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Are 1 star reviews really that helpful?
Bessie:The short answer is, you can't.
I can honestly say I have given some one star reviews and even a few zero star reviews. One book in particular I mentioned that I would have given it negative stars if I could have along with the reasons why. No, I'm not a jealous author or some pompous ass, I just truly hated that book more than I have ever hated anything in my life.
Sherri wrote: "None. They are usually written by people that don't care for the genre at all, and felt coerced to read this work - perhaps from pressure by friends. I think that if you dislike something enough to..."A person can read a book in a genre they enjoy and still loathe the book. It happens. I would rather warn other people not to waste their money & be warned than buy something crappy.
The other thing I thought of, I write reviews so other readers can gauge if they want to take a chance on a certain book or not. I don't think it's a readers responsibility to boost an authors ego.
I think it depends. If the reviewer makes informed comments- "I didn't like this book as the editing and grammar is appaling.""This book had weak characterisation" or something is ok but just "I don't like this book cos it is crap or wasnt what I was expecting." Or even worse a personal attack on the author then I don't think it is especially valid.
If you read something you don't normally read then say so. At least then it is honest.
At the end of the day you can't please everyone. I have read books I thought were rubbish.
I always read the low star reviews. Sometimes it is exactly what will get me to buy the book. I don't read the reviews that sound like a grade school book report. I don't necessarily want the plot revisited. I want to know how people felt about it. A one star review that says "Too slow, not enough battle scenes" will make me take another look.
I have stopped giving low star reviews on any book that just isn't to my taste. That doesn't seem fair. Now I review them without any stars.
I agreed with all the above. Reviews depend on the reader, and low reviews hurt. As a writer, I try to learn from the smart ones, and cast the others aside. As a reader, well, I don't read reviews before chosing a book.
One star reviews make me want to read the look inside. When I review works I have only rarely gone below a three star review. If something is so bad to rate a one star I just don't review it. And I agree that synopsis reviews are not reviews. A review should give you an idea of how the story flows and if it is workable in the format it is written. I have given books four stars even when I could find not a single redeeming point to the characters if the story was compelling enough to make me read the whole thing.
Hi Keith! As someone who has spent 20 or so years as a publicist, you aren't going to be able to keep those who dislike your product away. In fact, it is much more likely psychologically that someone will write about something they don't like as opposed to something they do.
The good news is that your average consumer never remembers whether a review is good or bad, only that they've seen a product mentioned somewhere. So I'd take whatever mentions come my way.
www.WhichOneAmI.net
Thomas wrote: "Hi Keith! As someone who has spent 20 or so years as a publicist, you aren't going to be able to keep those who dislike your product away. In fact, it is much more likely psychologically that som..."
I agree, Thomas. I know some authors are really freaking about the one-start reviews and trying to get them voted down. I would rather put that time and energy into writing the next book.
I think the one star issue is the ones that don't give you a reason or just say its carp (yes i misspelled for a reason)Me I like good and bad reviews on my work so I know where to get better but if they just say this s**k then how is that going to help. I have had a kid read one of my poems and leave a note that I should never write again...
I think negative reviews can be a good thing. When I'm looking at a book and trying to decide if I should read it I look at a number of different reviews to help me make that decision. I think negative reviews are a good way to help the right audience find your book. Personally though I think reviews starred 2-4 are the most helpful. 1 and 5 star reviews don't always tell you that much about the book. Sometimes they do, but a lot of the time they either just praise or complain about it without really telling you why.
And, actually I recently blogged about this.
http://laurynapril.blogspot.com/2012/...
Lisa, I am lucky that I haven't had that yet, but while such a review is sadly useless (for you and for potential readers), I guess the advice about ignoring it and carrying on is still the best response. We can take some consolation that, as Thomas says, consumers mostly just remember the mention, not the context, so maybe it will end up doing you some good :)
Unless a book has no plot whatsoever and is riddled with mistakes l don't see the point of giving a one star review. If you don't like it because it isn't to your taste for example, l think you should mention that. eg. 'Although the story had pace and was well written l didn't enjoy it at all'. After all if you don't like a particular genre of music you don't say it's rubbish, do you? Unfortunately many people will just say they loved it or hated it without being specific.
