A little disillusioned about reviews of books on Amazon

[Myothername]

I use Amazon all the time. I have a kindle and get books from them every week. I read the reviews to see others' opinions of the books to help me pick a good book. My sister-in-law is a publicist for an author and a few months back she asked me and my husband to post glowing reviews of the book even though we had not read it. After that I now look at the reviews differently. Some you can tell for sure are written by a publicist.

 

[3boymthr]

I read somewhere about an author who goes on under about 10 different names and gives all her books glowing reviews. After that I started to look to see how many scathing reviews there are not how many positive reviews. If the bad reviews out number the good reviews then something's fishy about those good reviews, especially when all they do is rave endlessly about the book. I've got my major in english lit so I know that no truly honest review includes only good things.

 

[Belle0101]

Another thing I do is check how the same person has reviewed other books. If they just loved every single book they've ever read then I tend to think something is maybe a wee bit suspicious. Everybody picks up a dud every now and then.

There were some textbooks I was looking at once and the reviewer listed themselves as a professor. Every textbook this professor reviewed was great, perfect, easy to follow, and a plus for your book collection.

I do the same on TripAdvisor with hotel reviews. If a reviewer gives every hotel a great rating and a glowing review, I start to wonder if they aren't with the chain in some capacity. As careful as I am about hotel choices, I know I've picked a few duds.

OT - I discoverd Kindle for PC. Love it!! Love it so much that I'm getting a Kindle for myself.

 

[Mrs.Toad]

I saw a TV program with a guy blasting competitors hotels on TripAdvisor, too, so I don't think you can really trust the bad reviews, either. I pay the most attention to the 3 star reviews. I figure those are most likely for real.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

A college friend of mine has written 2 novels.....teenage horror/drama ala Twilight....gag. I suffered through the first because it was free for kindle for a short time. She kept sending me messages on FB asking me to review it but I just couldn't. You know what they say about if you don't have anything nice to say... I did, however, read the other reviews. All glowing and ALL from her friends or family.

 

[Pumbaa_]

I posted something similar on a book I recently read. New author, kindle book, indeendent publishing, bout it chepa (99 cents i think) based on the good reviews

the book was bad, i mean really really really bad! I posted the author must have a lot of friends because no one could possibly have thought this was good

I always read the negative reviews first

 

[golfgal]

I don't really trust the reviews unless there are many of them, 20 or more. The ones have have hundreds I will trust more . I just read 3 books by an author (all free downloads to Nook) that I probably wouldn't have read if the other 4280 readers that rated them didn't give the books a 4.7 out of 5 star rating . I enjoyed the books very much and hope she writes more.

If they are free and the synopsis sounds ok I download them. I figure I am not out anything if they aren't good. I pretty much download every free book unless I know I won't like it-21 Steps to Build your Sales Career type books. I have found a lot of new authors this way.

 

[LilyWDW]

Look at the total reviews, how many are in each category, and what the average comes out to be. Many times, simply throw out the highest and the lowest, especially if they are of a small number. It is a lot easier to get 15 or so fake positive reviews then to get 100 positive reviews.

 

[Andtototoo]

I posted something similar on a book I recently read. New author, kindle book, independent publishing, bought it cheap (99 cents i think) based on the good reviews

the book was bad, i mean really really really bad! I posted the author must have a lot of friends because no one could possibly have thought this was good

I had a similar experience. I read a book that was terrible. It was non-fiction and the author's argument was not bolstered by adequate research. In fact, the "research" was so limited and so slanted, that I was appalled a reputable publisher had issued this book. I was the only one with a negative review and I got all sorts of nasty comments on my review. I assume they must be the author's friends and family.

Sometimes when I see only glowingly positive reviews, I realize that the author must have a very limited readership because odds are that someone will dislike a book. So to have no negative reviews (and in one case, no rating less than 5 stars) means, IMO, that the author is actually not doing that well.

 

[dismom2]

Another thing I do is check how the same person has reviewed other books. If they just loved every single book they've ever read then I tend to think something is maybe a wee bit suspicious. Everybody picks up a dud every now and then.

There were some textbooks I was looking at once and the reviewer listed themselves as a professor. Every textbook this professor reviewed was great, perfect, easy to follow, and a plus for your book collection.

I do the same on TripAdvisor with hotel reviews. If a reviewer gives every hotel a great rating and a glowing review, I start to wonder if they aren't with the chain in some capacity. As careful as I am about hotel choices, I know I've picked a few duds.

OT - I discoverd Kindle for PC. Love it!! Love it so much that I'm getting a Kindle for myself.

