My husband’s immediate response to the comment I received at Amazon was “don’t try to argue with crazy.” That’s when I deleted my review. He knows how I am, and I would have sat there all night going back and forth (like I’m doing now, he tells me, although I think this may actually be a beneficial discussion). Next time I will know better than to click the button that says “email me if there’s a comment.”

You’re right. I loved that book enough to defend my review and I think I will leave my review again. But the more I think about it, the more pointless it seems to worry about a review website. I said that in anger. One of the books I liked so much has already gotten very popular despite the bad reviews, which tells me reviews aren’t that important in the grand scheme of things. There is a whole thread at Amazon devoted to attacking this book (and no it wasn’t Fifty Shades of Gray). I think I’ll just leave my reviews at Amazon and ignore the comments. I don’t need to subject myself to arguing about why I like something. I’m entitled to my opinion as much as anyone else. A review blog is something I would consider if I simply had more time. My husband calls himself a “Kindle widower” with my new hobby.

Now, if I thought it was fair to leave reviews based on a Kindle sample? Oh my! One stars galore! But I don’t think it’s fair to review a book if you have only read the sample because that’s what sifts out the buyers from the people who don’t buy. It would be funny to see a “Kindle sample” review site though. If only I had more time. I don’t consider that “snark.” I consider it “comedy.” :)

And yes, there is always room for another reviewing website because the more options readers have to find good books, the better.

Chelly —

Forgive me for making this assumption, but you’re sounding a little bit more like an author than a reader, and an author who has been hurt by some negative reviews.

If you want to leave a review, by all means leave one. And if you don’t want to read that someone thinks your review is wrong, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS.

But if you start a review website, is it going to be one where you don’t allow anyone to challenge your reviews? Someone might disagree with you opinion and even tell you you don’t know what you’re doing. Are you prepared for that kind of response?

And what about the authors? Are you going to Harriet all the books you read and give every author 5 stars or 10 hearts or whatever the top rating is? I’m sure the authors will love you, but will the readers? If you like EVERYTHING, what’s the purpose of your review?

If you disagree with the comment someone makes on your review, for crying out loud DEFEND YOURSELF. Of course you’re entitled to your opinion. But keep in mind that so is the other person.

I’m not really understanding your point about 5-star books with low sales. Maybe the reason those multi-5-star reviewed books don’t have many sales is because some of those reviews are fake. In other words, the author rallies friends and family and twitter friends to log on and leave a few lines of “Oh, this is the greatest book I ever red! I can’t wait for it to be a movie with Johny Depp and Orlando Broom! And the sequil will be even better!” But all those 5-star reviews don’t turn the sow’s ear into a silk purse. The plot still leaks like a collander, the heroine is still a bimbo, and the hero reminds most of us of our least-favorite brother-in-law.

But there may be people who don’t care about details like that. They just want something to read, something they don’t have to think about, something that’s going to transport them to another place, another time, another life. (This is the way my mother reads.) And that’s okay too.

But some of us do care. We care a lot.

I might just start leaving reviews and see what happens from there. I wasn’t much of a reader until I got my Kindle. That’s what too many years of school did to me – totally burnt me out on reading. But I love my Kindle and I have found a new passion in reading. It’s heartbreaking to find an author you love so much (I bought several of her other books and read them within three days of reading the first one) and find that there are other people who obviously keep authors on their radar so they can trash them in reviews. It was confirmed for me in my little trip to the forums.

You’re right. Do you think the world really needs another review website though? I think more people just need to go to EreaderIQ and ignore reviews.

I haven’t been this pissed in a long time.

You might consider your own advice:

I think some of you need to calm down.

But I HAVE picked some books at EReaderIQ that had low star averages and I didn’t even bother to look. I still won’t bother to look. I don’t think I’m the only one. I think there are a lot of great “Indie” books out there. In fact, I know there are. Maybe I should start my own review website. I haven’t been this pissed in a long time.

If you’re bothered by the reviews, don’t read them. You don’t have to. No one makes you. They’re kinda like the Terms of Service agreements that we all get now and then, with a box to check that we’ve read and agree to everything even though most of us don’t read a single word. Except with book reviews, you don’t even have to check the box and lie about it. With book reviews, you can just skip ‘em entirely. You can even pretend they aren’t there!

