Books with ALL Five-Star Reviews.

[edwardgtalbot]

One of the things to remember is that five stars mean different things to different people.  For some people, "I enjoyed this book," means five stars. For others, five stars is something they might find once every year or two out of 50 or 100 read. Same goes for other stars - for some, 3 stars is a book they would recommend to a lot of people.

Then there's the just plain weird ones: I got one 5 star review on Ibooks where the reviewer wrote one sentence "This book sucks"

[Bards and Sages (Julie)]

The content of the review is generally more suspicious than the number of stars.   Most people use 5-stars to mean they liked it and don't distinguish between different levels of like. 

So I look at the content of the review.  If the reviews are all one or two sentences, I'm going to dismiss them.  They don't tell me anything and therefore serve no purpose.  But even a bunch of one or two sentence reviews won't set my alarms off, because they could simply be "early adopters" of an author:  people who follow the author's blog or who know the author from somewhere (like here at KB or through Goodreads).  Not neccessarily "friends and family" but people who are already familiar with the author's work.

What will trigger my alarms in regards to tons of positive reviews is:

*Similar language.  If all of the reviews use the same buzz words or key words, this is a red flag.  If the reviews all use similar sentence structure (or make the same mistakes!) this is a red flag.

*New reviewers. People who have no other reviews on Amazon.  Sure, everyone starts out with their first review, but realistically what are the chances that a book inspired ten people to create Amazon accounts on the same day (or within a week) to write their first and only review?  Human nature is to COMPLAIN, not PRAISE.  These bundles of new reviewers are contrary to normal human behavior in just about every industry.

*Sales rank doesn't match review volume.  Specifically with a new book, as rank fluctuates the longer a book is listed.  But if a book is released on Monday, has ten 5 star reviews by Thursday, but has a sales rank of 600,000...that is a red flag.

[Sean Patrick Fox]

A book with all five star reviews does sometimes give me pause. I usually check to see how many total reviews the book has, what the reviews look like (have the reviewers clearly read the book or is it simply generic praise), and if I'm really suspicious, I'll look into the reviewing history of each individual reviewer.

One of the unfortunate consequences of this "indie revolution" is that people will do anything to get their books into the spotlight, and that includes recruiting friends and family to write glowing reviews, and even hiring people to do the same. Suspicious looking reviews don't automatically make me ignore a book, but I definitely approach more cautiously. My feeling is if it's good enough then you shouldn't have to commission fake reviews.

[KirbyTails]

My feeling is if it's good enough then you shouldn't have to commission fake reviews.

Can you blame them, though? I've emailed countless people requesting reviews and so far have gotten little to no response. Some people have emailed me back saying they would do it, but so far, I've got one review as of yet. When nobody knows who the hell you are, it can be difficult to get reviews at first.

[Bards and Sages (Julie)]

Can you blame them, though?

Yes.  It is unethical and selfish.  People who do this are putting their own pride and ego ahead of what is in the best interest of both the readers and the indie community in general.

[Krista D. Ball]

Can you blame them, though? I've emailed countless people requesting reviews and so far have gotten little to no response. Some people have emailed me back saying they would do it, but so far, I've got one review as of yet. When nobody knows who the hell you are, it can be difficult to get reviews at first.

Yup, it's hard work. My work stands on its own, though. I know my work is good and I work to find reviewers who are a good match for my work. I'd rather take a year to get a number of reviews (it took Harvest Moon over a year to get the 11 3-5 star reviews it has) then lie. All that does is cheapen me.

[Morgan Gallagher]

Yup, it's hard work. My work stands on its own, though. I know my work is good and I work to find reviewers who are a good match for my work. I'd rather take a year to get a number of reviews (it took Harvest Moon over a year to get the 11 3-5 star reviews it has) then lie. All that does is cheapen me.

Wanna know how to make a [certain type of] reviewer go ballistic...?  Ask them their review history, to see if they are good match for you.  My, that was a fun one! 

We are not bottom feeders....

[D a l y a]

If I'm interested in buying a book, I'll check on goodreads, where there's a much higher volume of reviews than on Amazon.  If the book has a ton of reviews on Amazon, but very few on goodreads, that might be a sign of a ... statistical anomaly.

You have to be cautious about reading too many reviews, though, because someone can talk you out of reading ANY book and then you won't have any books to read.

