How seriously should I take Goodreads ratings?

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Pampurrs

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Amazon requires a review if you want to rate a book (or product)

Goodreads allows you to rate a book without any explanation as to why you gave it that rating.


With that said, here's what prompted this post:

In the six weeks since it's release, my current book has 15 reviews on Amazon... all five star.

On Goodreads, there're four reviews, all five star. There were also two additional ratings without reviews, three stars each, which according to Goodreads rating system, means they liked it.

UNTIL TODAY.

Someone gave it ONE STAR without a review, which means there's no explanation as to why she HATED it. The average for this book on Goodreads just plummeted from 4.2 to 3.86.

I clicked on this person's name, and it says she has 1,062 ratings and only five reviews, with an average rating of 3.61, which means she probably gives low ratings to every book she reads and seldom writes a reason why.

So, before I drown myself in vodka, I must ask, How seriously should I take this rating system on Goodreads? Can someone such as this person, who silently trashed my book, damage its sales?
 

eqb

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I understand completely the stress. Yea gods, I understand. At the same time, I urge you not to worry about this rating. A single one-star rating won't hurt your sales. (Though, if a shot of vodka helps, go for it.)
 

Ari Meermans

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Readers each have their own criteria for selecting books. I rely on trusted recs, on the first few pages, and fairly often on the cover copy. I rarely read reviews from any source and when I do, I don't make a reading decision on them. But, yeah, I'd consider a rating sans review meaningless, if I were you.
 

CathleenT

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To answer your question in general terms, I take goodreads ratings very seriously. That said, any one review isn't worth that much. Currently sitting at the top of Amazon Canada for Dragon Hoard (and of course it couldn't have been Amazon.com where it would be buried by now) is a one-star that simply says, "Didn't like it," communicating no more, really, than your quick rating on goodreads.

As far as that particular reviewer goes, a 3.6 average isn't bad. On goodreads, that means they like most of what they rate. In some way, your book violated that particular reader's expectations to the point that they felt a one-star was deserved. Since they didn't bother to say why, you have no real way of evaluating their assessment.

These things happen. It won't be the last time. Crack on. :)
 

Maggie Maxwell

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All it means is that one person didn't like it. It happens. It's BOUND to happen. No book is going to be loved by everyone. Yes, it's gonna sting, but it's just one person's opinion. She didn't tear it to shreds with a bad review, she just said it wasn't for her, and that's fair, both to her, and to you. Doesn't mean she hates you, doesn't mean she's trying to bring you low, just means she didn't like it. Don't hold it against her, and don't hold it against yourself or your book.

And for what it's worth, you can see details on how they got the average even without following someone/a protected profile. You can go right to her profile page and see how many at each star level she's ranked by clicking on the average.
 
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Tazlima

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Time to tell you about my favorite exercise for dealing with this sort of situation.

Think of your favorite book of all time, the one you've read countless times and lost a dozen copies of because you keep loaning it to people who haven't read it, and nobody ever gives back borrowed books.

Now look up that book on Amazon and see how many one-star reviews it has. And I guarantee it WILL have one-star reviews. Even the most amazing stories ever written won't resonate with everyone.
 

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Someone gave it ONE STAR without a review, which means there's no explanation as to why she HATED it. The average for this book on Goodreads just plummeted from 4.2 to 3.86.

I clicked on this person's name, and it says she has 1,062 ratings and only five reviews, with an average rating of 3.61, which means she probably gives low ratings to every book she reads and seldom writes a reason why.

So, before I drown myself in vodka, I must ask, How seriously should I take this rating system on Goodreads? Can someone such as this person, who silently trashed my book, damage its sales?
It's just how it goes, including one (and five) star ratings months (or longer) before publication. Those aren't even based on reading the book! You'll drive yourself around the bend if you worry too much about it, for sure. Avid readers will have their own methods of choosing book, and I suspect ratings without reviews would be low on most people's check list.

All the best,
Riv
 

mccardey

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Can someone such as this person, who silently trashed my book, damage its sales?
No, is the short answer. I don't do goodreads myself (I'm more a librarything person, and I generally only catalogue books that I feel are worth at least 3 stars because I don't want to hurt people's feelings) but I've heard people say "Ignore five star and unsupported one star ratings when you're looking for a read. Five stars is usually family and friends, and an unsupported one star is probably someone who has issues for reasons you'll never know."

