Opinion [uh pin yuh n] a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty. A personal view, attitude or appraisal.
Subjective [suh
b jek tiv] existing in the
mind; belonging to the thinking subject rather than to the object of thought. Pertaining to or characteristic
of an individual; personal; individual: a subjective evaluation.
All opinions are
valid except for the fact that they are also subjective.
On the surface in this day and age there are two main ways of
choosing a book: by browsing a physical book store or online retailer, or hearing
about it through a book recommendation site (word of mouth).
Browsing might feel like you’re asserting your own will in
picking out a book, but the reality is, finding one is rarely a happy accident.
At the bookstore, the prominently-placed books are more likely to catch your
eye – if you don’t see a book facing
spine-out on the bottom shelf, you’re less likely to find it. This visibility
principle applies to online stores as well. Those books high up on popularity
lists are more likely to sell. But how do they get there?
In a word: Hype [exaggerated publicity; hoopla].
We all know what hype is, but I wonder how often we consider
that its pervasiveness gives it a sort of credibility. Behind every blockbuster
you will find a focused marketing team and a coffer full of advertising
dollars. A book you may have initially dismissed as uninteresting will begin to
look better and better under a constant barrage of hype. It influences us whether
we are aware of it or not; that is the nature of being repeatedly exposed to
something – it becomes familiar, and spurs us to find out for ourselves what
all the fuss is about.
What has this got to do with book reviews and indie authors?
Well...indie authors don’t have the benefit or even the option to use hype to
promote our books. To use a couple of arguably clichéd but apt phrases, an
indie author’s only hope is to create ‘the perfect storm,’ of publicity using what limited
resources s/he has available to them; in effect, setting in motion that
nebulous confluence of circumstances leading to the mythical ‘tipping point.’
Without paid-for hype, we have only one method at our
disposal to get the attention we need to sell our product: book reviews.
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: it is common
practice for Big Name authors to review each other’s work. They place gushing quotes
from their peers on their book jackets, and use them in their advertisements. When
indie authors review each other, however, the practice is considered suspect –
even though it’s the exact same tit-for-tat behavior coming from the Big Names.
I can only attribute this to public perception of authenticity: the Big Names
are officially vetted by professionals, whereas everyone knows indie authors
were rejected by those same professionals, making them desperate and willing to
lie for each other to sell a few books.
Now, of course it’s an exaggeration to lump all indie
authors together in such a stereotypical manner, but there you have it. I
happen to be acquainted with dozens of indie authors whose integrity would
never allow them to stoop to underhanded methods, but I also know a few who, like the
child who considers any attention better than no attention, will resort to bad
behavior to get ahead.
Avid readers are the target, because they will have already
plowed through the blockbusters and tend to dig deeper, browse further, take
more chances to find a good book. If they stumble upon an indie book
(unlikely), or deliberately seek them out (due to affordability), the first
thing they see is the overall star rating (I’m using Amazon in this example,
but most [all?] online book retailers
use a similar rating model). After the star rating, they check to see how many
ratings the book has gotten. If the book’s overall rating is a glowing 5-stars
with very few customers having rated it, they might move on. Why? The most
obvious reason is s/he might assume a book no one has reviewed is a book no one has read. S/he might also jump to the conclusion that it is a book no one
wants to read. It’s also possible our avid reader is aware of the
well-known ‘fact’ that the first several reviews on any given indie book are
written by friends, family and peers.
Next, s/he reads the blurb. If it’s intriguing enough, s/he
will then move on to the reviews, or, if s/he is that rare creature who doesn’t
let a stranger’s opinion influence him/her, s/he will read the sample – the first
20% or so of the book. Reading the sample is the best way to evaluate quality
of writing and the author’s ability to ‘suck you in.’ But for the purposes of
this post, we’ll say this potential customer peruses the reviews.
What will s/he find? A veritable mish-mash of subjectivity
with so many potential factors it would be impossible to list them all, but I've identified some of the more colorful types, from an author’s tongue-in-cheek point of view.
Assuming the book is not riddled with spelling and grammar errors, these are
the kinds of reviewers you will find:
The Family-member. Despite what our naysayers might think, a
Family-member is the least likely person of the average indie author’s
acquaintance to write a review of our books. This is because very few of our
nearest and dearest can be bothered to read them. I’ll use myself as an
example: I have five self-published books under the name Melissa Conway with a
total, as of this writing, of 103 reviews on Amazon. Not one of those reviews
is from a family member. However, when an author’s Family-member does venture to post a review, the result
is usually easy to spot. Delirious praise from someone with the same last name
as the author is merely cringe-worthy.
The Friend. Way more likely to not only read the author’s
book than a Family member, but to review it. Always 5-stars, always a Rave.
This is not to say the opinion isn’t sincere, but the simple fact that the
Friend knows someone who wrote an actual
book can often influence their review more than their opinion of the
story/writing. Now, keep in mind that the average author is probably an
introvert who doesn’t have many actual friends, so there won’t be an abundance
of these reviews. Also, subsequent books by this author are likely to have few,
if any, Friend reviews, for the simple reason that the more familiar an author
becomes with the ins-and-outs of marketing his/her books, the less likely it is
they will want a Friend review
casting doubt on them.
