Are you a Reviewer, an Influencer or a Basher?

By Iola Goulton

Last week I talked about how book reviews are for readers. But not all reviews are created equal. When it comes to online reviews (at Amazon or other sites), it can be hard know which reviews you can trust.  

The trick is knowing something about the reviewer’s history. On most sites you can click on the reviewers name and see their profile, which includes their reviews. Sites like Goodreads and Christian Book show the average rating for a reviewer. Amazon doesn’t show this statistic, but the reviewing page will soon show you if they a reliable reviewer.

Personally, I ignore reviewers who only have one review, or who only ever review books by a single author. To me, those shout ‘fake’ (biased friends and family, shill, sockpuppet, or even paid reviews). I ignore reviewers who only ever give five stars, because that doesn't tell me anything about their reading tastes and whether I'm going to like the books they like. And I ignore books that only have five-star reviews, because even the classics have one-star reviews.  

Equally unreliable are the reviewers who give a lot of one-star reviews, who bash books, or who write about the author rather than the book. Authors, you are not your book. If I write a critical review, I’m critiquing the book and the writing, not the author as a person.  

Reviews are for readers

My reviews are written for readers. They range from gushing to critical, because I want to help readers make good choices about what they read. After all, our time is precious, even more so than our money. I don’t want people to waste money—or time—on book they won’t enjoy. It’s better that your book has one well-written critical review that points out the intrusive omniscient viewpoint and overbearing Christian themes than dozens of reviews from bashers who feel they were tricked into reading Christian fiction (as an aside, if your book is Christian fiction, please categorise it as such to prevent these reviews).

It’s worth remembering that a review can be positive without being five stars—the star rating is a subjective indication of how much the reviewer liked the book, not an objective rating of how good the book is. Note that star ratings vary across sites: four stars at Amazon means “I liked it”, which is how Goodreads currently defines a 3-star review (we’ll see how long that lasts now Amazon owns Goodreads). And a low-star review can still give readers valuable information that might even convince them to buy the book (e.g. "there was no sex").

Influencer reviews

But some of my reviews are influencer reviews, in that I am actively trying to encourage people to buy and read this particular book because I did like it. I liked it a lot. My personal standard for being an influencer is that I will only offer if I’ve read and enjoyed the book—which tends to mean something I’ve edited or beta-read.

Here’s my view: if it’s a five-star review and the reviewer discloses they got the book free in exchange for a review, they are an influencer. I’m a reviewer and I do rate some books five stars. I may have started off as a reviewer for that title, but as soon as I rate a book five stars, I know I’m influencing others to buy and read that book.

Street Teams

I am seeing more authors ask their blog followers to consider being influencers for their new release books. Sometimes these are called Street Teams or Launch Teams. Basically, it’s a group of readers who are going to read the book and share it with others, promoting it on social media and telling their virtual and real life friends.

I’m happy with this in principle, but in practice, I’d want to read the book before influencing others to buy. Here’s an example: last year, Dee Henderson released Full Disclosure, her first book in years. I loved her Uncommon Heroes series and her O’Malley series, so was keen to get an advance copy of Full Disclosure. As things turned out, I’m glad I didn’t get on her influencer team, because I can’t recommend Full Disclosure to anyone (if you want to see why, read my Goodreads review).

I did agree to be an influencer for Carrie Turansky and The Governess of Highland Hall, because I’d read an early draft and really enjoyed it. It’s now getting positive reviews and I’ve already had friends asking me when the sequel is due. But being an influencer extends beyond reading and reviewing the book, as Carrie’s blog posts about Carrie’s Reading Friends shows. Jody Hedlund makes a similar point, quoting Kim Vogel Sawyer: 

An influencer is meant to encourage others to read the book ... A reviewer shares his/her opinion of a book.

Author Kaye Dacus breaks reviewers into three basic categories:

Gushers - I love this book so much I want to marry it

Critics  - In the general, not the negative, sense of the word)

Bashers - Which probably doesn’t need explaining, and it should go without saying that this is inappropriate behaviour for anyone.

On that basis, I'm a critic who occasionally gushes, and tries never to bash. What about you?

By Iola Goulton. I am a freelance editor specialising in Christian fiction, and you can find out more about my services at my website (www.christianediting.co.nz), or follow me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christianediting), Twitter (@IolaGoulton) or Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/iolasreads).

I love reading, and read and review around 150 Christian books each year on my blog (www.christianreads.blogspot.com). I'm a Top 25 Reviewer at Christian Book, in the Top 1% of reviewers at Goodreads, and have an Amazon Reviewer Rank that floats around 2600.