Amazon gives me advice how to review

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I sent an enquiry to Amazon wondering why some reviews were not posted. I was replied that there were some forbidden words (as usual, hand job, blow job), and that I was welcomed to post them again without them. But they also give me an advice more... directly from their words:

"Also, please make sure you are providing your opinion on whether the items you are review are good or bad and the reasons why. It appears that the majority of your reviews are just the descriptions of the plots of the books."

Strange, I was very well certain to do exactly the opposite. If I retell part of the story, it's only to point out some side of the characters... but well, they probably know more than me, don't they?

A very pissed off Elisa, who is really wondered why she bothers to post reviews on Amazon (I know why, I do that to promote the books, Amazon is till the main online booksellers, but still...)

Comments

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

> I think you should take it into consideration.

Thank for your suggestion, but I think that I will not doing that. I have my style, I don't like when I read a review that is really a retelling of the blurb and then ends with a "I like this book" or "I really like this book"... That's not giving people info to decide if they want to buy or not a book. Who am I that, if I like a book, other people will do? Instead, explaining why a character or a story work for me and why not, that is good for me. And anyway, again, I don't think that "the majority of your reviews are just the descriptions of the plots of the books". And beside, can be politely expressed, but I was asking them (and they are a customer care), why some reviews were not posted, and that wasn't the reason, so I don't see why they have to "politely" express that.

Elisa

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with people who want you to add some sort of value judgment of the book. Your reviews are in depth and detailed, but I don't get an idea of whether it was well-written or if you actually liked the characters.

Many of us trust your opinion and if you say you do or don't like a book, it would have some value for us.

Also, I can understand why Amazon questioned your reviews since you give 5 stars to everything. It would help everyone more if you did say how much you liked it. 5 stars to every book is not very helpful.

Some people also find that a general discussion of a book and characters and the reviewer's opinion overall (and why), is preferable to so much detail about the plot that sometimes it's not necessary to read the book after. A better balance would make your reviews a little more valuable to more people.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

> but I don't get an idea of whether it was well-written

That is probably since I have no skill to judge a writing style, no background in literature to do that. But I always says when a book impressed me for a particular style, or, maybe, if I find it difficult to read.

> or if you actually liked the characters.

That sorry, I don't agree. It's my only firm point, to give an opinion on both characters. I do that always, when maybe, sometime I don't do that on the plot. If I had not enough info to judge a character, I also say so.

> Many of us trust your opinion and if you say you do or don't like a book, it would have some value for us.

Thank you for that.

> Also, I can understand why Amazon questioned your reviews since you give 5 stars to everything. It would help everyone more if you did say how much you liked it.

If you read this LiveJournal, you know that I don't give rate, never. I will gladly post my review on Amazon without rating if they would allow that, but they don't. So I give 5 for default, and you read the review to know what I think of a book. And anyway, maybe it's not a 5, but it's probably a 4... hardly I finish a book if it didn't catch my interest for some reason or the other. I have more than 750 unread books, so, you see, probably the 3 and lower are among them.

> Some people also find that a general discussion of a book and characters and the reviewer's opinion overall (and why), is preferable to so much detail about the plot that sometimes it's not necessary to read the book after.

Again sorry but I don't agree. I discuss the characters, it's probably the only think I do, since as you noticed, I hardly discuss on the writing style. And sorry again, but I always try to not give up the story giving too much details, so people are not spoiled in reading the book.

I think that probably we have to agree to disagree.

Elisa

[(Anonymous)]

So I give 5 for default

In that case, your ratings are very misleading because they increase the overall rating of any book you review (however crappy it is), and in a way discredits the ratings you give to other books (that may be actually good).

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Sorry again, but have you read my reply? I said that, if it wasn't 5 it was probably 4 or something more. If statistics is not an opinion, that doesn't change so much, and I don't finish and post about books that are "crappy".

Elisa

[(Anonymous)]

Then why not just give them a 4? Why is it so hard to be more precise with how much you liked a book? To be honest, I don't read your reviews much lately since I don't get an idea of how good the book is, just about what happened and only a vague idea of whether you liked what happened, which is not the same as saying you liked the book.

A good book can have terrible events and still be enjoyable, and that's hard to tell sometimes.

Quantity is not the same as quality. I'd rather have fewer reviews with more about how good a book was. And I find the star ratings on Amazon and elsewhere generally a decent way of gauging how much people enjoyed the book, especially when many people vote, like on Goodreads.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

> Then why not just give them a 4?

Because I don't want to do that and it's my choice to not doing that and you have to accept that.

Sorry if you don't read my post, but also that, it's your choice and I accept that.

> Why is it so hard to be more precise with how much you liked a book?

I was thinking to this thing of the rate the other night before sleeping (see, I don't take light suggestion). And then again I find something that make me realize that I don't want to give rate. I read a book some months ago; it was different from the usual books I read, a bit "odd" with an ever odder main character. At first I didn't know if I was liking it, but than the character took me. For me it would have been 5+, but instead I wrote all of above. Just yesterday I read a review on the same book: 1... See? rate means nothing if you don't read the review, and the rate changes according to the people who read the book.

Elisa