I don't know about Amazon, but I know for a fact that Tripadvisor messes with the reviews on their site. I had a very poor experience at a hotel and shared it on Tripadvisor. It was posted, but it suddenly disappeared one day-- from the reviews of the hotel and on my personal list of places I have reviewed. None of my other reviews were removed. I stayed at the hotel twice, and one time was a positive experience while the other time was pretty bad. The good review remained.

I contacted Tripadvisor to ask where my negative review went, and they gave me some B.S. story about how they used to allow only one review per hotel, and how they were sorry it was removed.

Now, I take everything I read with a grain of salt. It's very important to look into who is writing the review, what their other reviews say, how many other reviews they have, and be sure to read the negative reviews. Pay attention to the wording, as you can sometimes tell if a review is real or possible fabricated or exaggerated.

 

[vicki_c]

Try Goodreads.com - you will find more honest reviews. But the advice to throw out the biggest outliers and focus on the 2-4 star reviews is good.

 

[LilyWDW]

Also, read the reviews. Why do they like or not like the book? Can they give actual information or is it "this book stinks" and that it is?

 

[Pigeon]

I pay no attention to any reviews by the masses, but do look for professional book reviews.

 

[FergieTCat]

I know a woman who self-published a book wherein the vanity publisher had a tie-in with Amazon. It wasn't a great book, but her friends wrote WONDERFUL reviews on Amazon. A few other people bought the book based on her friends' reviews and then went on to write horrible reviews -- some even guessed she got her freinds to write the great reviews. As it were, I think the book is a piece of junk.

At least now I know why some reviews never make sense to me.

 

[jrmasm]

I don't even bother with free ebooks anymore. They are largely garbage and the reviews are b.s. It's simply not worth my time to try to figure out which are legit and which are not.

 

[disneychic2]

I agree it's hard to know what is legit and what isn't. Some disparities are due to personal taste. It's very subjective. The same is true of movie reviews. Many times I go to a movie that got terrible reviews and actually enjoy it a lot. I prize book recommendations from my friends who I know have similar taste in books. If I read a book review (on Amazon or elsewhere), I try to find a middle ground. I generally don't buy books with only glowing reviews. I'm still old school enough to get some books from my library, so no harm done if I don't like it.

ETA: I did not realize that about Trip Advisor! Thanks for the tip!

 

[book_junkie]

That's why a lot of libraries cannot use Amazon.com as a review source for purchasing material- we have to use authoritative sources like Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, etc. They do have online listings that you can search for if you're looking for a book title, but they don't review all books. Just too many come out!

If you're connected with a local library with database access, you might ask them what databases they have. My library has remote access available to patrons to Novelist (at least so far- with state budget cuts, I'm not sure how long that's going to last), which gathers reviews, and also can recommend books to read that are similar to what you've already read.

If you don't have access to something similar, but want to search online, try Barnes & Noble. IF there are professional/editorial reviews, they'll be listed. Then you can go back to Amazon if you want and purchase for your kindle.

 

[minkydog]

I read somewhere about an author who goes on under about 10 different names and gives all her books glowing reviews. After that I started to look to see how many scathing reviews there are not how many positive reviews. If the bad reviews out number the good reviews then something's fishy about those good reviews, especially when all they do is rave endlessly about the book. I've got my major in english lit so I know that no truly honest review includes only good things.

I just recently finished Jean Auel's latest book, "Land of Painted Caves." Worst book I've EVER read. It took me 5 months to get through it(I'm a glutton for punishment. i cannot NOT finish a book.) I only discovered Amazon recently. The overwhelming consensus was that this book is poorly written, repetitive and boring. I totally agree.There are hundreds of one star reviews. But every now and then there were glowing reviews, how amazed they were, what a great book, blahblahblah...i want to know, did they actually READ the book? Or did they read the fly leaf? Or, perhaps, were those reviews written by family and friends and author. Frankly, I can't believe the publisher let it out of office. What gives?

 

[sparklynails23]

I was going to say that Tripadvisor is sometimes the same way. The paid posters pretty much follow the a script, write lengthy reviews, and use "names" and particulars in the reviews. They often have low post counts, but, if not, they have several posts in short time frames.

There are companies that will review your item or service, ranging from hotels, doctors, books, etc. It's a burgeoning industry.

 

[C.Ann]

I purchase a lot of used books on Amazon and half.com and I never pay attention to the reviews.. I read the short summary of the book and if it's to my liking, I buy it..

It's similar to movies - or television shows.. Just because "x" number of people love (or hate) them, not everyone is going to feel the same way..

You know what your own tastes are - and I'm sure by now you have a pretty decent list of authors who rarely let you down in terms of how well their books are written.. Use your own likes and dislikes when deciding on a book.. No one knows you better than yourself..

Happy reading!