I review on Amazon and am very well aware that, in general, Amazon reviews are seriously losing credibility among readers. Recent changes in response to sock puppetry did not help matters in my opinion. The changes that Amazon instituted did nothing to improve the quality of the reviews.
The changes also did nothing to address the growing problem of attack reviews as detailed in this piece from the New York Times today.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Reviewers are becoming more skeptical. They click on who the reviewer was, seeking their history, if nothing else. The reviews still do carry some weight, Ithink, but not nearly as much as they used to.
You mean readers are more skeptical? I hope so, but I wonder.
I know that I once got a review request from an author on Amazon. There were two reviews: one a five-star and one a two-star. The two-star review had specific complaints, and the five star was generic praise. When I looked at the reviewing history of the five-star review, I noticed that every single review was a five-star review written in similar generic terms. That helped me to make a decision as to whether I should read the book or not.
That being said, all of my reviews are positive with one exception, because I'd rather help an author out with a positive review than bring them down with a negative one in a spot where people are more easily influenced to buy or ignore the book. So on a superficial glance, I might seem to be that kind of reviewer; but I always try to be fairly specific in my reviews.
Yes, Kevin, I meant readers, not reviewers. :)
Post a Comment