All stars are not equal: what is the weight of a review?

[inverarity]

I review lots of books. I also pay attention to the reviews other people leave, primarily on Amazon and Goodreads. I like to look at the both the numbers and the actual reviews

Comments

[chantalzola]

I love this.

Remember the author... I forget her name, who went totally psycho on Amazon at a bad review? It turned into a huge thing and she basically 'flounced'from Amazon. It was so bizarre.

[brightlion]

Anne Rice? She went totally crazy when people were giving her book bad reviews.

I think authors really should keep quiet if getting a bad review. Well apart from the whole John Ringo, which made me laugh first time I read it even though I didn't have a clue who or what it was. :)

I like reading snarky reviews. I think snarky is about the only tone I can write reviews in too. If done right it can be amusing.

[silverflight8]

...at this point there are so many I don't even know. D:

[chantalzola]

She claimed to be calling the cops and stuff (possibly CIA or FBI if I remember correctly) and her detractors for assault and a whole bunch of other stuff. She was saying this on amazon. It started off with one person giving her a negative review and she flipped out. The review wasn't just like, "You suck." either, it was pretty thorough and constructive. Man, i wish I could find it.

[devymel12]

The reviews I appreciate reading most are long, critical ones that talk about the good and the bad. (Or if it's all bad, at least make it funny.) I tend to skip over the reviews that say, "This was a good book I really liked the characters 4.5/5 stars can't wait to read the next book in the series kthxbai!"

I agree.

[marycatelli]

Authors should whine about bad reviews as they do over rejects: in privacy.

[little_e_]

Honestly, if I wrote a book and someone said something really negative about it, I'd probably cry. (especially if there were only a few reviews total.) But they're still entitled to their opinion. They have every right to think my book sucks balls and every right to say so.

When I review a book, I do try to imagine that the author is reading the review. I can say things that I liked or didn't like without being cruel. Sometimes a bit of snark can be funny, though.

[jawastew]

I find this amusing and frustrating -- read through a lot of review ratings and it's evident that many people vote on a review not based on whether it's a good review, but whether they agree with it.

This happens a lot on Amazon. :\