I’ve talked about reviews before, and so have a lot of other authors. Many of them, including Zoe Winters, have suggested that it might be best for our mental well being to ignore them. But I just can’t seem to do it.
So, I was looking at goodreads.com and was happy to see a couple more good ratings that had popped up on my books. But then, yesterday, I got a 2 star rating from the same person on two of my books. But instead of freaking out this time, I took a look at her other reviews. I found out that she had given 3 stars to Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Mary Shelley, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, and J. R. R. Tolkien. So should I get all upset because my rating is only 1 star below the “King”? And she gave Mark Twain 2 stars. So my books are at least as good as Huckleberry Finn, right?
The conclusion is that reading really is very subjective. So the real question is…how closely do other readers pay attention to the reviews? Do they really make you lose sales? Honestly, I’ll pay more attention to the ratings of an actual physical product, especially when tangible reasons for the rating can be offered. But, as I’ve said before, I’ve actually bought books because the rating was bad…and actually enjoyed them.
lauralynnelliott.com 
No matter how many stars I’m more interested in why the book got it’s rating. I’ve read 5star reviews and quickly found out that all the reasons this person liked the book were reason I wouldn’t. I’m an optimist, so I figure most people would read a review like I would.
The problem on goodreads.com is that you can rate books without actually doing a review. So I also don’t know why they don’t like it when they don’t actually review.
I got a really nice message on FB today from someone who had read a book that had an excerpt of mine in the back and they said they liked it so well they bought it. Those kinds of personal messages where someone takes time to find you on FB mean a little more than someone just clicking stars.
I don’t mind some of the low ratings so much when I can read the review and realize that it means “this book wasn’t for me,” rather than “I thought a five year old wrote this.” When they just do the drive-by thing, when they can take the time to throw a dart at you buy not to tell you what they didn’t like, that ticks me off. I don’t think I’ve had one of those yet, but my friends have, and they’re maddening.
Of course, even though I’ve been better about checking my reviews, this post made me run and look to see what was new on my Goodreads page. I’m up to 3 3-star ratings now. I think two of those are new and they did pull my average down a smidge. No reviews on those, but 3-star ratings don’t get me down at all and I figure that means they enjoyed it well enough.
You can’t possibly hope to connect with every reader, after all. The very casual way in which I write is what I prefer to read as well. There are plenty of people who prefer writing that’s more elegant, learned, etc. But no matter how good a story is, and how many of those people rave about it, I’m probably not going to be able to be one of the people who raves about it because I’ll be rolling my eyes and feeling like I’m shoveling words aside to try to find the story.
I think that what customers are looking for is a good average, with reviews that give them a sense that they’re going to be able to connect with the book in a positive way. Some people are actually suspicious when they see no bad reviews. I, myself, often seek out the bad reviews sometimes, just to see that the reviewer seemed to have some personal issue or odd complaint that no one else mentioned, and can therefore be dismissed.
I’m really trying not to look. Zoe told me to stop it. LOL
One of the reviews that bothered me on Goodreads the other day was the 3 star review that said “Great short story”. Well, first of all, when you use the word “great”, 3 stars don’t make sense. Wouldn’t that deserve a 4 star at least?. Then, the fact that it’s obviously a novella, not a short story misleads the other readers that see the review. But if I respond, then it makes me sound whiny or needy. So did she give it 3 stars because she thought it was going to be longer? Or does she think that’s actually a good rating rather than average? Sometimes I would really like to get into the minds of the readers. Or maybe not….
Yeah, that is completely confusing. But as long as your description says novella (and possibly other reviews do too), and her review actually says “great,” sounds like no harm done. Maybe she actually meant to leave you another star and her hand slipped. You just never know.