It appears to be Friday again.
(Note: none of these guinea pigs are my guinea pigs. I don’t have any guinea pigs. I just think memes about them are adorable.)
Today I thought it would be fun to talk about reviews.
The rise of the Customer Review section on websites has really changed things, hasn’t it?
Show of hands, who’s old enough to have shopped before the internet existed?
Me too.
Picking a book involved taking my babysitting money, getting my mom to drive me to the mall, then sitting on the floor in the Sci-fi/Fantasy aisle of Waldenbooks browsing through the new Dragonlance books or seeing if David Eddings had put out another volume in the Mallorean yet.
The guy who ran the checkout counter was a font of knowledge about fantasy books, but beyond his sage recommendations, I just bought books based on the author. Or, more often than I’d like to admit, the cover art.
Fast forward to today, and in the comfort of my own home, wearing pajama pants, I can browse literally millions of books and read more reviews than I can handle about any book I choose.
From that, it’s obvious that people like to leave reviews.
My question is, how much stock do buyers put in reviews?
And I don’t really know the answer. I read reviews. -ish.
I often skim the negative ones and the titles of the positive ones.
WAIT.
I can’t talk about this without a little side trip.
Have you ever seen the reviews for this book?
This book, published in 1993, has over 1400 reviews. It is, apparently, a serious book with actual advice for owners of small, private boats about avoiding the sort of dangerous situation (read: certain death) associated with any sort of entanglement with the huge ships on the water. I can see that being a problem for little boats.
But the reviews…
It makes me so incredibly happy to share a few of my favorites with you:
WHY NO KINDLE EDITION?????
Given that there is a huge ship bearing down on me RIGHT NOW I am extremely disappointed that I cannot get inst—
-Jim Henley, 1 star
A Parent’s Review
As the father of two teenagers, I found this book invaluable. I’m sure other parents here can empathize when I say I shudder at the thought of the increasing presence of huge ships in the lives my children.
-Noel D. Hill, 5 stars
A Book of Hate Speech Posing as Advice.
As a huge ship myself, I’m hurt and offended that the author of this disreputable tract would suggest that I be avoided. Life is difficult enough as a huge ship in a world of sailboats, but now to be vilified like this is more than anyone should have to bear.
-John Petty, 1 star
Fight the real enemy
…NO SPOILERS here, but on closer examination, I can’t help but think this is simply another attempt of the Anti-Huge Ship movement to promote their extremist agenda…
-Citizen John, 1 star
Hee hee. You’re welcome.
Since we’ve been talking about the first book in my series lately, I thought I’d share with you my very favorite 1-star review for A Threat of Shadows, my epic fantasy novel:
Not a horror story…
Thought I was getting a horror story. This was way off – not my thing. Next.
-Lesli, 1 star
I’m sorry, Lesli. I hope you find something scary to read.
My question to you is:
Do you read reviews for books? Do they influence whether or not you buy a particular title?
The first thing I read is the author blurb. If I like that, I will generally get it. I might read the reviews but I don’t go by them. It’s like reviews for movies. Just because someone thinks It’s bad doesn’t mean I will think it is and vice versa.
I have to be very honest about this, I look at the cover first. If the cover grabs my attention then I read the back( if I have a real book in hand) ebook still the cover, then I see what the author says about it and then I check a few of the reviews to see what others think, but I’ve found out that looking at the ones that have 1 -3 stars I read to see what could pobe wrong with a book that has a fabulous cover…lol on Facebook I read what others think of the book. Pros, cons. I used to be the bookstore nerd and then I went on to be the bookstore manager, I help set up rural book buys for distant communities and my input and the reviews I passed on help sell a ton of books. So yes reviews are important.
well thanks from all the shoppers you helped when you were the bookstore manager! 🙂
Yes to reading reviews. At the risk of repeating the comments above, I look at 1) genre, cover, and title, 2) blurb, and 3) reviews, in that order. As part of genre, I include such things as teen & young adult, political or social this or that, and so on often not mentioned in the blurb. These will NOT be my first pick. In the reviews I notice such things as readers saying how wonderfully well the book mirrors this or that current situation. Also NOT my first pick. Basically, whether they really liked it (AND can say why) is important.
