Leaving feedback on Amazon...

[Gary Compton]

I have a theory on people who leave feedback/comments on Amazon.

It's interesting when you here of a successful book, and yet when you look at Amazon comments, you wonder why you read/bought it!!

Do you comment? I think the only people who do are the moaners of society, people who like the sound of their own voice or grovelling family or friends of the author.

Do proppa readers do it - I don't think so!!

The comments never seem to measure up to the books acclaim/sales

Is it something worth looking at when considering buying a book? Or is it BS?

 

[J-Sun]

I leave feedback on the sellers - I think all sellers who stick stickers on the spines of their books should be run out of business yesterday and leave negative feedback on it, specifying that I'll never buy from them again and no one else should. Fortunately, most of my feedback is very positive. I've been kind of amazed there. Other than stickers, about all people consistently do wrong is over-describe the condition of the books.

As far as feedback on the books as literary works, nope, I don't do that. I make all my comments here. I do find it useful when others leave feedback, though - not so much for the thumbs up or down but just for the topical descriptions - giving a sense of what it's about beyond the blurb.

 

[Warren_Paul]

There are genuine commenters on Amazon, but they seem to be far and few between.

From what I've seen, many of the extremely favourable feedback posts on Amazon are from friends and family of the writer, with the intention of giving them a helping boost to their popularity.

And if it's not the above, then it's as you mentioned Gary, naysayers. People who like to complain for no good reason are always more vocal about it than the people that are actually enjoying the book.

I don't read comments on Amazon, most of the time they don't appear trustworthy to me.

 

[Alex The G and T]

It's easy enough to winnow out the blurters, and the sycophants. A quick skim over the postings will yield a few useful comments, and an occasional pertinent review.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I've only had two amazon feedbacks from known friends.

Maybe all my good feedback is from friends in disguise? anyway, tbh I've been assuming it was all genuine.

 

[Vladd67]

What annoys me are the reviews that give the book a low rating but when you read the comment it is a complaint about Amazon or the seller. You are meant to be review the product not marking the author down because of tardy service by the vendor. Even worse are the ones who mark down a book, DVD, or record because it wasn't what they thought it was, it's not the products fault you didn't read the description section properly. A classic example was a record of the Spinners greatest hits, a couple of people gave it one star because it was the Detroit Spinners, the motown group, and not the Spinners from Liverpool an english folk group.

 

[Mouse]

I don't ever comment. Mostly cos I can't be bothered, but I do always read the reviews before buying a book. I always look at the one star reviews, if there is any. Sometimes I'll buy a book because of the one star review. For example, on one book someone gave it one star because it was 'too disturbing.' I like disturbing.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Vladd, I hate that.

I ordered a book once, and it turned out to have the last 42 pages missing. I returned it, got a new one with all the pages and all was well. But some would've given a single star for that.

I tend not to review on Amazon. I might get around to it someday. A rare exception was one of the Shadow Hearts games, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Edited extra bit: I am also now slightly scared of Mouse.

 

[alchemist]

I once had a look at one of those "e-publishing sensations." I looked at the positive reviews and what else they reviewed, trying to find a pattern. I couldn't get one, but there were dozens involved.

I suspect it's not as bad as you think, Gary. I use the Amazon ratings as a rough guide, but no more than that.

 

[Gary Compton]

I've only got 2 friends and they are Basset hounds who are not renowned for not reading books.

So my plan to get my friends to populate Amazon with great feedback about my book has gone down with the Titanic, bit like my chat up lines when I was younger and my jokes now!!

Never mind back to reading, "How to make friends and influence people."

 

[Ursa major]

Yes, Gary, it wouldn't do your sales much good if your friends' only comments were, "Barking!"


(Mouse might buy it, though. )

 

[Gary Compton]

Aye you're right but I do like to tell a good tail. But not now as its 1 am and I'm dog tired.

Going to bed with me bitch.

Woof woof!

 

[Montero]

I find Amazon reviews helpful in the main - again like Mouse sometimes the ones that say it is a poor book because xxx I buy the book because I like xxx. I buy a lot from Amazon (not just books) and on the whole the reviews work for me.

Regarding books, I do leave reviews there but generally only spend the time to do it if

1. The book was at least a four star for me
2a. The book has fewer than 10 reviews
or
2b. The book has some reviews I really disagree with.