About getting more people to review ... in general, I think people are more moved to post a review when the book's average score does not reflect their experience of the book.  Low reviews attract a future high-star review and vice versa.

[Krista D. Ball]

Wanna know how to make a [certain type of] reviewer go ballistic...?  Ask them their review history, to see if they are good match for you.  My, that was a fun one! 

We are not bottom feeders....

I'd never do that. I'd take the time to, oh, look at their blogs and see what they've been reading. You know, work.

[Sean Patrick Fox]

Can you blame them, though? I've emailed countless people requesting reviews and so far have gotten little to no response. Some people have emailed me back saying they would do it, but so far, I've got one review as of yet. When nobody knows who the hell you are, it can be difficult to get reviews at first.

I certainly understand the frustration, but fake reviews are a slippery slope, and there are readers out there who will refuse to read an author if they know or suspect he/she is using friends and family to post flattering reviews, or paying people to do it.

[Morgan Gallagher]

I'd never do that. I'd take the time to, oh, look at their blogs and see what they've been reading. You know, work.

They approached me!  And it wasn't a blog.   

[Kevis 'The Berserker' Hendrickson]

The content of the review is generally more suspicious than the number of stars...What will trigger my alarms in regards to tons of positive reviews is:

*Similar language.  If all of the reviews use the same buzz words or key words, this is a red flag.  If the reviews all use similar sentence structure (or make the same mistakes!) this is a red flag.

Exactly. There are websites (and publishers) out there that advocate authors to write bogus reviews under pseudonyms. Part of this advice suggests that these reviews include certain catch phrases to entice readers to buy a book.

Nearly every 5 star review for the books of the author I mentioned before uses some variation of mentioning a popular book title or author:

I haven't read anything this good or anything this enthralling since Lewis's tales of 'Narnia.'

If you have ever read the Lord of the Rings or The Dragonriders of Pern books, then The Kingdoms and the Elves will be just perfect.

it is going to be the new Harry Potter

It's as good as Potter,

Robert's writing style has been called a wonderful cross between J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling and the books have been called the Star Wars of fantasy.

I read many books from Harry Potter to Artemis Fowl, the only books I have read twice is Robert Stanek's Kingdoms and Elves.


Other reviews include constant mentioning of family members:


Everything about the first book that made my son and I love it so much returns in this sequel.

My 12 yr. old son absolutely loves this book


Or praising the book to high heaven:


ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ! EVER!!

I LOVE KINGDOMS AND THE ELVES OF THE REACHES!!!!


Or saying they have read the book repeatedly:


i just finished reding it for the fourth time.

Very readable, and very RE-readable thanks to all the subtle things you miss the first time.

This book, however, and the entire series I not only read over once, I read it three!


The point is, you can pretty much tell when a book has fake reviews. But this does not mean that all books with mainly 5 star reviews are generated by the author.

[Guardian]

T

The point is, you can pretty much tell when a book has fake reviews. But this does not mean that all books with mainly 5 star reviews are generated by the author.

These aforementioned reviews are excellent examples. All of them sounds like a poor advertisement and cross-marketing, which tells nothing about the book, but trying to lure the readers in with false premises, such as it's a cross of Harry Potter and Star Wars, but this one is better. Usually PR companies, friends and family members used to write reviews like this, who actually never read the actual book. My ultimate favorite 5 star what I've seen was the following; "Author [Insert name here] did it again!!!" The problem... it was the debut novel of the author.

[KirbyTails]

Wanna know how to make a [certain type of] reviewer go ballistic...?  Ask them their review history, to see if they are good match for you.  My, that was a fun one!  

We are not bottom feeders....

I would love to see the exchange that went down on this one.

I mentioned it somewhere else in this thread, but my favorite possibly fake review was, "You have not reached enlightenment until you have read this book!"

[Kevis 'The Berserker' Hendrickson]

My ultimate favorite 5 star what I've seen was the following; "Author [Insert name here] did it again!!!" The problem... it was the debut novel of the author.

ROTFLMAO! That one IS a classic!

[oliewankanobe]

Gang, I gotta say...

Paying that much attention to SOMEBODY ELSE'S REVIEWS is a bit disturbing.  I read my own.  I've been both lucky and flattered.  When somebody says something negative, I try to see if they have valid points.  And then I shut that browser/tab down.

What benefit does anyone get giving this much time and energy to reviews for SOMEBODY ELSE'S work?

