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The reviewing debate is one that I think will go on and on. There are authors who pay for reviews and think it’s a fair deal, and then there are others (like me) who would always feel a little bit sad that my work had good reviews because I asked for them and greased the wheels with cash. Like it was tainted in some way.

As for an authority like Kirkus, it is accepted as genuine because it has been around so long and built up a good reputation. Plus, they read the book and offer a professional opnion. I haven’t paid for this (Wish I had a spare lump of cash to do so!) but it seems reasonable.

Prior to a book launch, sending out free books to ARC reviewers who have shown interest (i.e. through librarything/goodreads/blogs) can be a good way to get genuine reviews. There is no payment except the actual book, which if it is an eBook is nothing anyway, and the review is from a person that has a genuine love of books and impartiality as there is no actual relationship at stake. To only allow Amazon verified Purchase reviews would put a stop to this and it would hurt a fairly genuine practice of indie authors.

I still think that having reviews makes a difference (I know I notice a sales peak when I get a new review) and they do matter. But having a few 1 star and 2 star reviews actually gives you a bit of credibility. I too, am not inviting them BTW 🙂

In reply to Virginia Llorca.

I kinda like bad reviews. I really want a horrible 3-page rant about exactly why my stuff sucks someday, from somebody who really means it. So far I’m unimpressed by what I’ve gotten, though.

Er. Not that that’s intended as an invitation! {8’>

But yeah, I suck too, for the same reason. However: I figure a bunch of 5* reviews & almost nothing else generally means the author’s got less-than-clever friends, and that sends the same message as a bunch of bad reviews to a lot of readers. So I don’t feel a need to do anything–also it’s none of my business really, unless I was fooled somehow. But in that case why didn’t I check out the sample? ‘Cause I do that.

OTOH I’ll sometimes sneak in a review under another name if I see something really good that I think is being mistreated by reviewers. Did that yesterday under my own name, actually, but for nonfiction.

Kirkus reviews are so “respected”. You buy them. My sweet little Maisie had one review. They took it down. I complained. They put it back. It’s gone again. Still the little whore sells. I get TOO upset by negative reviews but can coast forever on a nice one. What did we do before this system? Book jackets in stores, the Sunday paper Book Section (gone in most papers) and word of mouth — this the most important and no sock puppet system or review trading system will ever match it for results. When given a copy and asked to review, sometimes I do, sometimes not. But I am too emotional to “hurt someone’s feelings. So, as a reviewer, I suck.

In reply to Georgie.

Nothing should guarantee a good review! Or at least I don’t want it to.

I do post reviews sometimes, but I now use a friend’s account for them (he doesn’t ever post himself). I don’t want to get involved in whatever mutual-reviewing societies may exist, or even create the impression that I’m involved. Also, I’d like the option to post my true opinion without exposing myself to backlash. I guess what I’m getting at is this: if I’m posting a review, it’s honest…but it’s unlikely to be shown as an “Amazon Verified Purchase.” And I expect others will have equally good reasons to obscure themselves.

Not sure I agree with you about the authors with huge internet followings. I suspect the writers did something to get their followers. So the book is probably of some value to those people. Though, yeah, if it’s just a bunch of people posting good reviews of a book they haven’t read that’s not very useful to anybody. However, in that case I’ll be very curious about the mind-control methods involved! Er–not that I would use them myself. Much.

Also following you on Twitter!

I have an issue with book reviews on Amazon. For the most part, I will ignore reviews that don’t also have the little “Amazon verified purchase” thing, even though I don’t always get my books from Amazon. I’ve recently read a few novels that were seriously awful – we’re talking third grade command over the language, if that – and they’ve gotten tons and tons of five star ratings.

Unfortunately, what I see happening is that some writers get huge internet followings and those fans will give the book high marks whether they were good or not. It’s very misleading to readers and one of the reasons that I primarily go either by the book description or the preview that I can either read online or download to my kindle before I buy.

I do, however, honestly review every book I’ve read. Even promotional copies, in my opinion, don’t guarantee an author a good reviews.

In reply to Kathleen.

I’m not sure reviews mean much either. I like getting them, but I don’t care about them when I buy fiction. For physical stuff, like a tent for camping, I definitely do care. But eight reviews are as convincing as 800.

I think it’s all about people, in the end. Well, and book covers. And good writing. So whatever success we have, we likely deserve it. If we want more we probably have to keep working. {8’>

We are now following each other on Twitter so I clicked on your blog and came across this post. As a newly published author (not self published, but an indy publisher) I have run into this phenomenon myself. At first, I went along with a couple of my fellow newbies. Turns out they didn’t return the “favor” with any review, good or bad. So, after buying and reviewing two not so great books I stopped doing it. I have noticed though that my friends review me very favorably even though I tell everyone to please, please, review me honestly. I really do want the honest feedback. No dice. I think they’re afraid I don’t mean it. So, I guess the best reviews are those given by strangers…hopefully they will buy, read, and review. Honestly. I think reviews are overrated anyway. I never paid attention to them until I got published.

In reply to Heather.

I’ve begun to believe that reviews matter very little, if at all. Yes, the person who contacted me is still on Amazon. With 24 reviews, very near a 5.0 average, and the single worst “Bestseller” ranking I’ve ever noticed on a book.

I think having a bunch of reviews is probably somewhat helpful in a “social proof” sort of way. Past the first 10 or so, I doubt they matter to most readers/buyers. I doubt the average ranking matters a whole lot either. Unless you want to advertise on a site that requires a certain number of good reviews, anyway.

Covers matter (I’m redoing all of mine except for the “Weekly Challenge” stories, because they suck). Blurbs matter. To a lesser extent, the free sample matters. What really matters, I think, is author reputation. And I don’t think there’s a quick way to game the system to build that. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of work.

Which is encouraging to me: I can work. And I can put in the time, for as long as it takes, because I’m already doing what I most want to do. All else is vanity.

Is this author still on Amazon? Oh please, please, please, can you email me his location? I would LOVE to look at this.

[Digression: Did I tell you about the high scoring ‘fake review’ reviewer on Amazon? I encountered other reviewers that have even started a ‘club’ about this person. Yeesh. And Amazon’s been informed of their practices and they’ve been doing it..

for years!

But back to your reviewer…]

I must admit, this is a new version of exchanging reviews that I’ve never heard of.

More on this some other time. This cracks me up, really. People so desperate to be popular, doing shit like this.

I told you about Hugh Howey’s idea about getting reviews, didn’t I? And I like it because ANYone can do this–to me, it’s a great way to ‘connect’ to your readers. You don’t have to be an editor of some frippin’ magazine or something. And to me, it, again, feeds the idea of having your READER help you.

What he suggested was paying a person 10 dollars (no more, no less and you must pay no matter what goes on–see it as marketing, is my view. Spend 50 bucks, ten bucks on five people, and followthrough) to read your book until they stop and give feedback. This would be used for books still in the startup phase or just ready to hit higher gear in a to-be-published realm. The reader gives the writer ‘whatever’ feedback they want or can.

Sure, someone will bastard it. But you keep on top of those kinds of people and a writer ends up with a lot more feedback then he might, normally, get.

I read on Amazon how so many writers WANTED reviews. I don’t mind doing feedback, but I think it’d be a cool sideline if I could get paid ten dollars to feedback to people.

But I went to places like BookBlog and immediately encounter the old guard giving reasons why it shouldn’t be done.

*sigh*

Heather
wordwan