Nancy, self-promotion with humour I don't mind at all.

I saw another author awhile back that had a similar post to her own book and I liked it. Clean sense of humor works for me almost every time.

I think it says something positive about an author that has the self-restraint NOT to rate his/her own book(s), but if I look at self-rating from the voting perspective that Otis mentioned, I don't see a problem with it.

As for long signature lines, I don't care for them. But it is a morally acceptable way of self-promoting, so I tend to overlook what I'm not interested in reading.

(uh-oh)

I rated my own book. I find no harm in doing that. As for doing your own job review at bonus time, I have had to do that too. Any position that you hold in your lifetime you will have to self evaluate at some point. I gave my 1st book a 5 star rating based on it being a great story. Now, if I were to rate it on grammatical & typographical errors I'd give it a 3. Just being honest.

The thing is, I almost never gave myself a five-star review when I self-evaluated at work--maybe in one or two rare cases on some task I thought I did particularly well.

Yet nearly every author who reviews their book gives it five stars, which wouldn't happen in an ordinary job evaluation situation.

Yet nearly every author who reviews their book gives it five stars, which wouldn't happen in an ordinary job evaluation situation.

I don't think it's analogous. Job reviews involve at most half a dozen or so opinions; book ratings can involve 100s or 1000s of ratings.

You are correct, Janni. Maybe we could all start swapping books with one another to rate. That way we aren't investing money in reviewers. I am brand spankin' new to this. In the future who knows if I will rate my own books. I am just saying that I see no harm in doing so. Being an author is a very humbling experience in and of itself. Someone pointed out that if the author does not like their work- who will?. I treat my books like they are my babies, like some do with their pets. I get discouraged at times & at other times I love them til the very last page. The wonderful thing about opinions is that we are all entitled to our own.

While I tend to think--proud as I am of my books, and much as I've thrown heart and soul into them--that I'm my own harshest critic. I love them, I think they're worth reading and hope others do too, but I don't think they're perfect, which is part of why I don't see how I can rate them. I agree that being an author is humbling!

On an unrelated subject--investing money in reviews? To my knowledge, legitimate reviewers don't charge for reviews, aside from requiring a copy of the book in question so they can read it. This worries me a little, as it sounds like it could be a case of a scammer trying to make money off of new writers. Have you met the web site Writer Beware? They're a good place to go to check out any writing scheme that seems a little shady, and if you emailed them they could let you know if a fee-charging reviewer is a scammer or not, or what they know about them in general. I really recommend their site anyway--lots of good info there.

Thanks for the link, Janni! I'm not sure, but I think Andrea was talking about the postage cost when it comes to sending books out to reviewers. Most don't like to review a book in ebook form (unless that is the only form of the book available), so you have to snail mail review copies to them.

I have about 20 people on my reviewer list. Even though my publishers give me paperback review copies at no charge to send out to my list, it still costs almost $90.00 to snail mail the books Media Mail to all the reviewers in the US and Canada.

And for those authors who are self-published, they have to buy the books and then mail them out. I can only imagine how expensive that can be. Yikes!

xoxo
Laura Stamps
Author of Erotica and Paranormal Romance Novels
http://www.LauraStamps.blogspot.com (excerpts from all of my novels)
http://laura-stamps8.livejournal.com (my naughty Author Blog/updated daily)

Thank you soooo much for the info. Yes- I have had many people asking to review for a fee. Of course I have not accepted their offer.

Ah, okay--I was getting worried there a moment! Postage costs, sure. :-) The thought of paying for the actual review would be scary stuff!

I actually prefer signatures... it allows me to know when someone pumping their book across 90 groups is actually the author without my having to click on their profile.

Oh, and there are two sites that I review for - they don't charge anything (the way it should be) one is www.herodyssey.blogspot.com and the other is www.monsterlibrarian.com then I keep all of my reviews on my own review site www.ravenskya.blogspot.com as well. There are plenty of people who will review for a copy of the book. I generally avoid reviewing e-books because it's nice to mention the cover and quality of the book for those who want to purchase a hard copy.

Janni - I read some of that Writers Beware site. Its a very good and well-researched site, but I do want to tell you that there is a positive side to POD.

I have a bookshop and buy books from the major distributors, especially Ingram - probably the world's largest English language distributor. As of writing this they are listing 10,800 different titles published by Xlibris. I checked the first 15 authors and two of them have books coming out with traditional ('legitimate') publishers.

When I search for books, its usually by genre and anything matching will come up. There are many ways of ordering the list and none of them have any bias for publishers that pay Ingram for advertising. I do buy Xlibris books (among other self-published ones). The only problem is when the author sets the commission at lower than 35%. 40% is traditional (no money in bookselling) and much lower, like 15% and I certainly wouldn't buy the book. It would cost me money to sell it!

I rarely see self-published books at wholesale discount sites. It would be good for an author to try and get a few of the books into the big remainder companies. These books are sold for very little, so there will be a loss involved, but if an author is good and sells, the bookseller will certainly look for more of the same.