Gemma wrote: "If you don't like it because it isn't to your taste for example, l think you should mention that."Agreed. I remember a 1-star review on a book (now I can't remember which one, nor who the reviewer was) that basically went like "this book is horrible because it features a demon as main character, no story should be written about demons because demons are evil". Not really helpful IMHO.
Sometimes I wonder to which extent we may have to place a warning on the cover/in the blurb. "Warning: one of the characters in this book is a demon", or "Warning: the hero's sidekick is gay".
My one and only 1* review was by a reader who bought one of my books and reviewed it saying, 'I rarely post reviews, but really feel I must this time to counteract all the bafflingly positive reviews.' She's written three book reviews on amazon - given my book and one other 1* and and the third book 2*s. So, she only posts negative reviews there, and though she does rate many books on Goodreads she does not review. I wished she HAD returned it, as she said she wanted to, and got her money back. Like every author, I hate to disappoint a reader, and especially to that extent.
Rebecca wrote: "Lisa, I am lucky that I haven't had that yet, but while such a review is sadly useless (for you and for potential readers), I guess the advice about ignoring it and carrying on is still the best re..."OH I assure you I mostly ignored that one Rebecca. Went on to write many many many more poems and many more stories. You can please everyone but it was fun to go see what she thought was good. Helped me realize that it was a young woman, a teen. She just didn't understand what I wrote
I'm not a reader that will persevere with a book if it isn't holding my interest one way or another so I rarely give one or two star reviews. The only time I do that is for 'cliffhanger' endings ... not subtle ones usually, either, but the 'both armies facing each other across the battle lines ready to charge' ... The End ...It is a personal pet peeve of mine and I do make this clear in the review ... will often say in the review something to the effect of "could be a 3 star for someone who has no issues with cliffhanger endings". I will also say that I often get feedback on those such as 'glad to know this in advance, I don't like them either'.
If I know it's a cliffhanger ending, I won't read it. If I suspect it is likely to be a cliffhanger, I will often skip to the end and check ... and not read it if that's the case. If it sneaks up on me I make a point of noting that series/author as a "don't bother" on my personal reference list.
What do you do about reviews that don't actually reflect the book being reviewed? I did a book of activities for kids who are hospitalized, specific to family caregivers trying to keep up with educating their children while under medical treatment. One reviewer on B&N marked it as "dumb" and gave it one star, while another (Anonamyos {sic})just gave it one star. Is it just spam? Another reviewer trashed one of my books with a description of a completely different book, citing more pages than actually exist, different characters and scenes, and criticized me for not having explicit sexual scenes. What's the best way to handle these kinds of reviews? So far, I've ignored them. I'd appreciate feedback.
Rebecca wrote: "Johnny wrote: "A Good case in point is the FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. It is almost all five stars or all one stars. ...I have read a lot of reviews of"Fifty Shades" and concluded that it hit a nerve for a lot of folks. They either enjoyed the sexual fantasy or it wasn't to their taste. ..."
It seems that many experienced readers of erotica and/or BDSM also had problems with the misrepresentation of BDSM (intentional or otherwise). This may account for the disparate ratings as well.
But going back to the OP, as a reader, I try to give concrete reasons or examples for any reviews 3 stars or less. Although I evaluate a book objectively (meaning in a vacuum, without consideration of the author as a person, the effort involved, etc.), I personally grimace every time I see the extremes consisting of only "I LOVED IT!!!" or "This sucked". Not helpful to me as a reader, much less to the author, eh?
Sara wrote: "What do you do about reviews that don't actually reflect the book being reviewed? ... Another reviewer trashed one of my books with a description of a completely different book, citing more pages than actually exist, different characters and scenes, and criticized me for not having explicit sexual scenes. What's the best way to handle these kinds of reviews?..."
Sara, depending on where the review is posted, perhaps flag/alert as review for wrong book? I know that once, I was posting a review on Amazon and noticed similar "mistake" review (it was clearly for a different book). I sent alert to Amazon CS with "think this was a mistake/please notify customer".
ETA: soon wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "Johnny wrote: "A Good case in point is the FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. It is almost all five stars or all one stars. ...I have read a lot of reviews of"Fifty Shades" and concluded that ..."
While every bad score hurts, as a writer, I do appreciate readers like you who explain why. The criticisms might be (embarrassingly)accurate, a bitter pill to swallow, but a necessary one.
