Is Amazon Better Than Goodreads for Reviews?

[Davina, The Modster]

I used to think Goodreads was better, but lately I've been having doubts. I've been really shocked to see how many books are rated 4 and 5 stars, but when I read the actual review the writer lists a whole laundry list of things they didn't like about the book. So why the 4 and 5 star rating then I wonder? I often read stuff like:

"I'm giving this 4/5 stars because I just can't give so and so author anything less."

"I hated this book, but love the author so I want to keep his/her ratings up."

Huh? I don't get it. Shouldn't books be rated on their own merits, even if the author is a favourite?

How am I to respect the reviewer and take what they say seriously if they're essentially being dishonest with their rating?

I must say this type of reviewing appears to be far more prevalent on Goodreads than I've seen at Amazon. It just got me thinking.

Any thoughts?

[Samantha]

Reviews in general I have to question. I like reviewers to give me a honest take of their opinions based on the contents of the books. First they should give me a brief summery of the book. I say BRIEF!!! With a bit more elaboration than the back blurb. Then they should explain whether the characters were likeable and if they relate to them. They should have some mention if the story is consistent and the plot well developed. There are many aspects to a review that I look for.

Needless to say that a lot of reviews don't come across that way. I use to think that I was a hard reviewer but I realize I'm not. Lately some books just haven't met my standards so they get a 1 or 2 star rating from me.

I have people in my other groups ask me why did you give a book a 1 star rating...elaborate. When I respond on all the reasons I dislike the book, I'm often hit with "Yeah...I can see that but so and so is such a great author and I really like his/her previous work." WTF??? Aren't we discussing the current product? I'm not talking of previous works. If that is the case then Ward would get 5 star ratings from me based on her first four books.

[Samantha]

Oh and to answer the question...goodreads have turned into that for me.

[Michelle]

First, I'd like to say that I in no way intend to offend anyone- reviewers or goodreads authors. I go back and forth between amazon and goodreads reviews. A friend of mine here on GR wasn't pleased with a particular book, and posted a review stating such. Well, the author is a goodreads author, contacted her and let her know that she didn't think her review was fair etc, and I think they exchanged one or two heated emails. I hardly write reviews anyway, and I'm certain that's a rarity, but after that, I felt uncomfortable leaving reviews for a while. I'd hate to think that I'd be the cause of anyone's hurt feelings or whatever. Plus, I come here to discuss various topics, and get a perspective different from my own, not to argue. So for that reason, I think that sometimes the reviews/ ratings may be a bit higher than deserved- because people are concerned with the author's feelings or possible reaction to their review. Now, I haven't come across that on amazon.

[Samantha]

See that would present a big problem with me. If I state my honest opinion of a book and the author attacks me or bash me for doing so, I wouldn't be happy. Authors need to realize that not everyone is going to love their books. Some are going to disagree with the overall premise and some will love it. Embrace it as such and move on.

[Davina, The Modster]

See that's why I couldn't hold public office. I'm not good at telling people what they want to hear (just as I expect others to be with me).

I never set out to be mean or deliberately hurt anyone's feelings, but I'm always honest. Depending on the person, I may be full out honest, holding nothing back or I may be more diplomatic in my honesty.

If it's a friend or family member I'm dealing with, someone who knows me and knows of my oft very blunt and straightforward way of expressing myself, then I will hold very little back because I'm confident in the knowledge that this person understands that my intention is never to hurt but to help them be better. I'm not saying I'd go about it in a mean way. Just that I'm going to be completely honest about what turns me off of their work. On the other hand, if its an author we're talking about or other individuals who are not known to me I try to be as diplomatic as I can without having to lie about my true feelings. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't because some people just don't want to hear anything negative about something they love.

I understand and respect that authors are people too and the creative process can often be a lonely, thankless journey. Nevertheless I don't think its ever appropriate for authors to contact readers about a rating(review) of their book/s. Even if it was a good review, I just think its more professional to keep an objective distance.

Every created piece of work is a form art and art is always subjected to criticism. It is inevitable, and seriously if some authors can't bite their tongues when they see a negative review of their books, they shouldn't be in this profession or they should avoid sites where they're likely to interact with their readership at all cost. Because, like Sam said, you simply will not get everybody to like your book/s.

Moreover, what's the point of giving a book a great rating, but essentially leaving a poor review? The authors are able to read, aren't they?

I've corresponded on email with two authors recently, one of whom is my all time favourite and the other is an author whose writing style I absolutely adore. With both of them, I was about to read new-to-me books of theirs and we had a good discussion about the books and what to expect. Both were very lovely and gracious women. I read the books and liked them, but they didn't blow me away. I think both received 3 star ratings from me. I didn't leave a review.

