~ By Sandi Shilhanek, Fresh Fiction Copyeditor
Recently there's been a lot of discussion about book ratings and how they are
potentially
adversely effecting an author. I personally don't rate the books I read
using a
numeric
system, and certainly not in a public forum such as Amazon, GoodReads, Barnes
and
Noble,
etc.
Many readers will look not only at the review for a book but also at the
average
rating,
but I understand why an author might be upset with a rating. Let's just take
a
moment
and think like an author.
Pretend for a moment, if you would please, that my name is Charlie Draper and
that
I
wrote the book THE GILDED MIRROR. My book is a young adult novel loosely
inspired
by
Alice in Wonderland. I think of THE GILDED MIRROR as my child. I conceived
the
idea, I
nurtured it through months of brainstorming, researching, writing, editing,
and
rewriting, and finally my baby, is ready for other eyes to see it. Isn't
this
about the
most exciting moment of my life. I'm setting my book out for people to buy,
read,
and
enjoy. I know it's the best book ever!
Now readers are seeing my book for sale, buying it, reading, and reviewing
it.
The first
reviews are all 5 stars. YES! My baby is taking the world by storm, and I
couldn't be
prouder. Wait...what is this? Someone has dared to criticize my baby...how
dare
they!
Seriously, not every book is the best book out there, and not every book is
going
to
resonate with every reader. I personally think that if a book is rated a
three
it's not
the end of the world. As I said at the beginning I don't rate books, but if
I
were to
start I would think that a lot of what I read is a three. To me, a three
means I
enjoyed
it and would tell my friends about it. In my system that is all in my head,
I
would rate
something a five if it would land on my non-existent keeper shelf and I would
re-
read it,
if I did that. Something would rate a two if I wanted back my reading time
when I
was
done. Ratings of one and four would rarely if ever happen. To me, a one
would be
something I just couldn't finish and a four would be something that was close
to
being a
keeper, but something about it just didn't quite yell keep me!
So when you're rating your books, think about the pain and suffering that the
author went
through to give life to their child, and how you as a parent would feel if
people
were
rating your child and not being fair about his/her attributes.
Do you rate the books you've read using a numeric or alpha system, and what
do the
numbers or letters mean to you?
Until next time.
3 comments posted.
The numbers have no bearing on me wanting to read a book. I usually read the synopsis of the book to see if it's going to interest me, after the Title has peaked my interest somewhat. If it's an Author that I've read before, and I've liked their prior work, I'll also give their book another chance. As for rating a book, I put myself in the Authors' shoes. It pains me greatly if I didn't enjoy a book and I have to rate a book below 4 or 5 stars. I've read books that have been so bad that they were undeserving of any stars, regardless of what they went through to write their book. Instead of going through the humiliation of giving them 1 star, and being generous at that, I decided not to review the book at all. This doesn't happen often, and my reviews are very fair. Feel free to look me up, and see how many Authors love my reviews of their books!! I apologize for being a bit wordy in my response.
(Peggy Roberson 10:50am July 24, 2015)