First, I'm not talking about book reviews written by serious online book reviewers. So don't get all worked up into a huge snit until you read the entire post. Joyfullyreviewed, dearauthor, and others like them are not the people I'm posting about today. Like them or not; agree with them or not; they work hard at what they do and they provide a viable place for readers to find out what books are like before they make purchases.
What I'm talking about are book reviews on amazon and other web sites that sell books. And I'm going to start the post with something I experienced recently. I saw an ad for granite counter tops in a local magazine. I've wanted them for a long time and the price was right. So I called and made an appointment to see one of their sales reps. I liked him, ordered the granite without even looking at it, and in less than a week it was installed without any problems whatsoever. And when it was finished the sales rep called and asked me to leave a review about their company. He told me he'd appreciate it because his competitor is so jealous he's getting sales because of his special offer the competitor is leaving false nasty reviews about the company. And I checked it out when I left my own good review, and I was amazed at how many negative comments there were. Mostly because I had such a great experience. I liked them so much I recommended them to friends, and my friends had a great experience. And all the nasty reviews had two things in common: they were all posted anonymously, and all gave nothing but superficial negative comments without any actual descriptions.
I couldn't help comparing this experience with some of the experiences I've seen with regards to book reviews on places like amazon. The bad ones are always short and snarky, and always written anonymously or with ridiculous, contrived names. And the good ones are often just as bad, which leaves me wondering whether or not the author's family and friends left the reviews to help the author promote the book. The problem is most authors can spot a fake book review a mile away, but most consumers can't, which is unfortunate. They trust these reviews and base their purchases on them, which is even more unfortunate.
Personally, I'd like to see an end to all anonymous online reviews...for any product. They are often false, misleading, and can't be depended on. And if anyone wants to leave a valid review, there should be forms to fill out and these people shouldn't be afraid to leave their real names, in bold print, and stand behind their words.
The point I'm trying to make is that consumers simply cannot trust every single review they read on amazon and other sites like amazon. If I'd read the reviews about the granite company I used and taken them seriously, I would have missed out on a great deal on new granite counters.
5 comments:
Very good points! (And where do you live, I've wated for granite counter tops for ages!)
I don't trust anonymous reviews, or the ones that give the product a low star rating because of shipping problems or something else the author has no real control over.
I completely agree, Ryan, and thank you for posting on this.
Anonymous reviews serve no purpose. I'm all for reading the highest and lowest reviews of something (books or otherwise) and try to figure out an average on my own. I also have found people whose reviews I trust because we often have the same reactions. When I want to get a good feel for something, I look for them more than anyone else's opinion.
I would love to do away with the ability in some places to leave stars, etc. without writing an actual review. That's not helpful since I don't know what 3 stars means to that person.
Thanks again, Ryan.
Kristabel...lol...I live in Bucks County, PA. The company is Colonial Marble and Granite. The offer was fantastic!!
Missy...I think we're going to see some changes in the future. People are getting tired of the Internet not being reliable.
Do you mean anonymous as in they don't put their full name as the reviewer?
I understand and agree with your perspective, and I have heard of people leaving bad reviews for their competitors (which I was naive enough to be surprised about). To offer a different point of view though, I post quasi-anonymous reviews (my initials show up but not my full name) on Amazon largely because Amazon has taken it upon themselves to automatically create this whole profile thing, that provides information about me, my kids, my family, etc that I don't want every person in the public to know (and haven't yet figured out how to get rid of from Amazon's profile page).
I don't usually have time to post super detailed reviews, but I also don't usually take the time to do it unless I really did like the product. I stand by my opinions, I just don't need people to be able to click on my book review and pull up what's on my baby registry.
Like I said, I do agree with you, and I think it's rotten that people post negative reviews for mercenary reasons. I figure I can't be the only person who has my reasons for doing things that way, either.
I agree, Elisabeth. Privacy is important. But it sounds like you take what you're doing seriously. Unfortunately, some people don't. They either leave good reveiws or bad reviews, about any product, not just books, to sway people in one direction or the other. And it's so unfair to consumers.
I wrote this from a reader/consumer pov, not as a writer. We're all out there making choices about purchases and I'm never sure what to believe.
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