As a reader and writer, I find one and two star ratings without a clear review absolutely useless.
Gemma's comment struck home. I had a two star review where the reviewer wrote that readers should be warned because the mystery was a cozy and she hated cozies. She said she read the book all the way to the end hoping it would stop being a cozy but it never did. Sales jumped after that review. I guess some people do like cozies. What is annoying, though is the one star review that begins: "I only read a few pages..." Now why would you review something you didn't read?
Nancy wrote: "Now why would you review something you didn't read? "That's something I don't understand either. I have given a few 1 and 2 star reviews, but have always stated why (usually a cliffhanger ending). I understand why authors use this but it is an absolute throw-the-book pet peeve of mine and I always state that as well and try to rate the *rest* of the book separately from the ending.
I would absolutely never, ever rate/review something I could not/did not read from beginning to end.
I've learned as an author and a reader, that very often than not, a person can see the merit, or lack there of in a review. I've seen some one star reviews were there person just kept saying the novel was awful, horrible, etc. Sometimes a person just doesn't understand the book. I saw a review where the person was talking about the characters and used the wrong names, and then referenced not understanding how a certain thing could happen, when it was explained on the second page of the book. If you read the other reviews, you could tell this person didn't actually read the book. All in all, books are like art, and everyone is going to have an opinion on it and not everyone will agree.
When I write a review for a book I don't particularly like I try to "own" the review as my opinion and not a fact about the book. I would never say a book was awful and should never have been written because someone spent a lot of timing writing it, and second, just because I don't like it doesn't mean it's bad.
It's harder when you have written a book about a sensitive material (i.e. prostitution), but I don't pick up books that I know I am bound not to like because I can't stand the subject matter.
I've done lots of reviews through the years for Music Connection Magazine. The idea behind a negative review is to express to other consumers and the creator of whatever product it is just why the review is bad. Most often I try to figure out what the goal was of the piece. Did the book's author have a message to send? Then the question is how well or poorly was that message conveyed. Most of the time my bad reviews are because there was no message or moral at all. But then again, I mostly review music.
Thomas, I agree that a good review considers what the book is trying to do. I have given positive reviews to books that weren't great works of literature because they did what they set out to do--what they SAID they were going to do--very well. I don't review genres I dislike, because I don't read them.
I'm with you Rebecca that it's generally best not to review works you either actively dislike or which don't speak to you. Unfortunately, I get my reviews via assignment from my editor. Believe me, I've tried to turn back product I knew I was going to be negative about, but it's all for naught.
If that case I use my psychology. If you lead with the negative, humans will turn off the rest of what you have to say. It's like commenting someone who is badly dressed: "I love what you did with your hair but girl! Who dressed you?"
Several articles have, by now, addressed reviews driven by motives to support or tear down authors—reviews not based on the merits of a book. Such reviews beg the question of how helpful book reviews are. I have my own personal solution (ignore them, rely on book samples) which many may not like and fewer would support but I can't help doing a bit of proselytizing for that approach. Who knows? Revolutions can start with a handful. Read more, also here on Goodreads: Who's to say: subverting the tyranny in book reviews.
Thomas, I guess when reviews are your job, you have to learn to divorce your personal reaction from an objective assessment of the work's merits. Not an easy task. I'm not even sure if I could tell, for example, if a steamy romance was well-written vs. okay. You do have to know the conventions of the genre. I can tell crappy writing anywhere, of course--but the difference between "good enough" and "good" may be hard to tease out of you hate the whole genre.Frankly,I think your boss does you, the author, and your readers a disservice by requiring you to review books you know you'll dislike.
I am very interested in 1 star reviews, mostly because I enjoy looking at the motivation behind them. One of the things that fascinates me on Goodreads is the number of people who only give 1 star reviews. It's like their Mean Thought For The Day.
One star reviews never put me off looking at a book. Where sneak peek previews are offered, I ignore all reviews and take a look before buying. Otherwise, I tend to go on recommendations from people whose taste I know matches mine.
Right, and by tomorrow I'll put up sneak peeks for my books on Goodreads! Got to get my day job work out of the way first!
Go check out my one star review and tell me it has anything to do with my book. I say it doesnt..its about grammar errors and mispellings which arent even my fault..also lets not forget my accusing of forcing rhyme..so yeah I got plenty of motivation and also a shit publishing company to thank for chopping and screwing my book
It really depends on the nature of the 1 star review.
