Let’s Get Rid of Star Ratings — One Honest Indie

Hi. Today I wanna talk about this article just a little bit. “Moving Beyond the Stars. Stars put restaurants in an unfortunate box. Restaurants merit more than a symbol. Stars are now history.” Well, that’s interesting. I’ve always thought that the star rating system is a little bit unfair on Amazon, as well.

I mean, sometimes you don’t know whether to give something four stars, three stars, five stars, and half the time you don’t know if the people who are reviewing these things are real people or if they’re just a bunch of trolls, or if they just have an attitude problem and they give you a low rating. So, you know, what I think? I think getting rid of the star system might be a nice start at Amazon. That’s just a suggestion. I will just change a little bit of this article around to adapt to the concept of books being without stars. Yes!

I can count on one hand the number of authors who have told me they want stars at all. Many more readers and authors have told me an unrated review encourages them to read more of the review. “Thank You, Amazon, for your marvelous decision to suspend ratings back under your star system during the pandemic,” a handwritten note from an anonymous author read last year, “Please make it permanent. Writing novels is an art.”

That’s actually kind of a parody of what’s actually written there. I mean, writing novels is a craft and an art, and it’s difficult. And most, you know, I don’t know how many people really know how difficult it is to write and release your own novels.

Since the pandemic, I’ve had plenty of time to ponder ratings. I’ve come to the conclusion that readers don’t need graphics to help them make decisions on what to read.

(WARNING: This is a satirical take on an actual article. But it might be worth thinking on, right?) 🙂

That’s a nice thought, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody wrote that article?

That star ratings actually deterred some of the readers from buying my books. Someone once told me I don’t read reviews less than three stars. Okay, an average rating. And I couldn’t help but think of all the good books he was missing just by glancing at stars. Besides that, three star reviews were few and far between.

Well, maybe for restaurants.

Stars put books in an unfortunate box. A book that’s memorable for say just a few good lines would be unlikely to get more than a couple of stars, but don’t a lot of us know books where a few extra bits of attention to the prose make it worth more than a mere star rating? That kind of admiration, affection even, is hard to capture in points, especially now, given all the industry’s challenges.

Books merit more than a symbol to sum them up. Words allow for nuance. Stars not so much. Ultimately, I’d like to think reading the review in full (an author can dream!) is the best way to determine whether the book will be a good fit for you as a reader.

So I would encourage readers to read the reviews and to leave the reviews in words, not just stars, because we are more than just our numbers, and I am not a number, either. So with that, I will simply say, be seeing you! Take care, and talk to you later.

PS: Thanks for reading my parody/satire/whatever about the star rating system. Really! 🙂

Originally published at https://debbimackblogs.com on October 11, 2022.