A Short Rant on Amazon.com Reviews…
Any writer worth his salt will tell you to never bother reading Amazon.com reviews. They’re like a millstone around an author’s neck. You never come away from a period of time reading your own reviews on Amazon feeling anything close to good, refreshed, or encouraged. You feel creepy, egotisticaland dirty, even if the reviews are good. If they’re bad, well, you feel pissed. Duh.
So of course I spent a few minutes today reading our reviews on Amazon.com. Maybe it was the cold weather. The gloom. The Lions. I don’t know. A moment of weakness or whatever. Here are a few things Idislike about Amazon reviews:
- When the reviewer hasn’t read the book, but still feels compelled to make generalization-type comments about the book, as though the world simply cannot live without this reviewer’s pre-thoughts on a given book. What I’d like to tell these reviewers is that there are plenty of message boards, emergent church websites, and blogs upon which to rant about our book. Or he could just pull the ultimate self-love move and just start his own blog. These guys always title the reviews something nebulous like “observations.”
- I hate the fact that you can review, and then comment on the helpfulness of, the reviews. Not only do I feed or damage my self-esteem based on these mostly crappy reviews, the reviewer can then feed or damage his own self-esteem, which gives him a taste of what he just put the real author through. Come to think of it maybe I like this.
- And finally, I have no problem with people liking Kevin’s chapters more than mine. I like Kevin’s chapters more than mine. I like Kevin more than I like me. You get the idea. But this one rubbed me the wrong way: “The chapters by Kluck were OK, but as I was reading the chapter, I was secretly hoping it would get over quickly so I could get on with Deyoung’s next chapter (they alternated).” How can you “secretly” hope for something that you’ve justannounced to the whole world on your Amazon review? Why did you feel the need to keep this a secret? Do I know you? Are we related? And why do you feel like it’s hard to have book chapters “get over” when it’s just a matter of turning a few pages? This guy gets added toa short list of people I’d like to punch in the face, unless he’s someone I like and/or am related to, in which case we should probably talk.
Rev. Z. Bartels
10/20/2008
Ted,
I liked your chapters better.
But, seriously, if you keep reading your own Amazon reviews, you’re going to go blind.
k_luck96
10/20/2008
Funny, that’s what my mom always said re: my own Amazon reviews.
Ted
Travis
10/20/2008
The Lions! Just being a Lions fan would make one tie a millstone around the neck. It’s difficult being a Colts fan at the moment, but at least we have hope. What hope does a Lions fan have? None!
Besides that, I can honestly admit that while I purchase 85 – 90% of my books via Amazon, only twice have I read the reviews. That was enough. If I want a good book review I usually check out 9Marks.org or AlMohler.com.
Seth McBee
10/20/2008
I actually like the amazon reviews, and I review a lot though.
I like reading those who give a book that I am about to read both 5 stars and those who gave it 1 star.
But, I can see how it would suck to be an author and have to read some of that…uhh…I’ll go with “stuff”
(my review of your book with DeYoung was in the positive for both of you and this was before we started to converse)
I actually have a book blog where I do all my own reviews apart from amazon…mostly for archiving…
E.
10/22/2008
“as though the world simply cannot live without this reviewer’s pre-thoughts”
HA! People like that drive me NUTS, which is why I was hesitant to start a blog. Who cares what I think?!
Bob Sacamento
10/28/2008
If you’re still reading this thread, I thought “Why We’re not Emergent” was just great, and this is coming from a guy who is frustrated with both the emergent movement and the usual knee-jerk evangelical reactions against it. I would recommend it to anyone. And I have been meaning to do just that on Amazon.com, no less, but I’m kind of lazy.
Also, though I thought Kevin DeYoung’s chapters were great, and would have made a great book by themselves, I really found your chapters hitting closer to the problems with the emergent movement. Kevin’s chapters, though great from my habitually “linear” (whatever the heck that means) point of view, might very well fall on deaf ears if given to an emergent who wants everything to be delievered in “narrative.” Your chapters show what these guys keep forgetting, namely 1) Narratives can complement, conflict with, and critique each other and, therefore, 2) even if we recognize the hitherto neglected importance of “narrative”, it is still completely possible to live by the *wrong narrative*.
Great going, for what my opinion is worth.
The blog of all and sundry » Blog Archive » Ranking crowdsourced data with curves
11/5/2008
[...] there are more outliers. Either way, I haven’t trusted the average rating on sites like Amazon, Yelp and TripAdvisor for a couple of years now. Instead I read a sample of reviews and then go [...]
Den scedsunEncina
12/17/2008
Very usefull post.
Thanks.
P.S. I like your writing style.
Tom scedsunEncina
12/18/2008
First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.
jason kenny
1/16/2009
I don’t know some moments of this post..
rarOraply
1/29/2009
http://www.tedkluck.com – now in my rss reader)))