In cases where I've corresponded with the authors and I know they're on Goodreads I tend not to leave a review. I'll leave a rating as I think that's a good way for them to get an idea about how I felt about the book without going into details that might end up causing hurt. But when I do leave a review it is never to spare anyone's feelings. The only feelings being considered are my own. If I have to start lying in reviews then I'd rather not leave one at all.

I feel my duty as a reviewer is to potential buyers first. It is to give them an honest overview of how I personally left about the book. That way if that person and I have similar tastes or look at the world in a similar way they can make the decision whether to read/buy the book or not.

I will never leave a review that doesn't reflect my true feelings about the book in question. Not to please the author or friends of mine who may be fans/fan girls. That's another thing as well. People leaving high reviews because they don't want to fall out of favour with the crowd.

Well you know what I was born alone and I'm going to die alone. If my friends can't accept me for who I am and respect my opinions even if they don't agree, what is the purpose of being in each other's lives? This wouldn't be a true friendship.

[Samantha]

"Fall out of the crowd" *gasp* don't dare do that!!! This is not a popularity crowd. Its a forum for people to discuss books and give honest opinions. I'm with you, Davina. If that's the case then I'll never be a true member of the crowd b/c we can't all agree on EVERYTHING!

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears]

Reviews--whether on Goodreads or Amazon--are always subjective. I tend to write pretty detailed reviews and I don't bite my tongue. In fact, I'm far more inclined to give more weight towards one to three- star reviews because they tend to be well-thought out, detailing everything the reader did not like about the book. I've been burnt too many times in the past by gushing five-star reviews.

A good author knows going in that in spite of every effort to craft the best book possible, some things just don't resonate with every reader. They accept that as part of the writer's life. I don't say this lightly. I will say that I've noticed far more ugly author drama on Amazon than on Goodreads though.

[Davina, The Modster]

I've seen more author drama on Amazon, true, but I'm starting to feel the reviews are a bit more honest in spite of this. The reviews match the rating, while here at Goodreads a book will have a 4/5 star average rating, but when you go through a few of the actual reviews you see that a lot of people were in fact quite displeased with the book.

When I'm trying to determine whether to buy a book or not I read reviews of the book with all the different ratings. I start with the negative reviews first then work my way up. That way I'm likely to get a wider perspective of how the main theme/s of the book are played out.

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears]

I've been lucky to not come across as much drama here on Goodreads, though I'm sure it exists. Overall, it's not just the reviews, but the author blurb that may seal the deal for me. I think authors do a disservice when they get their friends and family to pen reviews in order to garner high ratings. That's happened several times on Amazon and those authors are automatic never buys.

[TinaNoir]

I think both places have their pros and cons.

The one thing about Amazon is that if someone wants to let you know how they rated a book, they have to leave a review. Whereas on GR you can simply put on a rating with no review whatsoever. So you end up having all these starred ratings with no impressions. And on some books you are only getting a handful of reviews to rely on, in that case. So I end up actually reading Amazon first for reviews and then coming to GR. And I also make a point to read the 2 & 3 star reviews (sometimes 1-stars can get to be a but ranty -- I say this as a 1-star ranter myself).

OTOH, I think the reviews that are written on GR tend to be better written overall. Maybe it is because a GR person is more likely than not to be a real hard-core reader vs. a more casual reader at Amazon so they may tend to be more thoughtful and passionate about what they are writing? I dunno, just feels that way to me.

On Amazon I always find myself, when reading a suspect review, clicking on the 'read all reviews by me' to get a feel for the person's taste or reading history. I don't do that as much on GR.

I think authors do a disservice when they get their friends and family to pen reviews in order to garner high ratings. That's happened several times on Amazon and those authors are automatic never buys.

Oh man, that is a major FAIL of Amazon. I swear it is where the authors tell their friends and family to go write great reviews for them. Because I swear I'll click on a book that has like 50 reviews, 45 of them 5-stars and find that almost every single person who reviewed the book only has ever reviewed that book or just made an Amazon account in order to review that book.

There is one book in particular, an IR romance, that I thought was execrable. Poorly written, poorly edited. Just terrible. And it has, like a 4.5 average on Amazon. I can't for the life of me figure out why. And what is worse, a posse of other reviewers practically harass those handful who dared to give it a 1 or 2-star rating.

[Davina, The Modster]

Oh man, that is a major FAIL of Amazon. I swear it is where the authors tell their friends and family to go write great reviews for them. Because I swear I'll click on a book that has like 50 reviews, 45 of them 5-stars and find that almost every single person who reviewed the book only has ever reviewed that book or just made an Amazon account in order to review that book.