I really like this question, because as a new author, I have been highly conscience of the impact of reviews on a book, or lack thereof. I can honestly say I've only ever given one book a 1* rating. Most I give 4-5, 5 for my very favorites, and sometimes 3. Mostly I would say that is because I wouldn't choose a book to read that I didn't intend to enjoy. The one book I gave 1* to (and which I will express my overwhelming displeasure to ANYONE who will listen), was something I wanted desperately to like. I knew exactly what it was about, and I thought the premise sounded promising. It is a very popular novel, and I thought "it's selling like hotcakes...must be something to it." Haha, was I wrong. My review was based on not only the horrible writing (which is has), non-existent editing (ditto), absolute lack of any character development, & the way the author did absolutely NO research on the area of the world she set the book in (she's obviously 'not from ‘round here,' as they say), but especially the dangerously misleading way she portrays a relationship that is supposed to be a love story and (in my professional opinion, not as a writer but in law enforcement), is much more abusive than it is loving. Sorry for the run-on sentence there. Well, I'm sure many of you know where I'm going with this, and as many people disagree with my assessment as agree with it. But as a woman, a mother, a reader, a writer and a human being, I stand by my original review 110%.Off my high horse for a minute...yes, I think all reviews count that come from a reader's heart. Do they count if they're bought & paid for, or written positively by friends & family more out of love of the author than the writing, or negatively out of jealousy or spite? Hmmm, not so much in my personal opinion. I certainly take a review more seriously if the person writing it can cite examples of why they came to their conclusion. Or at least sound like they actually read the thing! But just stars with no text to back it up, reviews that are one or two sentences ("Loved it!" to me is the most annoying review ever by itself), or reviews of the sales site, price, etc rather than the book; I pay very little attention to. I also discount reviews that rate a book low based on the overall premise of the story. If you don’t like giraffes, don’t buy a book on giraffes and give it 1 star! As I only have a few reviews myself, I'm certainly no expert. But when I read reviews from a consumer point of view, I do pay a lot of attention to the top & bottom of the reviews to see WHY somebody has given a product, any product, a particular rating. And with books that have the "Look Inside" feature, well that does help to take a lot of the guesswork out of deciding if something is purchase-worthy or if the 1* reviewers were right all along!
Justin, why are grammar errors and misspellings not your fault?
Justin wrote: "Go check out my one star review and tell me it has anything to do with my book. I say it doesnt..its about grammar errors and mispellings which arent even my fault..also lets not forget my accusing..."Yes, actually, those grammar and spelling errors *are* your fault. They're all over your post, so I have no reason to doubt they're all over your manuscript as well.
I know that sounds snarky, but it sounds like you are trying to blame someone else for the fact that you published a poorly edited manuscript. Your manuscript should be as perfect as you can get it before you send it to an editor -- and that person is still going to find things you miss, simply because you've looked at your manuscript so many times that you no longer see the mistakes.
Actually, I had one of my books I completely rewrote based on a one star review and some other feedback from those who had read it. The review called attention to what really needed to be there to make it a good story so I actually appreciated the one star. By the time I got finished with the complete rewrite/edit it was a decent story finally. It was, however, one of the first fiction pieces I wrote and so there was much I didn't know at the time. Since then, I do spend more time making sure the story is as good as I possibly make it. I even have a publisher now so yes I definitely learned from the experience. You can try to blame an editor if you wish but it is the authors responsibility to produce the best book they can to begin with. It is the authors name that is going on the front cover of the book.
One star reviews are helpful - if I see a book with only four or five stars, I have to wonder about friends and relatives helping the author. I think the low starred reviews keep it honest.I'm saying this without having a book out. Ask me if I feel the same way after a one-star review. :)
Oh my god, no they are not my fault because i did not put them in the book, i committed a few, publishamerica doesnt have and editing dept so when they published it they actually added more errors it really isnt my fault, sharon research before accusing me of stuff huh? thanks!
You know what forget I said anything anyone okay? No more comments forget I said anything
Justin wrote: "Oh my god, no they are not my fault because i did not put them in the book, i committed a few, publishamerica doesnt have and editing dept so when they published it they actually added more errors ..."If you are saying they don't have an editing department, how is it possible that they "added more errors"?
