Bad Reviews and the Star Rating System

[Steven]

Ken wrote: "Since this topic is about ratings, consider this: I just discovered a new 5-star rating on my book. I don't know the person who rated it; she's the wife of a cousin of mine whom I've never met, bu..."

Not a thing.

I gave an honest review of my brother's book (not a 5 star) because amazon emailed to ask me to review on a book I'd purchased - so I did. Earlier, when trying to post one, the declined it. Go figure.

I lost sales from a review of mine because of reviews mentioning the poor proofing. I learned from it and had a professional editing and update. Despite a thousand downloads with free days and a good few sales subsequently - not one review since those spoke to the cleaned up version. What's to be done? Not one thing.

We just have to live and learn and keep trying to put out quality stuff. You can't help it if your relatives review your books (read or not) and sometimes someone with your last name does too. For the life of me I can't remember checking the name of most of my reviewers (only the 5, 3, and 2 star ones) Maybe most folks won't with yours.

Best of luck.

[Christine]

Skye wrote: "Jim wrote: "A review is nothng more than a reader sharing their opinion of a book with other readers...."

I respectfully disagree with this. The purpose is not only to share my opinion but to sel..."

As a reader and reviewer - your job is to provide an honest opinion for other readers - NOT to sell books.

When your objective is to sell the book, then your reviews will be biased to that end. Its up to the author to create a book people want to buy. it was never the readers job to promote any book and doing so makes the review useless.

[Dwayne]

Ken wrote: "...However, to an outsider it looks like a puppet account that I might have created to give my own book a great rating. I didn't. As an author, what would you do? "

I'd leave it. I'd guess that most outsiders aren't going to pay much attention to the last names of people that rated your book or wonder if the rating is legit.

[[deleted user]]

Dwayne wrote: "Ken wrote: "...However, to an outsider it looks like a puppet account that I might have created to give my own book a great rating. I didn't. As an author, what would you do? "

I'd leave it. I'd g..."

And in rethinking that, it would be a little stupid to create a puppet account with the same last name. I think I'd be a little more creative than that.

[Dwayne]

Skye wrote: "A review tells an author one thing. If the author is on the right track, then continue. If the author is on the wrong track, make a change."

I would have to agree more with Jim. A review is really just an opinion.

The only thing I can think that I would pay a lot of attention to in a review is if you were to point out spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, etc. and I found that you were right. Maybe that's what you mean by being on the "wrong track". I'm not sure. If by the "wrong track" you mean that the characters didn't suit you, you didn't find the plot interesting, you found the story predictable and so on, then that's all your review tells me - the story just wasn't for you.

[Dwayne]

Ken wrote: "And in rethinking that, it would be a little stupid to create a puppet account with the same last name. I think I'd be a little more creative than that."

It crossed my mind to point out that only a dimwit would create a fake account with their own real last name. I'm glad you came to that conclusion, too!

[Yzabel]

Ken wrote: "However, to an outsider it looks like a puppet account that I might have created to give my own book a great rating. I didn't. As an author, what would you do?"

I'd advise to do... nothing. If you start putting out disclaimers, then it'll only attract unwanted attention to that rating. Do something if someone attacks you on it, but otherwise, I think the best course of action would just to leave that one rating be, and wait until it gets buried under a few more.

[BR]

I realize that this forum is aimed at new authors. But to provide some history, this topic has been beaten to death. I suggest you search on "bad review" in the KDP Community forums, or google the phrase "Goodreads bullies" to get a full dose of angst, reviewer and author slamming, and general advice on how to deal with reviews.

Stephen King and William Shakespeare have received 1 star reviews. It comes with the territory. The Pope is wildly unpopular with some people.

There are only 2 types of reviews that are inappropriate, and you can report them to Amazon or Goodreads or where ever the review appeared. The first is by someone who hasn't read the book (hard to prove). The second is a personal attack on the author, and not a review of the content between the covers.

Happy New Year everyone.

[Pete]

I can’t imagine any self-respecting author changing** his novel in response to one or two negative reviews.

**”Self-respecting” means, to me, professionally edited and formatted, so fixing typos/grammar/wonky formatting doesn’t count.

[[deleted user]]

B.R. wrote: "I realize that this forum is aimed at new authors. But to provide some history, this topic has been beaten to death. I suggest you search on "bad review" in the KDP Community forums, or google the ..."

True. Every time this topic is introduced it gets beaten to death. It seems to provide an excuse just to vent, and there's probably no harm in it if everyone remains reasonably civil. But it does bring out the trolls.

[Debra]

Pete wrote: "I have no problem whatsoever with a non-review rating, whether it’s 5 stars or 1. Anyone who takes the time to read one of my novels and spends two seconds to rate it is okay with me.

My favorite ..."

I've had the same thing happen, Pete, and I agree, it's not a problem for me. I review books and my books are reviewed...sometimes. They are opinions, some from the heart, others apparently not so much. The point is that we don't all have to agree. I used to belong to the large DorothyL mystery readers group & you couldn't have a discussion about any author, including Agatha Christie, Patterson, Connelly, Grisham, Clancy, or other big names without disagreement about whether their books were worth reading :)

[Dwayne]

Bite the bullet and get your work professionally edited first and foremost so it is the best that it can be, and then if your book isn't selling it has nothing to do with that one bad review but more to do with readers unable to find your gem in a sea of sub standard material. :)

[Debra]

Dwayne wrote: "Bite the bullet and get your work professionally edited first and foremost so it is the best that it can be, and then if your book isn't selling it has nothing to do with that one bad review but mo..."

I completely agree. It's worth the extra time and expense. I couldn't imagine putting all that work into writing a book, then neglecting that last crucial step! It's like building a house and then not bothering to install half the windows to cut costs. You leave yourself exposed...