Harriet Klausner Drops in Rank at Amazon

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AnneMarble

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It has been reported in several blogs (including this one) that Amazon has changed the way it ranks reviews. Harriet Klausner has been the number one reviewer at Amazon for several eons. (A year = one eon on the Internet.) And suddenly she has dropped from number one to number 442! :Wha:

Do you think this will make a difference to writers? Will writers and publishers still want to send her as many ARCs? Will publishers still quote as many of her reviews on covers? Or will her reviews still be a good source of quotes? Will most writers and readers really care?
:e2tongue:

Also, will the "Harriet Stalkers" finally be happy? (That's my name for the people who started posting comments on HK's reviews, blogging about review problems at Amazon, etc.) FWIW the noisier of them lost their cred with me when their complaints became just as much about the genres she reviewed as about her reviews. God forbid someone might enjoy a paranormal romance or a thriller. :rolleyes:
 

rugcat

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It has been reported in several blogs (including this one) that Amazon has changed the way it ranks reviews. Harriet Klausner has been the number one reviewer at Amazon for several eons. (A year = one eon on the Internet.) And suddenly she has dropped from number one to number 442! :Wha:

Do you think this will make a difference to writers? Will writers and publishers still want to send her as many ARCs? Will publishers still quote as many of her reviews on covers? Or will her reviews still be a good source of quotes? Will most writers and readers really care?
:e2tongue:

Also, will the "Harriet Stalkers" finally be happy? (That's my name for the people who started posting comments on HK's reviews, blogging about review problems at Amazon, etc.) FWIW the noisier of them lost their cred with me when their complaints became just as much about the genres she reviewed as about her reviews. God forbid someone might enjoy a paranormal romance or a thriller. :rolleyes:
Harriet loves everything. It's nice, but it's hard to take her reviews all that seriously.

She was the first to review my forthcoming book, from an arc. Guess what? She liked it.
 

Captain Morgan

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I didn't think many people would care about something like this.

What I DO care however, is how an actual book ranking is carried out. Now I suspect book sales must be the biggest variable, but there are other things.

I don't have enough data, but from observation it seems new books get an inflated ranking at first, and if they don't sell that well they shift downwards in the list. The lesson here is, if your book doesn't make good sales at the beginning, it will be much harder for it to regain ground up the ranks later on.
 

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I can't say anything bad about Harriet -- because she loves my work.

That used to be my attitude. But then, over time, the multitude of errors in her "reviews," along with the sheer number of them, made it obvious that she skimmed at best, read back cover copy at worst, and apparently confused one book for another (given the number of wildly inaccurate plot details) frequently.

Her ranking changed, for me, a long, long time ago.

:Shrug:

Then again, I stopped reading virtually all reviews when it finally sunk in that it was just one person's opinion -- and my audience is considerably larger than that.
 

rugcat

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I can't say anything bad about Harriet -- because she loves my work.

That used to be my attitude. But then, over time, the multitude of errors in her "reviews," along with the sheer number of them, made it obvious that she skimmed at best, read back cover copy at worst, and apparently confused one book for another (given the number of wildly inaccurate plot details) frequently.
Yes, and she also summarizes plots (not always accurately) and gives away spoilers.
 

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Yes, and she also summarizes plots (not always accurately) and gives away spoilers.

That is just the worst. In at least three of mine, she gave away plot twists that were intended to shock the hell out of readers.

Harriet Klausner is a real person?

I thought she was a bot.

Far as I know, she's real. Been reviewing for a long time.
 

IceCreamEmpress

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She's a very sloppy and inaccurate reviewer. I admire her enterprise in making her mark so strongly early on, but I don't even bother to read her reviews anymore. And, yes, she loves me, too, but I find it hard to get excited about it.
 
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