How Concerned Should An Author be by a One-Star Review?
How often do you notice that a one-star reviewer has never reviewed any other book?
How often do you notice that a one-star reviewer has never reviewed any other book?
After reading book descriptions, I now study one-star reviews avidly. Then I go into 'See All my Reviews'. It becomes quite an amusing exercise when you see the type of book the one-star reviewer usually reads is far-removed from the book they have tried to condemn with their 'stunning' one-star review. Of course, that is if they have ever reviewed a book before.
Often a reviewer might say something like, 'so bad I left it on holiday' and you will see that they have only ever reviewed items such as clothing and never any other book. The reviewed author may have received sixty, or more, five star recommendations, numerous four star and then in will wade the person, who has only ever bought shin pads, to knock the book as hard as their bones would have been knocked if they had not bought the shin pads.
A one-star review I saw recently, complained that 'there is no plot' about a book which was published posthumously giving the story of a famous author's time spent in Paris. Whilst another reviewer gave it five stars for the 'descriptive language' and 'imagery' of the time in which it was set (an apt review for the description of Paris after the First World War).
Then there are people, who have never reviewed before who, apparently randomly, choose your book to endow with a one-star review. You will notice that they quickly review another book on the same day (of an entirely different genre) and give it five stars. A reader who only enjoys tragedy, misery or thrillers is not likely to haphazardly choose a humorous book, which is written only to show subtle changes in a character. So why did they choose it and then choose to denigrate it?
Of course there are badly-written books, with no attention paid to editing and these might deserve the subsequent low ratings they get and provide the potential reader with a guidance. But I am talking, here, about the seemingly determined effort some reviewers put into trying to sabotage the success of a novel.
It is nice to enjoy books of many genres and review widely, with consideration for the time it takes an author to compose the idea and invest, sometimes years, into the writing and finally the editing process. The review, in my opinion, warrants at least some degree of deliberation. If a book has been purchased and is not 'your kind of book' please think of the authors who have worked hard to produce their work and be as polite as you can. We need and appreciate your feedback.
If you get a minute you can click the link to my book at the top of the page.
Photo courtesy of Vectorole (FreeDigitalDownloads)
One good thing about Amazon and some similar sites is that other viewers can vote a review up or down, indicate whether that review was helpful and even post replies to it.
ReplyDeleteThe downside is that many shoppers do not go that far in-depth as to look beyond the average star-ratings. Only serious readers and those short of time tend to read what others are saying.
But yes, I have seen this annoying trend. Clearly the reviewer did not read the description, did not pay attention or was probably confused while browsing several books. Quite likely they did not read much beyond the first few pages, if at all and many write little beyond a single line - Those who write one short line, such as, "Book was crap" are more likely random trolls who are spamming your page - I'd suggest either challenging them directly to prove that they have at least read the book, or reporting them as potential spam to the retail website and asking them to investigate. I'd bet money that they are most likely random spammers who never even bought it!
It's unfortunate that such reviews do drag your average rating down, often foundlessly, but from a personal wellbeing perspective at least it's best to ignore these idiots.
Thank you for this well-presented perspective. I agree, it is best to ignore them. If you have a serious prospective reader they will consider the one-star reviewer's other choices of book before realising that often there is no relevance.
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