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Rating your own books
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Mod
I can't see myself ever doing it though.
Mod
I'd be more tempted to read a book with no ratings than one who's only rating was from the author.
Mod
I know a guy who has reviews I've followed for years. Often times he'll rate something low for a particular reason that is compelling to him, but I know from experience that I have a different view on that reason.
Other reviewers give hardly any 5 star reviews and some rate every book a five star. Those "hard reviewers" are fine, but the ones that think everything is best ever are worth nearly as much as an author giving himself 5 stars.
Mod
Agreed. I've had discussions with a few of my friends who tend to 5-star rate most books. I think I try to be fair, myself. I find myself reluctant to give a 5-star or a 1-star review. I must REALLY LOVE/HATE to go to those extremes.
Mod
I give a lot of 3 star ratings to books I don't really like. With so many gushing fantasy fans I feel like there's something wrong with me that 50% of the fantasy books I read I really dislike. I don't mind authors rating their books. I think it shows confidence! What I do dislike is how authors give overly high ratings for their buddies' books.
I think I'm pretty selective about what I read, so I do end up really liking most books, especially for fantasy. The exception is when I have to choose books for some of the reading challenges I'm in. Those books can be hit or miss and I'm often rating then lower. I really don't mind if an author rates their book. I'm sure it's tough to get your book out there & they are just doing what they can to have more people read their books.
I dont mind authors giving 5 stars to their books as they put the hard work in to them. As would very suspicious if they only give a 3star or less.what annoys me is people giving 5 stars to books not out yet.
Mod
I took a look and see my average rating is 3.99 which rings true.
It doesn't necessarily raise a red flag or bar me from reading their book, but if I were an author it would be something I'd avoid doing.
Mod
Yes!! This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.
Here is a great example. Almost 1500 ratings, over 200 reviews and it's not even released.
Doors of Stone
Chris wrote: "Mark wrote: "what annoys me is people giving 5 stars to books not out yet. "Yes!! This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.
Here is a great example. Almost 1500 ratings, over 200 reviews and it's not ev..."
now thats a example, thanks Chris. That is so pointless and confusing.
Mod
After thinking it over for a while, I've realized there's only one explanation for this:
Time travelers love my books. "
Mod
After ..."
Yes, I remember that and I was glad to see him address it too. :)
IIRC, he asked if one of those time travelers could please visit him with the completed copy, it would make his life a lot easier.
I understand the OP's view. I am an author and when I posted my books I rated them 5 stars, but I did so with full disclosure. And I have two very good reasons for doing it.1. The whole reason why I got into writing fantasy novels was to create books that I would want to read, with the kind of characters and pace and action that I would want to read. Imagine if you could hire any author you wanted to create a book that was 100% customized for you? I basically did that for myself. So of course I'm a big fan of my novels.
2. If an author isn't a 5 out of 5 stars fan of their own book, they shouldn't have published it in the first place.
Seeing authors give their own books five stars never bothered me; I suspect most of us love the books we write.
I didn't rate my own book last time, but I did use the space to mention industry reviews the book was getting. Is that any better? Worse? Dunno. What can I say, I was excited!
I didn't rate my own book last time, but I did use the space to mention industry reviews the book was getting. Is that any better? Worse? Dunno. What can I say, I was excited!
Mod
Steven, I understand your point of view on it. You naturally have a bias on your own work.
Yeah, I didn't rate mine because I knew it would rub some people the wrong way.
Mod
I understand you would give your own work 5/5 stars. You put the hard work in and did your best effort. Of course, to you, it's a 5-star work. I don't think anyone would debate that.
The part that rubs me wrong is that it often looks like an attempt to skew the ratings to me. You do so with full disclosure, but that is often missed in the details when one's just looking at ratings averages.
Just my opinion. I'm not saying that authors necessarily do it to be misleading, I'm only stating how it the connotation comes across "to me".
The main reason I started the thread was to see if others had the same connotation or not. It seems a bit split and that's fine.
I don't mind the author's reviews. I kind of like them, because sometimes the authors sound completely different in their reviews than they do in their books, so I feel like I get another glimpse in their writing. I don't take them in consideration when deciding whether to read the book or not, but I enjoy them. I dislike much more the 5-star reviews of random people in books that have not been published yet. They just stay there and pollute the rating once the actual book is out in the world.
Does one 5star vote really effect the ratings so much?or does the lesser star votes balance things out?
asking as I dont understand how the voting maths works on goodreads.
Chris wrote: "Steven,I understand you would give your own work 5/5 stars. You put the hard work in and did your best effort. Of course, to you, it's a 5-star work. I don't think anyone would debate that.
The p..."
An author giving their book a single rating of 5/5 won't skew things much. Asking all their friends and neighbors to create accounts and gank the system with a bunch of 'paid or bribed' ratings is unfair and unethical, and is something I would never do. I'd rather have an honest 1 out of 5 than a false 5 out of 5.
Mod
As far as rating we're getting into a different debate. It brings up good points. How do you rate books? Sometimes I love it so much I'm willing to overlook a few flaws and give it the 5 stars (more so lately then when I started reading). Sometimes I don't click with a book but it is very well written so I try to base my rating on that. Also, doesn't good reads go for the it was awful, ok, like it or love it type rating? I'm so behind in my reviews bc I rarely want to rate anymore
Mod
Even if I don't like something, usually I'll give 3 stars, I always try to find something that I liked. Occasionally 2 or 2.5. The most important thing for me is always the characters, I'm willing to forgive quite a bit if I think the characters are great.
I don't think I've given anything less than a 3. If a book isn't even a three, I won't finish it, and if I don't finish, I won't rate.
The other reason I rarely give low ratings is I've realized that more often than not, my enjoyment of a book depends on where my head is at in the moment. I've put books down because they were crap only to pick them up later when I got desperate for something to read and realized they were amazing!
And finally, having seen my own boom published, I no longer have the heart to crap on someone's dream.
This is prolly all less than useful to the 'community' but it's what I am comfortable with.
And once a book hits 100+ reviews, the writer's 5 star is a drop in the bucket.
The other reason I rarely give low ratings is I've realized that more often than not, my enjoyment of a book depends on where my head is at in the moment. I've put books down because they were crap only to pick them up later when I got desperate for something to read and realized they were amazing!
And finally, having seen my own boom published, I no longer have the heart to crap on someone's dream.
This is prolly all less than useful to the 'community' but it's what I am comfortable with.
And once a book hits 100+ reviews, the writer's 5 star is a drop in the bucket.
I'm not a fan of it. The star rating doesn't mean as much to me as the comments in a review. I've read great comments in three-star reviews and appreciated them more than a five-star rating.
I've never rated my own books, not on here or anywhere else. I agree, it ruins the author's credibility. Of course we're going to love our own books. At least I hope we do! That's why we write them, isn't it? IMO, it should be.Rating/reviewing one's own books seems like fraud to me. I get that some authors do it to show pride and confidence in their own work, but we can find other ways of doing that without self-reviewing.
The only book I gave a 2 (apart from fantasy history books) was Stormlight
1= hot garbage 2= Not good at all
3= meh
4= very good
5= Amazing balls
I see many GoodReads authors who immediately upon entering their book in the system will give their own book a 5-star rating.
What do you think of authors who rate their own book?
Personally, I find this suspicious and find myself much more reluctant to read a book in which the author him/herself has rated. To me, it takes away the credibility of the rating and I DO NOTICE.....ALWAYS.
What are your thoughts? Do you notice this? Does it raise a red flag to you?