Is a 3-star bad at LibrayThing?

813 Views 11 Replies 10 Participants Last post by Carol (was Dara), Jul 6, 2011

MQ

Discussion Starter · Jul 5, 2011

I noticed that someone had given a 3-star review to one of my novels. Is this bad? In Amazon the rating is out of 5. Does anyone know what it is at LibraryThing?

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I believe they have a five star system, like Goodreads. Goodreads, BTW, folks there can be brutal. I'm getting to the point where I dont' even want to go there and look at the ratings. I notice some of the new Indies do well, but I ache and feel black and blue when I see how I'm rated. Been tempted to comment, but no, I'll leave the gag in and continue to fall in the dunk tank. It's all for a good cause.

BTW, A Touch of Danger, which they're advertising here today, a novel by James Jones, gets only three stars on Goodreads. I read the book and thought it wonderful. Most of his other work is in the 4.5 range. One of the most negative reviews is by a reader who starts to explain how he would have written it.

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MQ

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 5, 2011

Thanks, Paul. I have heard about Goodreads and how tough the readers are there. I recently joined it but have thus far avoided going there. I guess 3-stars isn't all that bad then.

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Neve Maslakovic

· #4 · Jul 5, 2011

I don't know about LibraryThing, but on Goodreads the ratings are defined as follows:

* Didn't like it
** It was OK
*** Liked it
**** Really liked it
***** It was amazing

So three stars is actually a good rating to get, means the reader liked your book!

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JRTomlin

· #5 · Jul 5, 2011

Even on Amazon a 3-star rating is not "bad". It is about the equivalent of "It's ok but I don't love it."

You are more likely to get them at Librarything and Goodreads than Amazon, I think. I have found in general the toughest reviewers seem to be at Librarything.

Let's see. For a comparison my Freedom's Sword has its only 1 star rating on Goodreads (with no review), 2 3-star, 3 4-star, and 5 5-star ratings for an average of 4.09.

Librarything allows 1/2 stars which I like. There Freedom's Sword has 1 3-star review, 4 3.5 star reviews, 3 4-star reivews, 1 4.5-star review, and 1 5-star review for an average rating of 3.95.

On Amazon Freedom's Sword has 8 5-star and 4 4-star reviews for an average of 4.7.

I think maybe people many people on Amazon don't review if they can't give at least 4 stars. Anyway there is a marked difference.

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Colin Taber

· #6 · Jul 5, 2011

If you look at the Goodreads guide on how to star rate a review, it is actually a harder measure than the same guide suggests for Amazon. Basically, a 3 star on Goodreads is worth about a 4 on Amazon.

I was going to paste in the links, but have to run for work, sorry.

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41419

· #7 · Jul 5, 2011

I've been getting some tougher grades at LibraryThing too.

But I like the reviews there, they go into great depth about what they liked and what they didn't, which is great. This means that a potential reader can see exactly what the book is like.

The worst kind of review is the one that just says they loved it or hated it without saying why, that does nothing for you, no matter how many stars are attached.

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ASparrow

· #8 · Jul 6, 2011

Yeah, my rating at Library Thing are almost a full star below what they are anywhere else, including Goodreads. Tough audience there.

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Romi

· #9 · Jul 6, 2011

I'll confirm that, LibraryThing is not good to me...haha

. The 3 reviews I got there were from giveaways, so I'm wondering if those winners just clicked on the giveaway without specifically wanting that genre, since two of them commented on not liking the format/style, when both those things are clearly as advertised in the product descrip...but like the others said, at least they actually read the book and talked about/liked a couple things, vs. drive-by bad reviews...meh!

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Holly A Hook

· #10 · Jul 6, 2011

I've never been to LibraryThing. Not sure I want to start after reading these stories, though.

I stopped looking at my Goodreads ratings after a short time there. I've noticed that anywhere people can rate without giving reviews, the overall ratings tend to be lower. At Amazon they have to rate and review, so I think people tend to only review books they loved or hated, while people who thought a book was just halfway decent or okay tend to decline.

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Paul Clayton

· #11 · Jul 6, 2011

Neve Maslakovic said:
I don't know about LibraryThing, but on Goodreads the ratings are defined as follows:

* Didn't like it
** It was OK
*** Liked it
**** Really liked it
***** It was amazing

So three stars is actually a good rating to get, means the reader liked your book!

Neve,
Thank you for that. Now I don't feel so bad!

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Carol (was Dara)

· #12 · Jul 6, 2011

For what it's worth, I consider three stars to be respectable. I'm not on LibraryThing but like some others said, GoodReads is a tough crowd. For some reason I get my best reviews on Amazon.

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