Self-Published Reviews

[Jonathan]

I just self-published about 2 weeks ago and, probably to my book's detriment, I have told all family and friends they are forbidden from leaving reviews. I've found so many SP books with 4 and 5 star ratings that are... shall we say, wanting. I have to believe its family and friends who are the culprits.

When someone is looking for a free or cheap eRead, does the star rating next to it (say for Kindle books) make a difference in whether or not you purchase it? Or is there so much false advertising out there that those rating have become meaningless to the community?

[Francis]

I think books where all the reviews are four or five stars always look suspicious. The friends/family thing often looks very obvious.

That said, a book with no reviews is a difficult thing to buy... and finding reviewers is a slow business. I was elated when I got my first review, even though the reviewer hadn't actually finished reading it yet (huh...).

The general advice to readers is that a mixture of different star ratings is best. Readers often look at the 1- and 2-star reviews rather than the 5-star reviews.

[A.L.]

I do look at reviews but I also tend to make my own judgement. If it is a book I think I will like I read it anyway - someone might have given a bad review simply because the book wasn't for them, or they may occasionally just be a jerk.
One person's meat is another's poison anyway.

[A.L.]

For the record, Amazon would likely pull the reviews anyway if they found out they were friends/family.

[Adele, Moderator]

I have a tendency to look at reviews if the synopsis of the book isn't that great. however star ratings are sometimes very inaccurate, for example the goodreads star system doesn't allow for half stars. so I actually ignore star ratings, most of the time.

[Margarita]

I have several 4 and 5 star reviews but non are family or friends. They are banned from reviewing but can tell me in person what they thought of it. I wouldn't think it suspicious if a book had lots of 4 and 5 stars, I would find it worse if they had released the book and a month later had over 200 reviews! I can't remember what book it was but I noticed it last month, it had been on sale a month!

[Kissie]

I only depend on the reviews if Im not immediatly interested in reading the book. there have been books that are like "OMG, can't wait to read it" then others that are "well it won't hurt to read but I might not miss anything if I don't". if a book has all positive reviews that sound alike, I right away think family and friends. I also have a friend who is a writer and he asked me to write reviews for him before I read the books, but I declined. I told him it was a conflict of interest LOL!

[Lisa]

Saying that four and five star reviews on a self published book must be all friends and family is a bit condescending. While i have from 2 to five stars on my work I can assure you I earned them. Some readers just happen to like the style. I rate generally from 2 to five when I review books, be they from authors I have met or not. This whole thing of people being convinced five star reviews on self published authors are either paid for or are a sort of vanity review annoys me in a way that most of the rest of things don't. Can't there be honest reviews on self pubbed? Heck my self pubbed got better reviews than my trad pubbed stuff did...

I read reviews, both the one and the five star. If the one star is an eloquent review that states a real reason then I will take it under advisement but we have to realize that most one star reviews that I have seen tend to be "this s#$%ed" type reviews. Not telling us why just they didn't like it. Or even better complaining about pricing or Amazon and not that story.

I know when I goe low star reviews I read them and try to fix what points are brought up. And we also have to remember that reviews are not the only thing to help us pick a book. There is the blurb, the look inside, the cover and if you are lucky things like the trailer and other works by the same author.

also the pulled reviews seem to be random lately. Lots of authors losing reviews from people they don't know in any way and being told well that review was from a competing author...it was a great review but...

I say leave reviews alone and review honestly what you read. Tell what you liked and what you didn't but keep agendas out of reviews.

[Jonathan]

I agree 100%: "Saying that four and five star reviews on a self published book must be all friends and family is a bit condescending."

Luckily, I'm wondering if anyone else has come across writing you just couldn't get through that had a 4-5 star rating? If so, did it make you look at other ratings more skeptically?

[Francis]

I started reading a book that had a few 4- and 5-star reviews, and I think they were honest... The book certainly had good moments, but there was a lot I found frustrating and eventually I just gave up.

If you head into the Romance genre, there are many books that get hundreds of gushing 4- and 5-star reviews, because they are only read by people inclined to like them anyway...

[Lisa]

I hope readers of the genre are the reviewers. I know that a lot of authors ended up with one star reviews because when they did a free promotion people would down load just because it was free, without reading the blurb or reviews and then they would find something outside what they like and bam...to them a bad book. A lot of people are very set in this or that genre. Me I love pretty much any good book. But then if I had to review some of the books i was forced to read in school I would have given them one stars...all in what you like I guess

[Francis]

I think what frustrates me a lot with self-published books is the grammar. I can handle the occasional typo or missing word, but when there are errors of one kind or another on almost every page then it's very distracting. There are many books with glowing 4- and 5-star reviews that leave me feeling deeply frustrated simply because the grammar is getting in the way of a good story.

[Lisa]

I've seen it in trad published too though Francis...50 Shades is of course the obvious example. A lot of us work hard to get our books grammatically correct but as happens with everything 90% is going to be just awful. It is the 10% that is worth reading. That is why I make sure to look at the blurb and look inside. It lets you have an idea if it has been edited.

[Dawn]

Francis wrote: "I think what frustrates me a lot with self-published books is the grammar. I can handle the occasional typo or missing word, but when there are errors of one kind or another on almost every page th..."

I totally agree!! There are three things that really turn me off with the editing process...poor grammar that is noticeable, homophones and confusing your characters (i.e. you are talking about Bob but your call him Pat).

Actually I have gotten to the point where I don't read reviews. I read the blurb and if it looks interesting I will give it a go. If I get stuck and I am on the verge of a DNF then I will check out reviews but mostly I do not read them until after I finished the book.