How Do Goodreads Members Rate Books?
Some time ago (April 2016 to be exact) Goodreads hit a milestone of 50 million reviews. That's a lot of feedback! The first review was written by Otis Chandler (founder of Goodreads) on September 4, 2006. The gang at Goodreads analyzed the reviews and they showed some interesting data about how the ratings breakdown. Here it is:
If you calculate the average, it works out to 3.98. I was, not unsurprisingly, interested about how my own books stacked up against the site-wide average, and Robin was nice enough to do some number crunching for me. Here are the results:
Title5-star 4-star3-star 2-star 1-starTotalAverageTheft of Swords 13,529 12,433 4,269 937 360 31,528 4.20 Rise of Empire 11,718 9,451 2,546 332 99 24,146 4.34 Heir of Novron 13,439 7,610 1,984 307 109 23,449 4.45 The Crown Tower 7,325 6,007 1,679 289 120 15,420 4.31 The Rose and the Thorn 5,510 4,236 1,057 105 34 10,942 4.38 The Death of Dulgath 2,055 1,706 415 42 18 4,236 4.35 The Crown Conspiracy 4,495 4,232 1,807 410 152 11,096 4.13 Avempartha 2,791 2,438 768 124 21 6,142 4.28 Nyphron Rising 2,366 2,032 592 75 14 5,079 4.31 The Emerald Storm 1,974 1,684 552 70 10 4,290 4.29 Wintertide 2,619 1,700 450 62 20 4,851 4.41 Percepliquis 2,803 1,291 302 43 15 4,454 4.53 Age of Myth 1,913 1,541 437 90 27 4,008 4.30 Total Reviews 72,537 56,361 16,858 2,886 999 149,641 4.31 % of Reviews48.5% 37.7% 11.3% 1.9% 0.7%
Difference with Average +11.5% +3.7% -9.7%-4.1% -1.3%
I'm pleased to say that after almost 150,000 reviews (for the Riyria books and Legends of the First Empire) the 5-star and 4-star reviews have been much higher than most books, and the 1-star and 2-star reviews were much lower.
It's always great to take stock and see how people are receiving what I write, and I'm so glad that you all seem to like the books! Thanks for reading, and if you rated one (or several) of my books on Goodreads, thanks for that as well.
If you calculate the average, it works out to 3.98. I was, not unsurprisingly, interested about how my own books stacked up against the site-wide average, and Robin was nice enough to do some number crunching for me. Here are the results:
Title5-star 4-star3-star 2-star 1-starTotalAverageTheft of Swords 13,529 12,433 4,269 937 360 31,528 4.20 Rise of Empire 11,718 9,451 2,546 332 99 24,146 4.34 Heir of Novron 13,439 7,610 1,984 307 109 23,449 4.45 The Crown Tower 7,325 6,007 1,679 289 120 15,420 4.31 The Rose and the Thorn 5,510 4,236 1,057 105 34 10,942 4.38 The Death of Dulgath 2,055 1,706 415 42 18 4,236 4.35 The Crown Conspiracy 4,495 4,232 1,807 410 152 11,096 4.13 Avempartha 2,791 2,438 768 124 21 6,142 4.28 Nyphron Rising 2,366 2,032 592 75 14 5,079 4.31 The Emerald Storm 1,974 1,684 552 70 10 4,290 4.29 Wintertide 2,619 1,700 450 62 20 4,851 4.41 Percepliquis 2,803 1,291 302 43 15 4,454 4.53 Age of Myth 1,913 1,541 437 90 27 4,008 4.30 Total Reviews 72,537 56,361 16,858 2,886 999 149,641 4.31 % of Reviews48.5% 37.7% 11.3% 1.9% 0.7%
Difference with Average +11.5% +3.7% -9.7%-4.1% -1.3%
I'm pleased to say that after almost 150,000 reviews (for the Riyria books and Legends of the First Empire) the 5-star and 4-star reviews have been much higher than most books, and the 1-star and 2-star reviews were much lower.
It's always great to take stock and see how people are receiving what I write, and I'm so glad that you all seem to like the books! Thanks for reading, and if you rated one (or several) of my books on Goodreads, thanks for that as well.
