[DD]

I checked out the latet David Baldacci book, "First Family" for Kindle on Amazon.com this morning.



I was surprised to see only a 2 1/2 star rating. There are 47 customer reviews so far. Reading all of the reviews revealed that there were many 1 star reviews dragging down the rating and EVERY ONE of these low reviews (27 out of 47 to be exact!) was because of the higher than $9.99 release price for the Kindle version! Not one of these 1 star complainers had actually read the book! The book is now $9.99 as most of them do settle down to this price quite soon, but this author is stuck with the 2 1/2 star false rating. Most of the ratings by people who had actually read the book were 4 & 5 stars. This book would have had a great rating if it were not for these bogus reviewers.

I think this is so unfair to an author. One should not review a book unless he has actually read it and then should review it based on the story, the plot , the characters, and the quality of the writing.

So, people, if you browse Kindle books and look at the star ratings as I do, when you see a low rating actually read the reviews and judge their quality before making a judgement on the book. I will certainly be buying this book for my Kindle, now that I have dug for the true rating.

I just had to say something. I'm interested in your thoughts on this subject.

 

[Kathy]

I agree completely. If you think the price is to high, don't buy it. Thanks for bringing this up.

 

[Laurie]

I checked out the latet David Baldacci book, "First Family" for Kindle on Amazon.com this morning.



I was surprised to see only a 2 1/2 star rating. There are 47 customer reviews so far. Reading all of the reviews revealed that there were many 1 star reviews dragging down the rating and EVERY ONE of these low reviews (27 out of 47 to be exact!) was because of the higher than $9.99 release price for the Kindle version! Not one of these 1 star complainers had actually read the book! The book is now $9.99 as most of them do settle down to this price quite soon, but this author is stuck with the 2 1/2 star false rating. Most of the ratings by people who had actually read the book were 4 & 5 stars. This book would have had a great rating if it were not for these bogus reviewers.

I think this is so unfair to an author. One should not review a book unless he has actually read it and then should review it based on the story, the plot , the characters, and the quality of the writing.

So, people, if you browse Kindle books and look at the star ratings as I do, when you see a low rating actually read the reviews and judge their quality before making a judgement on the book. I will certainly be buying this book for my Kindle, now that I have dug for the true rating.

I just had to say something. I'm interested in your thoughts on this subject.

I always look through the reviews to see why a book got the ratings it did. If I see a book that catches my eye, I'll read a sampling of the good reviews and the bad reviews. Usually the bad reviews aren't necessarily based on the book itself. If it's a political book, it will be sabatoged by people with differing views even though they haven't read it. Other times, like in this instance, it's based on the book price. There are other things too, I can't come up with specific examples off the top of my head but I know I've seen various reasons for negative reviews that have nothing to do with the story. It would be nice if books were rated ONLY by people who ACTUALLY READ THEM. - but that's often not the case.

 

[DD]

I agree completely. If you think the price is to high, don't buy it. Thanks for bringing this up.

I just had to, Kathy. I did comment on a few of the "too pricey" reviews at Amazon but those comments probably fell on dear ears since only the disgruntled reviewer reads them (maybe). I knew I couldn't be alone in my sense of the injustice of this.

 

[intinst]

I agree that people who don't read a book or try out a ptoduct should not post reviews. I don't think they should be allowed to post.

 

[DD]

I always look through the reviews to see why a book got the ratings it did. If I see a book that catches my eye, I'll read a sampling of the good reviews and the bad reviews. Usually the bad reviews aren't necessarily based on the book itself. If it's a political book, it will be sabatoged by people with differing views even though they haven't read it. Other times, like in this instance, it's based on the book price. There are other things too, I can't come up with specific examples off the top of my head but I know I've seen various reasons for negative reviews that have nothing to do with the story. It would be nice if books were rated ONLY by people who ACTUALLY READ THEM. - but that's often not the case.

You're right, Laurie. I've seen other products given bad reviews also. For instance, there was a bad review of a cover for Kindle because it didn't fit the Kindle 2, when the product description clearly said it was for the Kindle 1 only! Go figure!

Bottom line: always sort through the reviews of a product you're interested in, as you do.

 

[DD]

I agree that people who don't read a book or try out a ptoduct should not post reviews. I don't think they should be allowed to post.