Some popular books seem to have dozens of reviews and it almost seems to me that people adding reviews at that point is more like social networking than reviewing. With that many reviews I tend to read say maybe three positive and then look at the negative ones.

I do also buy books without any reviews if I like the plot description and the writing of the first few pages.

Do agree that it is a pity that Amazon doesn't moderate a bit more to stop people leaving irrelevant reviews/review in the wrong place.

 

[Coragem]

I do occasionally leave book reviews on Amazon, because:

1) Sometimes I'm so cross with other reviewers I want to put them in their place.
2) I like to support authors whose hard work I have benefitted from.


Let me give an example of Amazon reviewing that annoys me. It's the reviews of Alastair Reynolds' Blue Remembered Earth:

1) At least two people wrote a review to say they hadn't read the book but refused to buy it because the kindle version was too expensive. They hadn't read the book, yet their one star rating still brought down the book's average rating. This is unfair to Reynolds since many potential buyers will scan the average star rating before looking further.
2) Another reviewer dismissed BRE and asserted that Reynolds is cashing in after signing a book a year deal. Reynolds is rushing his work, he asserted, for the sake of money. This is utterly ignorant since Reynolds has been writing a book a year since 2000, and he was working at the European Space Agency until 2007! If he could do a book a year alongside a day job how is it cashing in to agree to a book a year without a day job?

You can't please readers: GRRM, slated for writing too slow; Reynolds, slated for writing too fast.

Coragem.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Isn't a book a year the standard time frame on contracts? It seems to be what most authors stick to.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Coragem, those are very good arguments.

I might just start writing Amazon reviews regularly, in fact.

[Happily, I very rarely read books I dislike a lot. I'm a bit choosy, and also start a book looking for things to like rather than mistakes. It's like anti-redrafting for me, in that regard].

 

[Warren_Paul]

Yes, that's really the crux of it. If we enjoy a book, it's only courteous that we leave a favourable comment, even if it's just; I really liked this book. The star rating is what matters most, because that effects its ranking. We don't have to write a "review", just say that it's a good book worth buying.

I'm sure we'd all like the same treatment when it comes to our own books, if they get to the point of being sold on Amazon.

 

[anivid]

I never read the book comments - I choose my books from recommendation from other sources/books - if letting comments influence you, one actually needs to know WHO that person is who's commenting - else how to give value to the said ??
As we all know, the WHO in "WHO said WHAT" is just as important as the WHAT ;-)
Plus I deny both commenting at the seller AND the book contents - what do they think my time's made of ??

 

[Ursa major]

I sometimes read (some of) the comments after I've read a book, so see if my enthusiasm - or disappointment - is shared by others and is not simply an artifact, a symptom of my mood when reading the book.

 

[Montero]

Yes, that's really the crux of it. If we enjoy a book, it's only courteous that we leave a favourable comment, even if it's just; I really liked this book. The star rating is what matters most, because that effects its ranking. We don't have to write a "review", just say that it's a good book worth buying.

I'm sure we'd all like the same treatment when it comes to our own books, if they get to the point of being sold on Amazon.

For some reason hadn't occurred to me to just rate and go "I like it too". If I leave feedback it is a several paragraph review which takes a little while to write. Especially where there are already a good few descriptive reviews I really should start adding to the star count with a Me too, rather than only doing it if I have the time to do it "properly".

Regarding comments from others about knowing "Who" leaves a review - that is a nice to have for me. It is the tone and content of the review that influences me. So well written description of start of plot, characterisation, world building, why the reviewer enjoyed the book and some further information such as maybe "consistently good" or "wobbles in middle but ending is worth it" etc.
Reviews don't have to say the book is perfect for me to want to read it. I just have to find something interesting about it.

I do also buy other products on Amazon (and elsewhere on line) e.g. washing machine and do judge the machine by reviews from strangers, again depending on how they say what they say.

I think I am a little bit influenced by the number and type of ratings - so I look at the spread as well as the average. If a book is say consistently given 3s I probably won't go any further. If the 3 turns out to be a collection of 1 and 5 I will read several of each star reviews to find out why it was simultaneously loved and hated.

This works for me - been the odd book I've regretted buying, but not many.