STAR-CROSSED—Book Review Dilemmas

By Linda Lovely

I first posted a blog on the topic of book reviews in 2011. Six years later, the topic is more complicated—and aggravating—than ever as Amazon appears to be in another purge cycle.

The current complaint among authors? Amazon is purging reviews from individuals it has determined have social media ties to the authors. Given these links, the positive thumbs-up reviews must be biased.

The answer from authors? They use social media to communicate with and interact with their fan base—so, of course, cyber ties exist between them. That doesn’t mean the reviewers who have some social media link actually know or have even met the author in the flesh. And it certainly doesn’t mean their reviews are biased.

For authors, reviews are a numbers game. For a book to be eligible for various types of promotion, it needs a base number of reviews to appear “legitimate.” Also, the star ratings must be, shall we say, stellar, preferably with an average star rating of 4 ½ to 5. We (and by this I mean all authors who haven’t climbed into the top 10% of best sellers) need positive reviews.

That brings us to the second review dilemma: it’s those dang stars.

I’m in a book club. After we discuss each read, the moderator for the month asks us to rate the book on a five-star system: 5=I absolutely loved it. 4=I really liked it but it had some weakness. 3= I liked it and would recommend it to others. 2=I didn’t like it, but finished it. 1=I disliked it and didn’t finish it. This past month, we re-read Pat Conroy’s classic, The Prince of Tides. The individual ratings ranged from 5 to 2. Most of the books we read earn average ratings in the 3 to 3 ½ range. That means we’d recommend them to others. Often enthusiastically. Yet, a three-star rating would be a relatively “poor” showing on Amazon. 

The problem is that everyone who posts an Amazon review and assigns a star rating comes with a different idea of what those stars mean.

Should 5-stars be saved for only literary classics and never be awarded to excellent romance, mystery or other genre titles?  What if the writing is excellent but the plot has some holes? What if the suspense is gripping but the reader feels no emotional attachment to the heroine?

What individual readers see as defects are subjective. Some author friends, who write darker, gritty novels, complain constantly about “bad” reviews that give 1 or 2 stars because their books included bad language or sexual content—even though the description of the book clearly indicates it will include bad language and sex. So why did they read it, if that’s not what they like?

Not knowing how other people will interpret their personal star system, many people I know elect not to post a review—while others only post five star reviews for any book they’d recommend, making the ratings merely “You go, girl!” votes of support and encouragement.

I don’t have an answer to these problems. All I know is that I will continue to beg for reviews because I need them in quantity to succeed in this business.

So here are my questions for authors:

·         Do you encourage people to post reviews of your books?

·         Do you resent ratings that are less than five stars?

·         Would you rather have someone post a three-star positive review or no review at all?

And here are my questions for readers:

·                     Do you post reviews and/or assign stars?

·                     What prompts you to take the time to write a review?

·                     Does seeing posts from an author on social media influence your review?

P.S. I currently have 39 reviews for BONES TO PICK. My new humorous mystery, and I could sure use more!

ROMANCE JUNKIES and a GIVEAWAY!!! by Marie Harte

I’m Marie Harte, and I’m the “new” owner of Romance Junkies (RJ). I technically took over in late March, but it still feels new to me. J We have over 40 stellar reviewers, and we review anywhere from 50-100 books a month.

Romance Junkies has been around since 2003. I remember being an aspiring author and checking out the website for tips. This was back before Amazon was such a powerhouse, back before the Kindle, the Nook, and ebooks that didn’t come on a floppy disk. There was no such thing as independent publishing unless you went vanity press. And the Big 6 publishers existed.

Now, it’s all different. The romance market continues to topple over on itself, it’s gotten so huge. Yet it’s still a billion dollar genre, much to the chagrin of HEA-haters everywhere. Ha! But one thing remains—authors still need reviews to get the word out about their books.

At Romance Junkies, we’re averaging over 50 reviews a month. Our reviewers choose what they want to review, so they’re more inclined to enjoy the read. We don’t give negative reviews. Some readers in the past have poked fun at us for doing this, saying we sugarcoat things. But they’re wrong. If we don’t like a book, we don’t review it. We do offer critical reviews, but these are from books our reviewers connected with. You know if it’s an RJ-reviewed book, it’s worth picking up.

It’s so easy to snark and make fun. Much harder to give critical advice and be helpful while still pointing out issues. As an author, I know how difficult it is to write your best book and still have people not “get it.” But hey, that’s the world of art. Some love the work, some hate it, some fall in between.

So as a reader, what can RJ offer you? 

We have daily giveaways. I mean, daily. The publishers and authors who blog with us are almost always giving away copies of their books. I have a ton of signed copies of books I gathered from this year’s RWA, and just as soon as my RWA roommate mails them to me, I’ll be giving them away by the box-load! 

And let’s not forget the most important thing we do at RJ--we provide a window into great romance so you can find new authors and books to love.

For writers, we offer a free platform to blog, paid advertising at starving-artist author prices, a resource page with tips and links to publishers, and of course, our bread and butter—reviews with links to purchase the books and to the authors’ websites.

Hey, authors out there! If you’d like to submit a book for review, please follow our guidelines. We get so many books it’s tough to keep up, so don’t fret if you don’t hear back from us. We might just be too busy to get to you at the moment. But we’re trying!

We’re always happy to help connect readers and authors to best enjoy romantic fiction. In the 13 years RJ has been around, that hasn’t changed. The only thing that has changed—a new website and a new owner. That’s it!

Thanks for having me, Romancing the Genres!

AWESOME GIVEAWAY!!!

We’d like to give away (to one lucky commenter on this post) a swag pack full of RWA 2016 goodies*, a mystery romance book in print*, and one large and small cover for advertising (should the winner be a writer.) To enter this contest, simply tell us your favorite genre of romance to read.

*prizes mailed to U.S. address only

♥ Marie Harte

Owner/operator Romance Junkies

http://romancejunkies.com