Do reader reviews/ratings influence your decision to buy a book? If not, what influences you the most?

[Rebecca]

I do read them but I try to read a few at the high end, the low end, and all those in the middle. What sways me the most is the ones that are by reviewers I follow and who have a similar taste of books.

[Rebecca]

Raquel wrote: "Personally, I tend to read the 1-star reviews, and if they're not completely absurd, ("I didn't like the ending" or "the main character sounds ugly")I make my decision based on those.
I've read bo..."

You mentioned the absurd ones. I do read them and then make a note of the reviewers to ignore them in future. You need a quality review no matter what the rating is.

[Alexes]

Word of mouth is the number one I buy a book. If a friend whose taste I trust recommends something, or I read a strong recommendation from someone and the book sounds interesting, I'll check it out.

On Amazon, where I buy probably 90% of my books, I read the book description and sometimes the author bio. Then the rating and reviews come into play. I read the 4- and 5-stars and the 1s and 2s--skipping the 3s since they usually lack passion on either of the loveit/hateit sides.(The scale is different on Goodreads. I tend not to read the two-star ratings here. Just as a personal observance, Goodread's reviewers seem to be harsher in their views than Amazon readers. I'm not sure why that is.) Well-written, well-considered reviews definitely influence my decision to buy or not to buy. (A big thank you to readers who take the time to write those reviews.)

Lastly, price has an influence. I understand why publishers want to charge as much or more for ebooks as they do for paperbacks, but it goes against my grain to pay a high price for a product that costs so little to produce. I usually wait for these books to go on sale or get them from the library.

[Melissa]

I have a few authors that I buy the next book in the series because I collect that series, but other than that I usually buy books based off of what the back of the book says about what the book is about.

The only time I base it on what reviewers say is if the book is absurdly high priced. Then I use the reviews to decide if I want to check it out of the library rather than pay the money.


I usually only read other peoples reviews after I've read the book to see what people thought of it.

I know a lot of readers do base buying books off of just reviews. I think reviews are to subjective on outside influences so I don't use them.

[Rebecca]

Reviews can be beneficial when the synopsis is not right. I read a book recently that I thought was one thing and found out to be something entirely different. The synopsis didn't say enough about it and most reviewers appeared to be friends of hte author as they were so biased.

[Jenelle]

I'm a voracious reader... but I actually almost never read reviews of books or let them influence me about what I am interested in reading.

[Abigail]

Word of mouth is bigger for me than reviews.

[John]

I'm weird, I suppose. I go by:
• Cover design
because I'm an artist, I guess, but I feel the care taken into the cover is an indicator of quality of writing. Even if I'm wrong, that's still my gut impression

• Synopsis
Although sometimes misleading, it tells me (or should) what the author feels is important about the book. It also lets me know if it has things in it I don't want based on what gets mentioned first. For example, if I don't read romance novels, if the synopsis is all about the romance, then I'll pass.

• The mid level reviews
Unless there's detail that's helpful, I discount the highest and lowest reviews, if there's a range. I read the midlevel reviews, because that's where the meat is. For a reviewer to give a mid ranking, they feel somewhat guilty, or motivated enough to provide REASONS why they gave that rank. A very low review I consider could just be someone being a jerk, and very high review that sounds like their spouse left it, but has little detail I also consider not helpful.

[Yzabel]

They tend to influence me, but I try to keep level-headed about it. I usually pick a few 5-stars, 1-star and middle-rank reviews among the most detailed I find, and look out for which reasons other readers gave such marks to the book. I'll discard things like "I didn't like this book because it has demons in it and I don't like demons", but I'll pay closer attention to remarks about structure, characters, stereotypes, etc.

Synopsis and cover play a role, too, the former because, well, it tells me what the story is about (normally). But I've noticed that covers influence me less and less with the advent of ebooks—probably because I don't have to look at them every time I pick up the book.

[D.M.]

As a reader I always look at the reviews. Sometimes they tell me more about the book than the description, but I risk reading g a spoiler. I hate spoilers! They also give a little indication of the quality, but tastes differ so that is not the "end all".

As an author I read the reviews to see if the reader liked the storyline and for inspiration; maybe I can find d a new twist to entertain the readers with. The her part seems to be generating the interest to get the first reviews...

[Justin]

If I'm really interested in reading a book the ratings and reviews don't influence my decision as to whether or not I still wish to read it. I mean if a book is rated 1 star and the reviews are all the same saying the book isn't good then chances are I'll stay away but a case like that is very rare. When I do read reviews I always like to try a read a review of each star rating if possible. Someone that loved the book and someone who didn't like it at all. However in some cases you gotta stay away from reviews because of spoilers.

With that being said I would like people to know that if you ever see a one star review by me on a book you wanna read don't bother looking into it, I tend to express myself a bit too much when a book is bad and while I mean most of what I say no one should by any means be discouraged from reading a book because I bashed it! lol. If anything let me make you curious as to why I think nothing of it.

[Peggy]

I never look at the reviews when I buy a book. I love to read and will sometimes read a book in one sitting. Since I started writing, I have only been reading indie authors I meet on goodreads, facebook and twitter. Last year I reviewed over 100 of these on Amazon.

I take advantage of the option to open the book and start reading. If I like the authors style and there's a good hook, I download it. I've found many excellent books this way. I have found that there are some folks out there who are just downright mean and will try to hurt the author by giving one star reviews. If I don't like a book I don't waste any more time reviewing it. The only exception I make is when someone tries to pass off a short story as a novel. I don't like novels.

[Neil]

I often read reviews before deciding whether to download a book, but I'm more interested in the blurb, the genre. I tend not to believe 5 star ratings, but the 1 star ratings are often the most entertaining to read, even if I end up finding the comment unreasonable. I take any review with a pinch of salt, and sometimes when someone is dissing some aspect of a story, in a low-star review, it is something they don't like and are complaining about, but something which nevertheless attracts me to the story.
I've received mixed reviews for my own stories, but I'm fairly philosophical about them, because if people are giving their honest opinion, then it's their honest opinion. Of course, not every review is really an honest opinion, for one reason or another...