But guess what — there are readers out there who DO rely on reviews. They have limited time and funds and they appreciate that someone else has read the book — or part of it — and shared with other readers that the writing is bad or the history is inaccurate or the hero is a jerk or the heroine a whiny twit.

You have the option of ignoring reviews if you so choose. But if no one were allowed to leave reviews, you’d be imposing your preference on all the people who do appreciate them and wouldn’t be able to take advantage of something just because you didn’t like it.

Remember that reviews are for other READERS; they are not critiques for the authors. If the authors aren’t prepared for negative reviews — and sometimes some really harsh negative reviews — then they shouldn’t put their writing out there and ask people to a.) pay for it and/or b.) give their time to it.

I am fascinated to know that people think their reviews are worth so much. There have been a few books that all of us absolutely loved and thought about going to Amazon to leave a review but the reviews there were so mean! Why? I don’t care if a book is “Indie” or not. I didn’t even know what that meant! I don’t even care if it has some errors, honestly, and neither do most of the people in the group, including those with Ph.Ds. I am just shocked by the outrage about reviews and bad writing and all this stuff. It’s happened to more than one book we’ve read, where I go to Amazon to leave my good review and I see hatred. I did finally leave one review and some nasty person came behind me and left me a comment telling me I’m stupid for loving this book and my review must be fake because the only thing I’d reviewed at Amazon was that book and a sippy cup. I deleted the review because it upset me, and it also made me sad for the person who wrote the book. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

Maybe before the days of sites like EreaderIQ, books sold based on reviews??? I don’t think they do anymore. I think it’s the writing and I think there is way too much jealousy. Of course, I can only speak for myself and the ten other people who actually enjoyed “The Marriage Bargain” by Jennifer Probst and a few other that were not liked on this blog. I’m not going to tell you the name of the book that I left a review for where I was ridiculed. I don’t want to unleash more hateful people on a writer I love. I just want to enjoy my books and I think some of you need to calm down.

The #1 reason why a book gets purchased is because someone clicks on it. You can’t see the content of reviews when you click on a book–just the general star rating. If you’re browsing, you are much, much more likely to click on the book with a five-star rating than the one that has no reviews.

And that’s by an *author.*

My OCD has really kicked in on this issue and I’ve lost a lot of sleep and spent a lot of time on it. No, don’t feel sorry for me; I actually enjoy my OCD!

But don’t you think maybe there are different kinds of reviews that serve different purposes and it’s less a matter of making them all fit the same template than it is a matter of recognizing which reviews fit which need? For instance:

1. The fangirl/boy squee (I can’t believe I’m using these terms!) intended to convey emotional engagement or just enjoyment. This is the review/endorsement that comes from like-minded readers in a community who are generally looking for a similar experience and can more or less rely on the reaction of a majority of their peers.

2. The biased squee posted by the sisters and the daughters and the cousins and the aunts, because of course they’re going to squee, and the problem is that the reader doesn’t know who the sisters and the daughters and the cousins and the aunts are in order to distinguish them from the trusted community.

3. The paid $quee.

The fact that the content of the reviews in all templates is generic and lacking in analytical information allows the $quee to have the same validity as the others, and in the algorithmic arcana of the Amazon system, $quee can make a big difference in visibility and thus sales.

As a reader, I have never put much stock in reviews or ratings, but I can see where most readers do tend to rely on reviews and ratings to give them some idea what to choose. And I also think that for most readers, the emotional response is the primary motivation in choosing a book even if it’s not the most conscious motivation. The best-seller lists have been and are frequently populated by books that strike that emotional chord even while having huge, huge flaws in terms of what the “discriminating” reader sees.

I enjoy reviews and analysis even though they only occasionally influence my reading choices. They do, however, strongly influence my writing. So I guess I’m really not surprised that a writer would write a squeeing “empty” review, if that’s what the community of readers who would be reading that review finds most appropriate.

But I’m not involved in any of those reader/review communities, so I could be totally wrong.

