An informal poll: what is the magic number of book reviews?

10 maybe.

I pay attention to the blurb more than the number of reviews when deciding which book to pick up next. I realize that most of the story lines out there have been written ad-nauseum, but I still look for some new angle or something different to intrigue me. A catchy description wins me a lot more time than does a bunch of stars.

As long as it's double digits I feel pretty good about looking into it more. Then it's the blurb and I'll do a quick read of the first page or so and if I like it I buy or add to my list.

When I'm buying a book on Amazon, number of reviews is not a factor. Look Inside is far more important because I can tell very quickly whether the writing is good and if the opening pulls me in.

One or two.

I have a bias here because I'm a writer and have seen too much. Often times when a book launches with a lot of reviews its either an ARC group that already love that author or some other not exactly neutral group leaving the reviews like an incentivized review group. So if I do bother looking at reviews, which I still buy a lot through bookstores so often don't, I want to see reviews spread over a range of dates and with a variety of opinions even if they all rate the book highly. Number isn't so much a factor as whether or not they look organic to me.

As a writer I don't seek out reviews, so I will also add here that my best-selling title (which is non-fiction) sold over 3,000 copies in its first year, still has only twelve reviews, and is selling just fine. And when it really started selling it only had maybe five reviews. My YA fantasy got its first Bookbub when it had less than ten reviews. To me reviews are a nice to have, but they don't drive sales. YMMV, etc. etc.

As a reader, I don't care about reviews at all. I read what I want and don't read what I don't want. I might read some reviews here and there but they don't sway me at all when it comes to entertainment. Why should I care what some strangers think about a book? Why would I let folks I don't know determine what I read? Like Debbie from Omaha is an authority on a book just because she didn't like it. Reviews are OPINIONS, nothing more. I don't care if 100 people hate a book, I will read it if I want to and make up my own mind. Now when it comes to products, that's different. I research and read tons of reviews before buying a new product or trying a service but as far as books or movies, I find the reviews entertaining sometimes but they have no affect on my decision. I've read books people dogged that I enjoyed and I've read books people hail as great but they were so bad I couldn't get past the first chapter.

So for me, it takes 0 reviews to have an impact.

Also, bad reviews often make me wanna read or watch something more and I'm not the only one. Sometimes I'll get a book or check out a movie that everyone says is horrible just to see if it's as bad as people say. LOL!

As a reader, there isn't a correct number of reviews. I care more about what the reviews say than the number or the star ratings.

As a writer, more reviews helps a book show up in places and opens up other promotional opportunities, but the required number goes up faster than I can get reviews. I doubt I'd ever reach the target. My main hope is that more readers will care about review quality over quantity, as it's pretty obvious my reviews were natural and not paid.

Marlys said:

When I'm buying a book on Amazon, number of reviews is not a factor. Look Inside is far more important because I can tell very quickly whether the writing is good and if the opening pulls me in.

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Exactly! I forgot to mention that too. Yes, Look Inside is far more important to me than reviews. I always check the Look Inside of books.

I do a bit of triage with self-published books (receive loads for review), and more than ten reviews would make me take notice, if they seemed organic. Among the self-pubbed books I see, even five organic reviews is pretty good. I still care way more about the blurb, though. If the blurb is well written, I’ll check Look Inside.

My trade-pubbed book only has 44 reviews, and I’ve seen fine books with less, so not gonna judge by that.

Twenty-seven items for sale on Amazon. Seven have no reviews. Only one is in double-digits at 21. What this this 30 reviews of which you speak?

I think at least ten, and 30+ would be solidly in the legit category. I say this after the son of a friend published his first novel and I recognized that four of the six reviewers on Amazon were variants on my friend's and his wife's names.

As for the content of the reviews, I read at least three well-written ones where the reviewer clearly did read the book before I decide. I almost never use the look inside feature. I am not convinced that I will get an accurate feel for the book from just a few pages.

If the blurb is good I’ll usuall download the free sample, which is about 5 to 10 percent of the novel. If that’s good, then I’ll buy.

Also it's important to remember authors don't control the amount of reviews they get. That's why I don't hold that against an author.
Most books with tons of reviews are due to the author using street teams or sending out tons of ARCs and many authors don't do this for reviews. Some prefer releasing their books and relying strictly on random readers to review so they won't have as many reviews as someone who is on Netgalley, has a huge mailing list, or is sending ARCs out by the truckload. This is one reason I don't take into account the number of reviews because as an author myself I know what goes into getting reviews. The truth is, most readers don't review books. That's why you will find more books with 10 reviews or less than those with 100 or more unless the author is extremely popular. Even trade books don't get a lot of reviews on average. Some of it is because readers simply don't review much or because the books didn't sell that well. A lack of reviews does not mean the author isn't worth being read. It proves nothing except maybe that author didn't go out and round up reviews on his or her own but shouldn't be written off for that IMO.

It used to be the more books you sold the more reviews you get but I don't see that. I used to. Now a days I have books that do very well and if I don't do ARCs I am lucky to get 10 reviews in the first month.

I feel for brand new authors because getting reviews is one of the hardest things to deal with when you are new. When you are a vet you got a fanbase and readers are familiar with your work so they will read you no matter the amount of reviews. But, for a new, unproven author it's tough because a lot of people won't even give an author a shot without a certain amount of reviews.

Oh and let's not forget all the authors who pay people on Fiverr to leave fake reviews by the tons. If we're gonna discuss how many reviews it takes to make some people take a chance on a book then the quality of those reviews should be taken in account too. It doesn't matter if the book has 50 or more good reviews if the reviews are fake or misleading. That's why judging a book solely on reviews isn't fair to the author. Some authors have many reviews because they are doing shady things to get them.

I'm another who doesn't care about reviews. The only thing about a review that might move me is if there are spoilers that actually tell me stuff. (I don't care if I find out the 'twist' - if it sounds interesting, I'll read to see how the author actually wrote it out.) ie, I might look at a big long review that promises information.
I'm not interested in the opinions of random strangers.

Most readers don't care.

Because I have context they don't, I ignore any non-verified review, I ignore anything from the first 3-5 days of publication, I sort by reverse date, and I figure at that point, I'm looking at the most sincere reviews. 10-12 could easily be friends and family, and if they come quickly, I assume they are and pay no attention to them. I pay no attention to ARC reviews. Again, readers will tend not to know what I know. I've learned the lesson to not assume the typical reader will think or behave as I do.

It's getting harder and harder to see reviews on many phones and devices, so except for needing X reviews to get a desired newsletter ad, and having over a 4.0 average rating, I don't think it much matters.