I am very familiar with PublishAmerica and how they rip off authors, thanks. Don't accuse me of "not doing my research."
I have been traditionally published in the US and the UK. I am not some raw beginner. Furthermore, I am an editor. I can see all of the grammar and spelling errors in your posts here, Justin. This gives me no reason to believe anything other than that your manuscript was also rife with similar mistakes.
Your inability to take responsibility for your part in the problem is pretty telling.
Blah Blah Blah, I dont have to exlplain myself to you. I know the truth and I know its not my fault. The issue is done and Im not commenting anymore.
Justin wrote: "Oh my god, no they are not my fault because i did not put them in the book, i committed a few, publishamerica doesnt have and editing dept so when they published it they actually added more errors ..."Sorry. I can't buy it. From what I've seen (but kept silent on), your posts are riddled with errors.
I'm not saying that informal posting on a forum such as GR should be error-free but after a stretch, one certainly gets a good sense of the person posting.
So your saying because my posting on threads here has errors so my book has errors too? Are you kidding me? Man, lay off will you? Thats ridiculous!
Dude, if you're so loosey-goosey with fundamentals of basic English on forums, then it's not a far stretch to wonder what your books would be like. But here's just two examples from "The Macabre Masterpiece"―specifically, the very first piece titled "Buried Alive":Line 4: Better that then your head not chopped into a basket
Line 7: Rotting, decaying, slowly loosing form
If you can't see it, so be it.
Justin wrote: "Blah Blah Blah, I dont have to exlplain myself to you. I know the truth and I know its not my fault. The issue is done and Im not commenting anymore."No one asked you to "explain yourself."
However, your lack of professionalism speaks for itself.
Justin wrote: "Oh my god, no they are not my fault because i did not put them in the book, i committed a few, publishamerica doesnt have and editing dept so when they published it they actually added more errors ..."You should have hired a professional editor, Justin. Is there any way you can do so and publish a second edition?
Most readers really do want to read grammatically sound books and will view multiple errors as laziness on the author's part.
A note on editing - my first book was published last year in October. The editing process was amazing. I learnt so much about writing - both my own writing, and writing in general. The publisher and I discussed word use, spelling and capitalisation (It's a spec fiction, so there are words in there that I invented!), how the book was structured, and what might improve this. My beginning was completely rewritten twice (despite me having rewritten it about twenty times in the writing process), and sometimes I needed to cut scenes ruthlessly. My point is, that professional editing enhances the story. The story remains the same, the characters remain the same, but the change in writing improves the read for the reader, and if you annoy your reader with poor grammar, spelling and sentence structure you may as well have not published your story. That "perfect" manuscript I sent away in the hope of publication was not as perfect as I thought it was. After the first "ouch" moment, I was able to read the publisher's comments and see that he was actually correct. Sure, some things we discussed, and if I could come up with a good enough argument they were left alone, but most of the time he was right.
After the editing comes the multiple proof reads. This was undertaken by a professional proof reader, the editor and myself. And even now, a friend who has purchased the book asked me if I'd be offended if she pointed out a couple of errors. My response was "Of course not!" Even the best proofreaders, editors and authors can let the odd error through (I recently read a novel from a large publishing house that was full of missed spaces), and if they're pointed out, then they'll be fixed.
As for star reviews - well, as a reader I'm suspicious of books that have all five star ones - I tend to read the two to four star reviews myself, because they're likely to give me a better feel for the story. Having said that, I love getting five star reviews because they make me feel good (pure self interest there), but I was relieved to get a couple of four stars recently. I'm sure someone out there will hate my book at some point, and when the one star arrives I'll probably cringe, but as long as it has some kind of explanation, I'll probably cope :)
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One problem is that one of the major subjects of the book is the legalization of prostitution. People that are opposed to this, even though they don't even read the book (just the sample), give it a bad review.
The other problem is that, although it is very erotic, it is written in an unconventional manner (I used a lot of real tape recordings). Some people seem to just want to get to the sexy parts so they read 10% of it and give up because they aren't all hot and bothered right away (it's 359 pages). The last part of the book has plenty of hot sex if they had a little patience.
I guess I'm asking, how can I advertise this unconventional book so that I don't get people who really won't enjoy it to stay away? I'd appreciate tips from experienced authors or readers of erotica that could help me with this.