I think what you want to hope for is lots of 4s with good supportive reviews.

Good luck!
 

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Thanks for all the responses... you've all been very helpful. I don't mean to sound upset over someone not enjoying my work, I guess I just feel that if you're going to trash a book (a one star is trashing it IMHO), the author and the potential readers deserve to know why. But I understand, this is the way it is and there's nothing I can do about it until I become Ruler of the World.

When I become Ruler of the World, I'll abolish the rating system and make it so every book sells a million copies and every author gets to live on a tropical paradise for the rest of their life. This will never happen until I become Ruler of the World, so be sure to get out and vote.:Soapbox:
 

autumnleaf

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Time to tell you about my favorite exercise for dealing with this sort of situation.

Think of your favorite book of all time, the one you've read countless times and lost a dozen copies of because you keep loaning it to people who haven't read it, and nobody ever gives back borrowed books.

Now look up that book on Amazon and see how many one-star reviews it has. And I guarantee it WILL have one-star reviews. Even the most amazing stories ever written won't resonate with everyone.

This, exactly.

I'm distrustful of books with only 5-star ratings, especially if they have no reviews or the reviews all say something like "OMG this was the best!!!" No book is that universally appealing, so all 5s suggests that the only raters are the author's friends and family.
 

waylander

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You're not a real writer until you've had a one star review
 

Marian Perera

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I'm distrustful of books with only 5-star ratings, especially if they have no reviews or the reviews all say something like "OMG this was the best!!!" No book is that universally appealing, so all 5s suggests that the only raters are the author's friends and family.

Even five-star reviews with more content can look fake.

I once looked up a vanity-published book and saw over a hundred reviews, which was very unusual for books released by that particular press. All the reviews seemed to be written to a template. As well as praising the book (epic, suspenseful, uplifting, breathtaking, miraculous, intense, exceptional - and those were just the titles of the reviews), they claimed spelling and grammar errors were only to be expected in a debut novel, so if readers could "get off their high horses" about technical competence, they would love everything about the novel. k
of it
But the best part were the mini-stories in the reviews. They all went something like this:

"My girlfriend/best friend/daughter insisted I read this book. I don't ever read romance, but we were on a plane/at the beach/stuck indoors after the power went off. And she kept telling me how great this book was, so finally I borrowed her copy. Well, I was blown away by the story. I couldn't put it down. I read and read until someone pointed out the plane had landed/the tide was coming in/the power had been turned back on. When I finally finished, I sat in silence for a long time, just thinking about what I had read. And then I said "Wow" and we talked about the book for a few hours. It was amazing. I've bought my own copy and told all my friends to read it too."

These all read like wish-fulfillment fantasies on the author's part - word of mouth converting people outside the target readership, who then spend hours in reverent discussion of the plot and characters. They were actually quite entertaining to read because they were so over-the-top, but they didn't make me want to check out the novel.
 
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Sonsofthepharaohs

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I don't ever look at goodreads because I found it full of rabid harpies and liars (no personal axe to grind as I've not published anything, but it just seems full of really psycho people), but when I buy a book on Amazon, I always ignore the top and bottom scores, and take the middle. Just plain don't even bother looking at one or five star reviews, because they are usually: fake, illiterate, personal grievance, or written by someone on seriously strong happy pills.

I look at how many 3 and 4 star ratings a book has, then maybe the 2s as a tie breaker.

I may not be your typical reader, but I think most people are familiar with the concept of outliers, and know to discard them. Don't worry about them.
 

Jeneral

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I guess I just feel that if you're going to trash a book (a one star is trashing it IMHO), the author and the potential readers deserve to know why.

I'm not a big Goodreads user, but I have accounts under my real-life name and my pen name. My real-life name is the email address connected to my Amazon account, so when I read a book on my Kindle and get to the end, it asks me to rate it and sends that rating to my Goodreads account. So most of my "reviews" on Goodreads are just the ratings I give it from my Kindle when I finish reading. I rarely go to the website anymore to put in an actual review. The ratings thing also helps me as a reader keep track of what I've read.