Stop! It's not healthy!

[Kevis 'The Berserker' Hendrickson]

What benefit does anyone get giving this much time and energy to reviews for SOMEBODY ELSE'S work?

Stop! It's not healthy!

I'm a self-diagnosed review-a-holic. I just can't stop reading reviews! In fact, they're often more fun to read than the actual book!

[anne_holly]

Gang, I gotta say...

Paying that much attention to SOMEBODY ELSE'S REVIEWS is a bit disturbing.  I read my own.  I've been both lucky and flattered.  When somebody says something negative, I try to see if they have valid points.  And then I shut that browser/tab down.

What benefit does anyone get giving this much time and energy to reviews for SOMEBODY ELSE'S work?

Stop! It's not healthy!

I am a compulsive reader of reviews for books I've just read or movies I just watched - I love seeing if other people felt the same way I did, and I love shouting at my monitor if they didn't. As a reader, I don't use reviews to pick books very often, but I am a bit addicted to them for the postmortem.

As a writer, though, I find them less interesting, unless the reviews themselves are particularly amusing or well written, etc (which some really are). (ETA: That is, I enjoy them less if I haven't read the book or have no intention of doing so, except if they are particularly compelling reviews.) Though, I guess one could argue that reading reviews for the books of others might be good marketing or craft research, to feel out how readers respond to various things.

[JRTomlin]

I pay very little attention to anyone else's reviews and *try* not to pay too much attention even to my own. I know what I'm like. I STILL grind my teeth over the review that said I shouldn't have used the word 'merlon' in a historical novel because the OED said it was first recorded in the 16th century. The guy checked the fricking OED on my word usage!

Reading reviews is bad for your mental health. 

[Kevis 'The Berserker' Hendrickson]

Next to getting being paid to invent imaginary people and places, reading the reviews of my books is the most exciting part of being an author. I love all of my reviews, including the one-stars. Especially the one-stars. To be honest, I probably wouldn't bother publishing books if I couldn't find out what people think about them. The fact that reviews are hard to come by makes me cherish them even more. Bring on the reviews!

[anne_holly]

Next to getting being paid to invent imaginary people and places, reading the reviews of my books is the most exciting part of being an author. I love all of my reviews, including the one-stars. Especially the one-stars. To be honest, I probably wouldn't bother publishing books if I couldn't find out what people think about them. The fact that reviews are hard to come by makes me cherish them even more. Bring on the reviews!

I give this post 4 stars. It's got a great attitude, but I can't dance to it.

[Kevis 'The Berserker' Hendrickson]

I give this post 4 stars. It's got a great attitude, but I can't dance to it.

Maybe what we need is a little music.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5PGEgavyok" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5PGEgavyok</a>

[D a l y a]

Let's turn this thread into a how-to!

Share your tips on how you're planning to get 5-star reviews!

1. Tragic death of adorable side character ("woobie," according to tvtropes)
2. Orphan protagonist
3. Main character corrects others when they say politically incorrect things

[EStoops]

I have a book that is sitting on 5 5 star reviews. I know who SOME of the people are who reviewed it, but not all. It's actually kind of awkward, now that I think about it, to get undetailed yet "rave" reviews, because I was hoping to get some detailed feedback so I could understand what my readers wanted out of the series. I'm sure I'm not the only author that looks at these reviews and is both gratified and perplexed. (Yay! I captured lightning in a bottle.... wait a minute, how did I do that.....)

I guess I'll just interrogate my betas again... heheheheh.

A bit more on topic, I read a lot of samples. I might start with reviews when entertaining a book, but even big name books get a lot of "Omg, I soooo lurrrrved it" five star reviews, and a bunch one-star "it sucked." reviews. Reviews are a nice starting point, but rarely a good way to make a purchase decision, IMO. I have to read the sample to get a real feel for it unless I see about 3-5 DETAILED reviews.  Detailed, multi-paragraph or multi-point reviews are almost ALWAYS what seals or breaks the deal. However, once in a while a one-liner is all it takes (generally when the book really is bad.)

So is a book with all five stars suspicious? Not necessarily.

[Millard]

Let's turn this thread into a how-to!

Share your tips on how you're planning to get 5-star reviews!

1) Inserting all the n-words that were removed from Huckleberry Finn into my own book. Including a couple in the acknowledgments. Anyone who visits Youtube knows that racists love to leave comments.