Apparently, Shakespeare was wrong when he has Lady Macbeth say, "What's done cannot be undone," at least when it comes to reader reviews on Amazon. Imagine my surprise one morning when I noticed the 24 reviews for my memoir changed to 23 overnight. I emailed Amazon to find out if the review had been misplaced like a sock or a handkerchief, or had simply fallen off the site because of one of those glitches that sometimes occur in cyberspace. I was informed that the reviewer had indeed withdrawn his/her review. Now, this opens quite a few possible scenarios. Imagine a friend or a stranger is miffed at me for something I said or wrote and decides to withdraw their 5-star review and post a 1-star review in its place. Suppose this same friend or stranger reconciles (mentally) with me and in so doing, pulls the 1-star review and reposts the 5-star one. I can't help wondering if there is a limit on the number of times an Amazon book review can be undone and redone.
I'm not a fan of the gold star system so popular on the Internet to rate everything from books to bed linens. Recently, I stayed at an allegedly 5-star hotel and paid an exorbitant rate for an almost dingy room, thin, threadbare towels, and a not exactly clean bathtub. I also waited almost half an hour in the hotel restaurant for my dessert. Admittedly, almost half an hour is a very long time but I wasn't going anywhere till I got that chocolate mousse. I'd rate the room and the service in the restaurant 3 stars (that seems generous but the chocolate mousse was swell). After my visit, even the questionnaire the hotel sent me was annoyingly fatuous. The customer service representative responded that she was disappointed in the hotel staff. She was disappointed? Suddenly, it's about her? I give their questionnaire and the customer service rep's email 1 star (1/2 star each).
Authors often spend years researching and writing their books. It seems odd that the same gold star system applied in grammar school is used to assess their endeavors. I attended a non-traditional college where students receive reviews of their work but not specific grades. If an adviser hints for several pages that you were a lazy slug for most of the semester or praises the excellence of your work, you don't need a Sherlockian moment to imagine the invisible C or A. I believe a similar system of pro and con reviews, sans stars, would work the same way. Unfortunately, there will always be meanspirited readers who have never written anything more creative than a grocery list, posting snarky 1-star reviews. And there will probably always be those cheating the system (a best-selling indie author recently admitted he paid for three hundred 5-star reviews). Fortunately, there are also fair-minded, scrupulous reviewers writing honest and informative reviews.
I remember the tension I felt in the second grade when Sister Mary Lucille walked down the aisle toward my desk as she handed out graded test papers. Would I receive one star or two? Or heavens, would I get three stars the way that brown-nose Ann Marie Reilly almost always did? I'm awfully tall for that little wood desk now. It doesn't fit me any more. I don't think the gold star system -- rising or falling -- does either.
The idea of a reviewer pulling a review is surprising. But I must admit, you write about it with your usual elegance.
ReplyDeleteSeveral members of Redwood Writers (the California Writers' Club that I belong to) have been writing about an article saying that Amazon is going to remove book reviews by authors (because authors are in competition with other authors and might leave snarky reviews). I don't know if you've heard about this possible turn of events...but I find the idea extremely distasteful. Writers and authors and editors and others have traditionally reviewed books by other writers, authors or editors. It's a tradition in the publishing industry.
So I hope that Amazon is NOT going to be removing reviews by authors who comment on other authors' work.
Thanks again for a lovely blog post.
Thanks for commenting Sunny. I haven't heard or read anything about Amazon removing book reviews by authors. How would they determine which reviewers are authors? And, as you point out, it is a tradition in publishing for authors to review other authors, often colleagues. If Amazon wants to remove something, they might consider deleting those vicious and meanspirited 1-star reviews that so often seem as though the "reviewer" hasn't even read the book. Most thinking people know snide remarks aren't actually reviews.
DeleteThat's useful to know, Barbara. Coincidentally, I read a blog post somewhere (I wish I had bookmarked it now) that noted that Amazon itself has been known to pull reviews written by Amazon authors reviewing other Amazon authors. Makes no sense. As for the star rating, it's the plight of the writer and other artists always to be judged subjectively. I think the stars are an attempt to impose an objective measure. But yet again, it's only someone's opinion.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Adriene. I wasn't aware of Amazon's new and unfair policy about removing reviews by writers of the work of other writers when I published this post. I think their pros and cons or "vs." columns are fine but those kindergarten gold stars seem so unnecessary. There is an article in the L.A. Times about the reviews being removed. Here's the link
Deletehttp://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-why-is-amazon-deleting-writers-reviews-of-other-authors-books-20121102,0,7028228.story
Amazon just responded to (in Joe Konrath's words) the moral panic unleashed by authors themselves over the fake reviews and sock puppet accounts. And it did so in its own dumb corporate way. The ones that will be affected the most are us the little guys. I think the star system or any such rating system is like democracy. It's the worst system until you consider the alternatives. In our case the alternative is no rating system. I think a rating system is necessary, but like anything it can be gamed by people.
ReplyDeleteThere are always going to be people who find a way to cheat in a system geared for honest responses but what's happening here is innocent - "little guys" a/k/a indie authors - are being penalized for the unethical behavior of others. I wonder if John Locke's 300 purchased 5-star reviews were pulled along with my one honestly garnered 5-star review!
DeleteI know an Indie author who has used countless bogus reviews as she and her friends endlessly go back and forth giving one another 5 star reviews. They're fairly easy to spot because every person gushes over the book ad nauseum. I think Amazon did a real disservice by not addressing this problem sooner. Don't tell me they didn't notice. Now, in an effort to make up for what the vetting they didn't do, they punish everyone.
ReplyDeleteHi Mary, Thanks for stopping by and commenting. As someone else has already commented, this new policy is very like a school teacher denying recess time to the entire class because of the bad behavior of some. I hope Amazon will rethink and change this unfair policy. They've been so great to indie authors in other ways, especially KDP Select and affordable ads.
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