As Sunita mentions above, her and Sirius have very different tastes. And that’s what it’s all about, taste. No one’s is better than the other, they’re just different. And my 5 star and my 1 star ratings won’t do certain people any good.

Sirius and I may disagree on Latakia, but in general we overlap a lot on m/m. She likes more books than I do, I think; but that’s true for a lot of people. I’ve become pickier and crankier about quality over the years.

I’m happy to grant the (rhetorical) point that taste is subjective. But that’s *not* the only thing “it’s all about.” Reading enjoyment isn’t just about visceral reaction for every reader. There are objective components like craft as well. And I totally disagree about finding 1-star and 5-star reviews useless in the absence of “what I liked and what I didn’t.” If someone honestly ranks books using the full range, I can learn useful information from star ratings alone (as long as there are enough of them).

@Sirius: Not always just “I loved it,” but the rest of the review is basically empty of information. Like this one at GR:

This book is absolutely awesome. Would have benefited from an editor strictly for tightening things up, not because there are grammatical flaws or structural plot holes.

The story itself is gripping, ( I stayed up until three am to not realizing how much time was passing- finally had to give it up for the night when the SO reminded me the alarm goes off at 530!)the characters are compelling. I’m buying this authors back-list and stalking his GR page for news on upcoming releases.

For 99 cents, you can’t go wrong with this one.

And that’s by an *author.*

It helps to know you don’t consider Amy Lane’s books all angst. Then I have an idea of where you stand on the angst-meter (much muuuch higher than I do.) I think the angst is an enormous draw in m/m (just as it is in fan fiction) and I do believe it’s a higher draw than the sex, itself.:

LOL ah no, I think you misread me. I said I found The Locker Room a mix of things, from funny to angsty to all kinds of emotions. I think Amy Lane’s books are nothing but emotional manipulation, but I LOVE them for it. I know when I read it, I’m going to allow myself to get pulled into emotional turmoil. For me it’s like watching Law and Order SVU–I know they’re piling on the melodrama, but I keep coming back week after week after week.

But I do say that those books are emotionally manipulative when I talk to friends online–when they ask me to rec books. And I, and many others in the m/m community, know what turns a lot of people off. You’ll notice in reviews that a lot of the 5 stars will say “this contains cheating” or “this has three-way” etc. That’s giving readers the information they need.

As Sunita mentions above, her and Sirius have very different tastes. And that’s what it’s all about, taste. No one’s is better than the other, they’re just different. And my 5 star and my 1 star ratings won’t do certain people any good. What would be good is if it mentions those things, Likes–Dislikes.

</@Sirius

Oh and Latakia is a great example of the book which to me deserves every single five star review, despite some technical imperfections, really loved it. Thanks for mentioning it Dani and cant wait for your new one hehe.

I haven’t read it yet, Sirius, but I’ll probably do so after I’ve written NSI. I’ve put aside everything to focus on writing lol, so no reading until I’m done. I do love a Navy Seals story.

But it’s getting raves, and it’s in the Top 10, so I think to myself, maybe I should take a look. And it’s only $.99. So I downloaded a sample and started to read. And I discovered that my initial impression was correct. I found the sample to be exactly what I don’t like in m/m: unbelievable characters, unlikely (and for me, cringeworthy) dialogue, way too much telling and other exposition, basically amateurish writing. And the sample ran out before we got to the really unbelievable parts of the storyline.

I can see how people would enjoy this book, but the idea that it represents the best that m/m has to offer boggles my mind. The 5-star ratings are telling me about the readers’ emotional experience from the read, I guess, but without knowing what doesn’t work for them, or what other books provide the similar experience, these reviews are worse than unhelpful for me, they’re misleading. I know the reviewers are sincere, but for me 5-star represents the highest achievement, and objectively, in terms of craft, this is not it unless it changes dramatically after the sample, and the lower-starred reviews suggest that it doesn’t.

If you rate a book 5 stars because you loved the experience and it gave you an emotional high, that’s fine. Just tell me. Don’t tell me it’s a great book. Because when I find out it’s not, I’m going to be really annoyed, and I’m going to avoid your reviews like the plague after that (not you, Sirius, the general you).