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---some of us are these horrible OCD people who feel we HAVE to finish it. I mean this in all seriousness. Like I once read a book I would give no stars because all the protagonist did was irritate me - I couldn't find ONE single quality of hers to like, and I just wanted her to like, get killed by another character but she's the one I'm supposed to be rooting for... Well, once I got a full chapter in, I was already at "well I'm not going to enjoy this..." But I sort of felt I owed it to the book to read it anyway. Does that make sense? Maybe I'm just odd, because to me, it isn't the BOOK'S fault it's bad. It's the author's. The book had nothing to do with it, and I think all books deserve to be read by someone, even if some people reading it think it's worth less than a flea's fart. And I read very fast in general :/ so again, hard to measure based on those things, because if I can read like 300 pages in an hour and a half, but only if I have nothing else to worry about, then when I do have things to worry about it's very slow going with lots of starting and stopping. I'm not sure there's a good technicality to book reviews, it's all highly subjective. Basically...I guess it comes down to being like "here's things I like, yay!" and "here's what bothers me, boo!" BUT YES. People read your books and they is good and all your stars prove it <3 Thanks for your writerliness
I agree with you both. I never post a 1 star review if I didn't finish the book (although I think there should be a "Didn't finish" option), that would be a lot fairer. I will, however, admit to havng done what Rachel says and finished a book for the sake of finishing, but when I have done that the book has either had a really poor ending that has started to put me off, or it can't have been THAT horrible.Having said that, maybe it is the scale that is odd in that case. E.g. if you have a book that you finish it can't be that terrible (because you finished it), so let's say that's a 3. Maybe there should be an option to say "I didn't finish this", that way the 3 for the "awful" book you still finished that was a former 3, could actually be a 1 in terms of a review, but that doesn't mean awful, it just means someone still finished it, but didn't like it.
The other thing to consider is how people rate books in general. And I think everyone does this differently. Some people think of their favourite book(s), which to them is a 5 and then compare all other books to them. While some actually considers the audience of the books and the genre and base the score on that. I am not saying one is better than the other, but I do believe that it influence the scores.
Like Elena I am not sure about the technicality of book reviews. I try to write them, I read them before I pick up a new book, but it is still mostly guess work.
Michael, I really enjoy your books. You have vibrant characters (Royce and Hadrian in particular), a great story and a bit of humour, plus I like your writing style. To me that is a 5. Thank you for being a writer, thank you for writing the books that have given me such joy when reading them.
Daniel
As an author the challenge for me is to have readers review my books. Amazon and Goodreads ranks books according to reviews. Any ideas from readers or authors out there to encourage people to review?www.graceallisonauthor.com
I hate seeing one star reviews that start with" this was so bad I only ready 50 pages". I have been several chapters into a book and still wondering if it was a waste of time only to change my mind by the end of the book. Especially in "epic fantasy" stories spanning at least three books sometimes the first book is a bit boring or difficult. Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle trilogy are perfect examples of this. I was halfway through the first book when I had an epiphany that put everything into a new perspective for me. I have read that trilogy multiple times now and recommend it to all of my fiction reading friends, with the warning that it is not for everyone. Then there are books and authors like Mr. Sullivan that grab your interest from page one and don't let go until the end and leave you wanting more. I classify both of these authors as my modern favorites and they could not be more different in technique. I always leave a starred review but have stopped writing a review for every book I read. Rarely would I leave less than a three star review unless there are serious and aggravating errors or even bad writing habits like repetitive descriptions.
Elena wrote: "I just can't read a book that I find boring, so I don't understand how people can read through a book they think of it as a 1/2 stars"I listen to books via my library primarily. It's a lot easier to muscle through so-so books when you're just commuting or cleaning the house. Plus a truly terrible book that you can't finish deserves a 1/2 star rating.
Your eyes have to run over the letters and your mind has to process what you are reading. If you space out or lose interest, it won't continue playing even if you just sit there for a couple of hours. It's not a movie.
And if they haven't read through it, how can they legitimately say it's a 1/2 star?
So maybe reviews should be based on how often people quit a book or how fast they read through it?
Honestly, the technicality of book reviews escapes me.
If people read them, it means they are good.
And people read yours.
Thank you for being a writer.