Was just reading a blog about the Amazon review process and its make
or break influence. It’s unfortunately true that a bad review in the
early stages can do great harm to the success of a book. Whilst it
would be nice to think everyone might consider this when posting a
review, we haven’t yet reached Utopia and everyone is not going to rate
more highly than they’re first inclined out of sympathy.
What rattles me about Amazon reviews is the helpful and unhelpful
rating scheme attached. Now, from my perspective a review is helpful if
it presents the reading experience of the reviewer. However, many
people will rate a review as unhelpful simply because they also have
read the book and don’t agree with what you felt about it. A die-hard
fan will rate you unhelpful if you rate 4 stars and say it lacked a
certain spark but was otherwise great. Where is the room for
objectivity in writing a review in that case?
A review needs to be objective. It needs to describe your experience
of a book and nothing more. A review is neither a synopsis or a
critique. Synopsis is for the author and/or publisher; critique is for
the literary circle meeting or the classroom, maybe some broadsheet
literary pages. In a review, by all means say whether the language was
brilliantly poetic and maybe give one example, but do not write an essay
about it.
But how do you retain objectivity when you’re conscious of helpful
and unhelpful ratings on your opinion? Well the simple way to look at
it is this. If it would stick in your throat to say it to the face of
the author, don’t write it. If 4 stars makes you swallow your pride,
don’t rate it. As much as I might be hurting my own future ratings by
encouraging honesty, I see no point in dishonesty.
Amazon have huge power over the self-publishing world. But who has
power over the quality of what we Indie authors put out there? The
reader. It’s now up to the readers to ensure the good books thrive and
the bad ones wilt. The reader must enable the cream to rise to the top.
Now, am I that confident about my own writing? Of course not.
No-one is. It’s a simple fact for me though that if I write something
and publish it, the reviews should tell me whether I’ve hit the mark or
not. I should read reviews and see what readers like and dislike about
my work, take it all onboard whether positive or negative and use it to
my advantage for future work. If you walked into a door and everyone
laughed but it didn’t hurt, you’d keep on walking into doors for the
comedic value without realising you were slowly destroying yourself.
Feedback in any respect is a gift that we can’t afford to dissuade
anyone from giving. It might hurt sometimes, but how can we avoid the
same mistake in future if it doesn’t?
So write your reviews, give your star ratings and if you’ve been
completely honest, you’ve done it right. If you choose to bear in mind
the harm a three stars or below rating might do to an author, then you
have an altruistic heart and you’re very kind, but have you been
honest? A little white lie can do as much harm as a hurtful truth
because you’re withholding the means for someone to become better.
Be objective. No two people read the same book, so they say. Your
experience will of course be subjective in that respect. But your
review should have no agenda other than to share your experience and
that is wholly objective. That then, is my objective take on the
subject!
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