The Peer. There is nothing an author holds in higher esteem
than the Peer. They are other writers/authors who have quite likely also
developed an online friendship with the author. The Peer review will focus on
the positive, but will not always be 5-stars. The Peer thinks the author is at
least an adequate writer, and often s/he was a beta-reader and/or editor of the
book in question. Peer reviews are generally honest because the Peer wants to
avoid the appearance of impropriety, which will reflect negatively on their own
career. Often, Peers will identify themselves with a qualifier, such as, ‘I am
acquainted with the author through social networking.”
The Drive-by. These are low-star-rating-givers more likely
to haunt reader sites like Goodreads where the reviewer doesn’t have to give a
written opinion. Often, but not always, the Drive-by has just created an account
and the book in question was one of many s/he rated upon first joining. If you
look at the other books the Drive-by has given low stars to, you will find many
beloved classics. If you look at the Drive-by reviewer’s profile, it probably
doesn’t have a picture or any personal details and will show that their last
activity was on the same day they joined.
The One-and-Only. These reviewers claim to have been so negatively
affected by the book they have broken out of lurk mode to post their first ever
review with the sole objective of warning other readers.
The Spurt. This reviewer is similar to the One-and-Only, but
instead of just one review, has written a ton of them all on the same day,
including an unflattering one of the book in question. The reviews in this
cluster are all short, and seemingly honest.
The Shill. This reviewer gives out 5-stars or 1-stars with
the express purpose of pumping up one book while taking its competitor down. I
know the Shill exists because I’ve read a lot about them lately; how some
authors hire people to do this, or make multiple fake accounts to do it
themselves. I have no idea how to recognize a Shill’s review because it might
look like a Rave or a One-and-Only or a Troll; conversely, the Rave or One-and-Only or
Troll, might in reality be a Shill.
The Troll. This reviewer seems to really have it out for the
author. Often the review is accompanied by claims that the writing was so bad
s/he could only get through a few chapters. The Troll always uses a pseudonym
(usually one innocent-sounding name like ‘Jennifer’) with no profile information. They have
plenty of reviews over a convincing period of time, but most of them are
negative. Trolls relish trash talk and will go to the trouble of posting the
same scathing review on multiple review sites.
The Blogger. A reviewer that identifies him/herself as a
book blogger can almost always be counted on NOT to be a Shill. They have often
been solicited by the author in exchange for a free copy of the book, but this
won’t influence their opinion of it. The majority of Bloggers focus on the positive
aspects of every book they read and many won’t post a review of a book they
didn’t like. On the other hand, and especially if the Blogger is using a
pseudonym, they can be unapologetically blunt and difficult to please. Some
authors seek the difficult Bloggers out in particular in the hopes that their book does please them.
The Rave. I’ve lurked enough on Amazon’s Customer Discussion
boards to have a good idea what kind of reviews seem suspicious (a positive
Shill review). Unfortunately for those of us who have gotten authentic reviews
that include lots of ALL CAPS enthusiasm and liberal use of exclamation points,
these are at the top of the ‘yeah, right’ list. Phrases like IT WAS AMAZING!!!
and BEST!! BOOK!! EVER!! will generally garner skepticism whether the sentiment
was genuine or not, especially if the reviewer doesn’t point out specifics in
the story. Sometimes the Rave will add a caveat that they saw all the 5-star
reviews but didn’t believe them until they read the book. This is an indication
that the Rave is genuine.
The Editor. This is the low-star kind of review written by someone
who is obviously another writer, or worse, a wannabe. The Editor usually thinks
the book’s premise was intriguing, but the writing lacked (insert favorite
writing ‘rule’ of choice here). These reviews are almost always written under a
pseudonym and are most likely to send the author into a tailspin of paranoia.
Since it’s obvious the Editor is a fellow writer, the author may wonder, with
all the nonsense going on (see Shills), whether this is a competitor or even if
they actually *know* this person. (As an aside, you can find out the real name
of any given account holder on Amazon who has a baby registry and sometimes a wish
list.)
The Freebie. People don’t tend to read outside their comfort
zone. The Freebie knows what s/he likes, but being a shrewd and frugal reader, takes
advantage of the temporarily free ebooks on Amazon. The Freebie may not
understand (or care) why those books have been made free. They may not know the
author is attempting to give away as many as possible so the book will rise to
the top of the ‘free’ charts and get much-needed exposure. This has been one
of the few reliable ways to make our work known, but it has its (sometimes
severe) downsides. First, savvy Freebies are aware that an ebook in Amazon’s
KDP Select program will likely become free in the future, so they pass on
purchasing it. Second, Freebies are less likely to select a free book based on
whether they actually want to read it. This wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t
also have the ability to review it. Even the honest Freebies who put a
disclaimer in their review such as, “I don’t normally read this genre, but it
was free, so...” have still brought the author’s overall star rating down if
they review it negatively.
In the end, despite lumping reviews and reviewers into
groups that make the worst of them easier to swallow, I believe subjectivity
rules – and comforts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve repeated the phrase,
“You can’t please everyone.” When an incomprehensible review is suddenly
stinking up one of my book pages, I take it on the chin and vent in private to those I
trust. It would never occur to me to confront the reviewer, even if the review
reeks of Shill – and even if I only imagine it does.
Reviews are all we got. Those of us lucky enough to acquire
enough of them, good, bad or ugly, might even generate a little Hype.
