The other day I was strolling through my GoodReads listings trying to figure out how to edit something when all of a sudden a shiny squirrel ran by and I had to follow him. I ended up on my dashboard where all my books are listed. Now, to me it seems that some of the reviews get lost after about 4 pages of people adding your book to their shelves. However, this time there was this little box called "rating details". Perhaps that was something new? Perhaps I never saw it before? Who knows, but it was very interesting to at least me. If you click on the box it gives you a summary of all the reviews (reviews) and just stars that people put on there (ratings). At first I was a little dismayed that some of my books had random people just adding "2 stars" with no comment or review. In particular, as my tour went along and more people added me onto their to read lists, my new book suddenly had some lower star values, but no reviews. What is even more disappointing is that all my "sales" reports show that there were 0 sales..so there was a good chance someone was just marking it to be marking it. (That is the one thing I hate about GoodReads...the ability for anyone to come along and mark your book as a 1 star for no good reason.)
Anyway, I digress. I actually took the time to study the little box. Granted I do not have a lot of reviews on any one book, but when I looked at the bottom I saw something interesting:
80% of people liked it-- Verses of Athine
93% of people liked it-- Athine Verses: The Beginning
100% of people liked it-- The Secret of Genetic Corp X
100% of people liked it-- Erosion of the Heart
Say WHAT? 100% of the people that rated or reviewed two of my books liked it? 93% of the people that rated/reviewed Athine Verses: The Beginning (perma-free) liked it!!!??? That made me want to look at those little stars closer....I went and hovered over each star and found that this is what each of those mean:
1 did not like it
2 it was OK
3 liked it
4 really liked it
5 it was amazing
So, contrary to what I have been led to believe a "2" star is not the end of the world on some places and is comparable to my own 3 star rating.
Compare that to Amazon:
1 I hate it
2 I don't like it
3 It was OK
4 I like it
5 I love it
OH...well...maybe that is where the phobia of the "2" star comes from. Nobody wants to be a 1 or 2 on Amazon....hate? Why would you have the word "hate" in anything. There is already enough of that in the world!
As an author we all get hung up on getting reviews and those damnable star ratings. Many authors feel they need 4 and 5 stars to validate their work and won't advertise anything lower than a 4 star. Yet, I think maybe we should start paying attention to what those "stars" mean to the site that set them up. Obviously they mean different things in different areas. This must by why my The Secret of Genetic Corp X, which was listed on many sites by two prolific reviewers, varied from 3 to 4 stars on different sites by the same person. These people review every day and I bet they were not forgetting what they wrote in the previous site, but rather it had different meanings on different sites. So, theoretically someone can rate one of my books as a 3 on Amazon (it was OK) and rate it as a 2 on Good Reads. IF they pay attention. Some reviewers probably just mark an arbitrary number of stars thinking 2 is really horrible or 5 is really great.
And the morale to the story? Before you flip out at a rating your book was given on a site figure out what that particular site says when you hover over a star category. I'm not even going to get mad at random people that give my books a 2 star on GoodReads anymore. You know why? Because it means it was OK to them, even if it isn't what they meant to mark in some situations ;) I'm even going to relish the 3 star reviews because that means they LIKED IT. Isn't that what we all want? To have our story liked?
The next time you are over at GoodReads stop by and check out that nifty box. If your books are not on GoodReads you are missing out on an opportunity. I've been there for a while, but the site is growing in popularity. As an author, I think it is important to be there. I recently put my Verses of Athine up and while it was there for a month, nobody really added it until I did a GoodReads Giveaway....I had over 900 people entering the book giveaway and 400+ adding it to their "to be read" shelf! How is that for exposure?
Anyway, I digress. I actually took the time to study the little box. Granted I do not have a lot of reviews on any one book, but when I looked at the bottom I saw something interesting:
80% of people liked it-- Verses of Athine
93% of people liked it-- Athine Verses: The Beginning
100% of people liked it-- The Secret of Genetic Corp X
100% of people liked it-- Erosion of the Heart
Say WHAT? 100% of the people that rated or reviewed two of my books liked it? 93% of the people that rated/reviewed Athine Verses: The Beginning (perma-free) liked it!!!??? That made me want to look at those little stars closer....I went and hovered over each star and found that this is what each of those mean:
1 did not like it
2 it was OK
3 liked it
4 really liked it
5 it was amazing
So, contrary to what I have been led to believe a "2" star is not the end of the world on some places and is comparable to my own 3 star rating.
Compare that to Amazon:
1 I hate it
2 I don't like it
3 It was OK
4 I like it
5 I love it
OH...well...maybe that is where the phobia of the "2" star comes from. Nobody wants to be a 1 or 2 on Amazon....hate? Why would you have the word "hate" in anything. There is already enough of that in the world!
As an author we all get hung up on getting reviews and those damnable star ratings. Many authors feel they need 4 and 5 stars to validate their work and won't advertise anything lower than a 4 star. Yet, I think maybe we should start paying attention to what those "stars" mean to the site that set them up. Obviously they mean different things in different areas. This must by why my The Secret of Genetic Corp X, which was listed on many sites by two prolific reviewers, varied from 3 to 4 stars on different sites by the same person. These people review every day and I bet they were not forgetting what they wrote in the previous site, but rather it had different meanings on different sites. So, theoretically someone can rate one of my books as a 3 on Amazon (it was OK) and rate it as a 2 on Good Reads. IF they pay attention. Some reviewers probably just mark an arbitrary number of stars thinking 2 is really horrible or 5 is really great.
And the morale to the story? Before you flip out at a rating your book was given on a site figure out what that particular site says when you hover over a star category. I'm not even going to get mad at random people that give my books a 2 star on GoodReads anymore. You know why? Because it means it was OK to them, even if it isn't what they meant to mark in some situations ;) I'm even going to relish the 3 star reviews because that means they LIKED IT. Isn't that what we all want? To have our story liked?
The next time you are over at GoodReads stop by and check out that nifty box. If your books are not on GoodReads you are missing out on an opportunity. I've been there for a while, but the site is growing in popularity. As an author, I think it is important to be there. I recently put my Verses of Athine up and while it was there for a month, nobody really added it until I did a GoodReads Giveaway....I had over 900 people entering the book giveaway and 400+ adding it to their "to be read" shelf! How is that for exposure?