I wish Amazon had a way of controlling this.

 

[LADennis]

I learned a while back that you actually have to go to the reviews and READ them for that very reason. It is a shame that this book has such a poor star rating because of people ranting about the price and price only! UGH!

 

[WalterK]

In complete agreement with the OP. I really dislike the "soap box" reviews that use the review infrastructure as a way of commenting upon factors external to the product such as pricing, release policies, the dreaded DRM, etc. etc.

It isn't restricted to books by any means (not that anyone was suggesting such a thing). Go look at all the one star reviews for



where everyone is whining because the extended cuts aren't included. I go through the one star reviews and mark them as not helpful when I'm in the mood.

- Walter.

 

[Forster]

I'm of the opinion, if you don't like the price, don't buy it and leave it at that......period.  IMO these types of antics are childish at best.

The only thing these people are going to accomplish is getting kindle versions pulled by the publishers when a new book is released and pissing off those who don't have problem paying full price upon initial release.

 

[LauraB]

These are probably the same people who rant about people who review a kindle and don't own one.  I do disagree with the poster who says he just negs 1 star reviews.  Sometimes a product deserves a one star review.  Not often, but it does occur.  I hope you read the one star reviews before you just mark them not helpful.  I don't, personally do boycotts, but I think the 9 99 boycott tag seems more appropriate on the book in this thread then the one star reviews (espicially if they mention the price as a reason.)

 

[mlewis78]

I don't judge a book by the number of stars it gets on Amazon.  There are always detractors of the books, and it's not so much about kindle prices as by people who don't like the concept of a book, even though they haven't read it.  Sometimes the content of reader reviews do help, and I can judge the reviews individually.

Marti

 

[Leslie]

I agree with DD. I think it's wrong to rate a book poorly because of the price. That only hurts the author and the author had nothing to do with it (given that this isn't an indie published book where the author sets the price). If the price is too high, don't buy the book. It's as simple as that.

L

 

[Steph H]

I haven't done this in awhile (partly because I haven't run across it in awhile), but I used to report those low star ratings done solely because of Kindle price to Amazon (using the "report this" button). On the few books where I monitored it after-the-fact, usually because it was a book I was waiting on the price to go down myself, Amazon would usually remove those low star ratings.

27 is a lot of ratings to report in this particular case, but generally speaking, if it really bothers you, by all means click on the Report button and Amazon will do something about it! (Not to say that I'm so special they did it just because of me, I'm sure I wasn't the only one. )

Oh yeah, and I'd rate those reviews as "not helpful" (or whatever the verbiage is), too.

 

[David J. Guyton]

Actually, it is Amazon's policy to remove reviews such as the ones described. If you see these reviews, mark them as inappropriate...otherwise Amazon will not know about them.

And I agree with everyone totally.

 

[geoffthomas]

Yeah, I think you have to be real subjective about this issue.
Sometimes I feel inclined to give a 1 or 2 star to a really good book because the spelling, grammar and punctuation are so bad (and that is in the DTB copies).  But I don't do it if the book is a good read and I enjoyed reading it anyway.  Once in a while I read a marginal book that has these problems and I am tempted to not finish it. 
But tempted though I may sometimes be, I have never actually given 1 or 2 stars to a good book.
And I don't think others should either.
Just sayin.......

 

[VictoriaP]

Actually, it is Amazon's policy to remove reviews such as the ones described. If you see these reviews, mark them as inappropriate...otherwise Amazon will not know about them.

And I agree with everyone totally.

This is good to know; while this particular book isn't one I'd likely read, the price only reviews are completely out of line. I've gone through & marked them all "not helpful"--guess I'll start reporting them next.

 

[LauraB]

I don't think it is a problem to rate them as "not helpful" if the only reason they state for a one star is the price.  I was just meaning to go through and mark all 1 star as not helpful may not be the right thing either.  Especially if they listed other reasons for the low ratings.

 

[MAGreen]

The biggest problem with the unfair 1 star reviews, is that sometimes I am looking for something "good" to read and I sort by ratings. I miss out on some good stuff that way when they have low ratings just because of the price!

 

[Shizu]

So if enough of people click on the Report button, Amazon will correct this?