I definitely agree that this sort thing is quite rampant on Amazon. Nevertheless I think it can and has been done Goodreads too, but perhaps in another way. Lately I've been reading sooo many reviews on Goodreads where the rating doesn't match the review and I'm like huh? If you didn't like the book why give it 4 and 5 stars??? I think when this happens on Amazon more people get called on it so people are perhaps a tad more careful, imo, about leaving a dishonest overall rating and review than on here. When you compare average ratings of the same book on GR and Amazon GR is almost always higher.

I think suspect reviews are perhaps more prevalent on Amazon because Amazon is generally more well-known than Goodreads, but I think Goodreads may be catching up. I hope I'm wrong.

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears]

What bothers me on Goodreads is the lack of written reviews for interracial romances. Thanks for the five-stars, now tell me WHY you liked it so much. Reviews, no matter the genre, really help an avid reader like me spend less time floundering around looking for stuff to read and more time doing what I love which is READING.

[Davina, The Modster]

But that's the thing, if people are more or less going to bash the book in their review when they've given it 5 stars is it even worth reading? Because if I see a book with 5 stars, but the review itself is mostly negative, I'm not inclined to read the book at all. So they're just better off leaving a rating and no review in that case.

It is in fact the IR genre which prompted me to start this thread. I recently got an IR book as a gift. It is by a popular enough IR author who I'm not so familiar with. I've read one or two of her books, but still didn't have a good impression of her work so I went to check out the reviews for more of her books and they all had stellar ratings. When I read the reviews, however, the reviewers dislikes were often far more abundant than their likes. It seems like such a bone-headed thing to do! I just don't get why people would do that.

[Margaret]

There are a lot of reasons why people either just write starred reviews on here and/or may rate the book higher than you think their review merited.

The first part is that Goodreads isn't just about reviews. There are all these boards, challenges and contests to get involved in. Some people don't even use stars at all - they just mark the books as read and put them in categories. Some people have something like 20 categories or more and others only have two or three. They use it how it fits them.

Specific to interracial romances - perhaps the reader wanted to promote more books on that topic despite the writing?

The rating system is also different. Amazon and Goodreads have the same amount of stars - but those stars mean different things. That may throw people off. Also, haven't you noticed the tendency all people have to mention negatives more than positives? I was told once that's why "no" is one of the first words children say. They hear it all the time.

So, even when we like a book very much - we may start off positive - but unless it's perfect (and there aren't many that are) we're bound to have something negative to say. That usually comes at the end and we may spend more time on it either because it bugged us more or because we feel the need to explain it. Still - it's the last impression most people are left with.

Those are my theories anyway.

[Davina, The Modster]

Specific to interracial romances - perhaps the reader wanted to promote more books on that topic despite the writing?

Lee, you make some good points. I understand your argument that people are always more negative than positive, but your suggestion above is what I'm fundamentally against. A book, imo, should be judged on its own merits. If a reviewer is going to lament the fact that the characters could been more developed or the plot not so contrived and so on and so forth then such a book does not warrant 4 or 5 stars imo. Characterization, plot development, pacing are all key elements of composing a decent enough book eligible for sale. If these are not even somewhat in order then the author has failed to deliver a usable product. Therefore, I see no reason to give that product more than it deserves.

That's just me. I don't think the potential of the author or genre is a good enough excuse to essentially be dishonest with one's rating. An author's talent ought to be what sells his/her work.

Misleading ratings defeat the purpose of the review system, and results in me not buying the book in question and distrusting anything the reviewer writes from that point forward.

[Samantha]

So I was marking a book that I want to read when it comes out and I notice that people have already rated it based on the fact that they can't wait for the book to come out. They didn't read an ARC or anything. Just straight up gave 4 or 5 stars based on the anticipation along, WTF????? I really hate when people do that. It is very annoying.

[Margaret]

Davina wrote: "Specific to interracial romances - perhaps the reader wanted to promote more books on that topic despite the writing?

Lee, you make some good points. I understand your argument that people are alw..."

I agree with you - notice I said those are my theories. I think I probably am guilty of saying the negatives at the end - which may make them stick out more than the positives... I also may say more negatives than positives. Some of my reviews are more... casual and quickly done than others.

I wouldn't do anything misleading like rate a book well even if it's trash or rate a book well that I haven't read yet. I don't know how that's even allowed.

I don't want to waste my money on bad books either. The problem is that so much about reviewing books is subjective. You and I can talk all we like about character and plot development but when it comes right down to it --- people like what they like (even trash sometimes).

I wish I knew a way to fix the system, but I think it would mean educating the entire population on what makes a good book and a good review - and even then...