If you are a reader on Amazon, you might not be aware that anything less than five stars has a negative impact on books. I didn't know that, either, until I joined writing groups. I try to read or at least page turn to the end of books so authors get paid for their page counts, and if I don't think it deserved five stars, I don't rate it. Sometimes I am frustrated with an author and wish they'd have hired a darn editor before publishing and if I paid cash for the book, I might think about putting it in the review. Many writers who self publish do not review their work nearly enough and it is rife with typos and grammatical errors. I hope mine is better than that! All in all this is a great learning experience. I have had ten downloads and one review, which is probably good.
More on Amazon ratings from Christopher D. Schmitz :
"Here is what each of those star ratings mean:
5: you enjoyed this book in the way that it was meant (has the expected tropes, themes, etc.)
4: you generally liked the book but you have at least one major issue with the book and it detracted from your enjoyment (lots of repetition in the writing, a major plot hole, far too many typos, etc.)
3: a novel you neither liked nor disliked—you didn’t care if you finished it or not. You might read it if you were stuck on a desert island and this was all you had… then again, you might use it for TP instead. Because some advertisers and listing services don’t allow 3-star books, consider leaving no review out of apathy and sympathy. This review hurts an author’s rating.
2: the novel is plagued by multiple, serious issues and you want to prevent others from suffering in an attempt to read this book. There are typos on practically each page (lack of editing,) serious inconsistencies, or a glaring lack of research. There was a plot, characters, and setting, but you didn’t really enjoy it.
1: a colossal failure. You hate this book so much that it keeps you up at night—there was no plot. Don’t leave a 1 star review unless you truly feel the author should never write again—this is not the appropriate review to leave if you bought a romance that you thought was a “Clean Christian romance” from the cover/title but it actually turned out to be an Amish bodice ripper."
What Do Those Stars Mean On Amazon