I read the about this book part and if I think I might like it I buy it. I don’t care about reviews because I am the one who has to like or dislike it. What someone else says cannot help me . So, no I don’t read reviews.
Yes, I read book reviews both negative and positive. I figure the truth is somewhere in between the two. Reading the blurb is also a necessary.
I look at the cover, read the authors synopsis, then if I am still unsure, I check out the reviews. I read a high and low star to see why they liked or hated it. If they didn’t like it, did they even finish it? What were the reasons? Then I make my own decision.
Echoing what others have said above, I first look to the genre and author. Then if the title is a relatively descriptive or intriguing one I likely won’t pay attention to the cover art and will go straight to the book’s blurb. If the title is pretty generic, then the cover art has to be relatively descriptive or intriguing to get me to look at the blurb. About 90% of the time the book’s blurb will be enough to let me decide whether or not to read the book. For the books where I’m still thinking “maybe” after reading the blurb, then I’ll look at the reviews.
I always try to look at some reviews where the book gets 4-5 stars and others where it gets 1-2 stars. But I’m not paying attention to whether the reviewer liked or disliked the book, but rather their reasons for rating the book as they did because one person’s reason for disliking a book might be my reason to like it, and vice versa. If a review doesn’t include reasons, I don’t pay any attention to it no matter how many or how few stars are involved.
If a review mentions that a book ends with a cliffhanger, that’s pretty much a death knell for that book for me unless it’s an older book and the rest of the series is available for me to read right away.
No to what any body has to say think of feel about a book I’m researching to read. I look at the cover, read the blurb and research the author and editing or who is putting it out there. Every head is a different world. What we feel and see in our minds when we read and interpret a book is an individual experience, no can influence that for me. I believe that too much is based in the world on what people think, that when it comes to reading that, that should be between you and the author no one else. I will say that I don’t read any series that is not complete. If I see a start of a series that interest me I will keep buying them and wait till the series is complete to start reading it. I can’t start what isn’t finished and pickup another series while the other characters are running around in my head waiting for an ending. lol
Absolutely. I find reviews are critical when I am choosing a book by an author I don’t know to read and purchase. First, I get drawn in by covers, then I read the book summary and finally I scan the reviews. If any are negative, I do read what was written and then weigh whether or not their issue is something that matters to me. If it’s an author I already know and love, like J.A. Andrews then I rush out to buy their books😍
I do not read reviews. I do give reviews, but only perhaps 1 out of every 10 books I read and since 2012 I’ve read 1200. I believe in reviews however, as I think Amazon somehow calculates reviews somehow for authors benefit. I am trying to increase my rate of reviews for that reason alone. However, if I can’t give a 4 or 5 star rating I probably wont rate the book. “do no harm”
I definitely depend on reviews to help me decide whether a [new-to-me] author or series is worth my time [and money]. There are only a very few authors where checking the blurb is enough to cement my interest.
If anyone else’s book (author, cover, title, blurb) catches my eye, I head for the negative reviews to see if the specific, recurring complaints are relevant to my reading (dis)tastes, e.g.:
* TSTL or unlikable protagonists;
* masses of internal inconsistencies, grammar errors, and/or anachronisms;
* too much darkness (especially if the *ending* is depressing);
* series that are actually *serials*, where each volume is just a randomly chopped-short piece with zero sub-arc resolution;
* blatantly copied elements from a better known author in the genre (There’s some series out there that actually uses “Lyc-V”, stolen from Ilona Andrews, as the viral cause of weres (lycanthropy) — you’d better believe they’re not getting any of my money!);
* etc.