Just trying to lend some insight as to where the ratings-instead-of-reviews might be coming from.
 

veinglory

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Well for a start the effect of one rating is not something to dwell on. Goodreads rating lean lower than Amazon. To interpret them compare like to like. I think they are informative but more to compare which of your books are better received and other relative comparisons. Mots books seem to be somewhere between 3 and 4 on average.
 

thethinker42

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You're not a real writer until you've had a one star review

Seconded. I had a mini mental meltdown when I got my first one star review, but in hindsight, they're like rites of passage.

Also, if I'm looking at ratings/reviews as a reader, I do look to see how many 1-star reviews a book has, but they're not deal-breakers. If they're 1-star ratings with no reviews, then I don't think much of them. Probably just someone rating them to keep track of what they read and how they liked them (remember GR is for readers to keep track of their books, so a lot of people do this).

Now, if a book has a disproportionate number of 1-star reviews? Or a bunch of 1-star reviews with similar complaints (problematic characters, poor editing, etc)? Then I'll think twice.

But a book that's generally received positive reviews/ratings and has a few negatives is simply a book that doesn't appeal to everyone (which no book ever will). Don't sweat it.
 

KBooks

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I am really distrustful of books with only 5-star reviews. Even really well-written books that are loved by millions don't get all 5-star reviews.

I'm more likely to trust the authenticity of reviews where the ratings aren't all perfect. And yes, that includes some 1-stars. Not everyone is going to love what you wrote. Not everyone has to give a reason. It feels personal of course, which is why it's better not to read negative reviews.
 

CathleenT

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it's better not to read negative reviews.

I'll respectfully disagree with that last, although that depends to a certain degree on how much mental toughness you can muster up. I'm in a goodreads reading round right now, and one of the books I was assigned desperately needs an editor, or at least a competent proofreader. I noticed that the reviewer ahead of me said the same thing. Hopefully, the author gets the message and decides to invest in editing for their books in the future.
 

KBooks

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I'll respectfully disagree with that last, although that depends to a certain degree on how much mental toughness you can muster up. I'm in a goodreads reading round right now, and one of the books I was assigned desperately needs an editor, or at least a competent proofreader. I noticed that the reviewer ahead of me said the same thing. Hopefully, the author gets the message and decides to invest in editing for their books in the future.

Oh sure. It's just, as someone who spends a fair amount of time on GR, I see reviews that range from constructive to the reviewer completely trashing everything about the book in a way meant to make the reviewer look funny. I think it kind of depends on the review, in terms of whether reading it is going to offer something to make their writing better, or just put the writer in a not so great place.
 

lizmonster

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Just for another perspective: I don't read reviews at all, good or bad. Reviews are for other readers. Having said that, I do know people who've left reviews that are intended to be helpful to the author (like your "you might want to hire an editor" review, Cathleen).
 

AW Admin

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Reviews aren't for authors; they're for readers.

I suggest avoiding them at all costs.

Absolutely do not engage with a reviewer about a review they've written.
 

CathleenT

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Absolutely do not engage with a reviewer about a review they've written.

Amen! Someone once took advantage of the fact that we were in a reading round together to PM me, asking basically for me to explain why I'd given him three stars on goodreads, but four on Amazon. He wanted the stars to even out and for me to correct my "mistake."

I'm a fairly level-headed sort, but my gut response was to revise my review--downward. I was mentally done with his book and already being kind with my rating. It's not my job to explain that 3 stars on goodreads=4 stars on Amazon (lowest positive review), or why I rated him the way I did. I did explain the differences in rating systems, but I also told him that in the future, if he had problems with reviews, he should contact the moderator. And I left his ratings as I originally posted them, but it took some willpower to do so.

Anyway, having experienced this from the other side, I'd like to second Lisa's excellent recommendation. You have nothing to gain by engaging reviewers, and so much to lose. A pissed-off reviewer is not a good thing to have.
 
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veinglory

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I read reviews of my books not because they belong to me or I have any interest in engaging with reviewers--but because I am curious about how readers are responding to my work. Whether or not to read reviews is an individual choice with no right answer. Whether it is a good idea just depends on why you do it and how you react.
 
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