Just a little over a year ago Amazon introduced a new policy whereby a buyer can leave a 1-5 Star Rating without having to identify themselves or include a written review. I believe the folks at Amazon had good intentions when they introduced this revised policy. I think they were trying encourage more buyers to rate a product by making it easier to do so.
At the time this was implimented, I wasn’t crazy about the idea, but I wanted to give it a chance before commenting on it.
Now, a year later, I can tell you that from my perspective, I did indeed receive more ratings for my books then I did the previous year, and certainly more ratings than reviews. So I guess it accomplished what Amazon had intented.
Unfortunately, there are also negative consequences. In all honesty the ratings for my books crossed the entire spectrum between 1 to 5 stars, so I’m not complaining about any individual rating, but rather ratings in general.
From an authors perspective a 1 through 5 star rating is rather useless without knowing the intention of the reader. What does getting a 1 or 2 star rating mean? Obviously they didn’t enjoy the book, but why would they give it a low rating when others give it 4 or 5 stars? Not knowing the answer to that question is just plain frustrating and gives no indication of what they didn’t like about the book. Same is true for 4 or 5 star ratings, why did they enjoy the book while others didn’t?As an author and a reader I would think that knowing the answer to that question would be important.
From a readers perspective a poor rating or even a great rating without an accompanying review gives no insight into what made the book enjoyable or crappy for that matter.
For example, before the new policy I received a 1 star rating for one of my books and the reader was forced to leave a review which consisted of two words, ‘Not good’ Those two words tell you nothing about the book, but are enough to make a judgement on the validity of the review. A 1 star rating without a review tells you nothing, just like 5 stars without a review could mean anything from the reader loved the book cover or they loved it because it was a short quick read.
Obviously all authors would like their books to be highly rated, but I don’t mind low ratings if the reader tells me what they didn’t like about the book.
Not having that perspective kind of cheapens the entire rating/review process for both potentially new readers and the writers themselves.
Obviously, nothing I say will change Amazon’s policy, but I still wanted to give you my two cent.
What do you think about this subject? Does it even matter?
John D. Ottini - Author 