3-star reviews are often the most helpful, because they give a balanced perspective, e.g., “I liked the characters, but the plot is awfully predictable.”
TBH no, reviews are other people’s opinions and usually it is opposite of what I felt about the book. There has been so many times I have read a book and then went to write a review and wow I loved the book, thought it had great characters, and the style of writing but everyone else hated the book. I was like okay then. And other times I struggled to get through a book, go to write a review and everyone else is like wow great book. So, NO is my answer. I don’t use other’s reviews. 🙂 Thank you
What a funny blog post! Yes, I read reviews, but only after the blurb has piqued my interest. I usually read a few positive reviews and then dive right into the negative ones since they are usually more specific. I read about three positive reviews and three negative reviews.
One thing that also influences my buying process is blog reviews from bookish people who have similar tastes as I do. These reviews actually have more weight than the reviews on the Amazon page for me, because I know the person reviewing the book has similar tastes and dislikes.
I agree with KR. I have had to do it a lot recently as the whole ‘serial thing’ became a thing. I hate serials and hate when they get passed off as a book, so I check the reviews. There are also a lot of pet peeves I have about writing ( too slow progression, whiny heroines/heroes, sex for the sake of sex, etc) that I try to avoid. My reading time is my me time and I value that and would prefer to not waste my time on an annoying book that I am going to want to give 1 star to. I also wish zero stars were a thing. But that is only on books that haven’t in some ways drawn me in. Because there have been books that I have LOVED for whatever reason with every fiber of my being -I’m looking at you Reaper by A. Zavarelli- but I feel haven’t been given their full appreciation by other readers. So, if I had solely followed reviews I would have missed many books that I loved. So I use reviews as a help, not as the decision maker.
If there are sufficient reviews and they total in the 4+ star realm, I usually pick up the book if it is a genre I enjoy. 4 stars or lower, I look to see what the 1, 2 and sometimes 3 star reviewers said. If any say “get an editor”, I usually go away.
I do not read reviews before I read the book. I don’t read the blurb either, I’ve taken to reading everything as absolutely blind as possible and it enriches my experience… I want to say tenfold, but I can’t quantify my enjoyment and I must avoid hyperbole so I’ll have to go vague and say “a lot.” The best experience has been “Learning to Swim,” which I picked up for free at a conference and knew nothing about. Didn’t know the author, the synopsis with those inane leading questions, not even the genre. Just title and cover art. Had I known it was a romantic “thriller” I’d have been bored to tears and hating my life because I have a rule about finishing small market books and writing reviews, but I didn’t. I thought from the cues it was paranormal, which made me far more forgiving, and a tortured experience became one full of twists and shocks. As an example, the (female) protagonist has to decide if she trusts the handsome multimillionaire widower because he MAY have been responsible for his wife’s death and MAY be faking his affection for his formerly abducted son. Since we know it’s romance we roll our eyes because OF COURSE SHE CAN, they’ll be having out-of-text sex within three chapters. Five, tops. But if we don’t know it’s a romance, it becomes a relevant concern and the stakes are restored. After I finished I wrote an unbiased review, as per my usual practice. This helps the search algorithms find the things readers want to find. Only then did I read other reviews and upvote the ones I felt most helpful/spoiler free, so readers who do use reviews will be more likely to find the relevant information they need to make a purchase.
I read the 5* and 1* to compare there ideas. If they are both mentioning the same contexts and disagreeing with their enjoyment levels then I might try the book. If the dislikes are some things I would dislike I might pass. Sometimes I just read a couple to get an insight to see if the story line is generic enough for other readers to pic up on.
‘Friend or Foe?’ is a riveting exploration of trust and deception that kept me guessing until the very end. The author skillfully crafts a tangled web of alliances and betrayals, leaving readers questioning the true motives of every character. With twists around every corner, this psychological thriller is sure to leave you questioning who you can truly trust.”