Skewing the results?
No I’m not talking about elections, especially since politics is at the very top of my list of topics that I like to stay away from. Instead what I’d like to discuss for a bit are the sites out there that provide a water cooler of sorts for readers to gather and discuss books, and how the ratings seem to be a bit skewed at times.
I have a very OCD brain, so when I discovered LibraryThing a few years ago it made me insanely happy. Perfect, I thought to myself, a place online where I can create a catalog of my books so I can cross reference what I have and group and sort and just revel in the list of my thousands of ebooks. And I’m not joking when I say thousands, but then I’ve talked about that here before. LibraryThing has a very spreadsheet-like layout which works really well for me and I simply adore it. At the time I didn’t know about Goodreads but I’ve also started to use that as well. There’s yet another site called Shelfari that I don’t use but it’s the same concept and I’m sure there are others out there. All of the sites are used by readers to create a catalog of books they own, read, want, need, love, etc.
In addition to creating lists upon lists, readers are able to provide ratings of books and their own reviews. In general, all of the sites have become a great resource for readers, a place to gather and discuss books in all their glory. Goodreads in particular has really taken off in this area, and there are groups and a plethora of interesting conversations going on through the site among readers from all over the world.
The ratings in particular are quite useful, from my perspective. Not many readers want to sit down and write a review, but a lot more are willing to put a star rating on a book with just a simple click. And some even jot down a few quick thoughts to let other readers know what they thought of a book. Just like with review sites, the ratings are always subjective and each reader is very different. Similar to on Amazon, all ratings are combined together to create an average score for a book that any reader will see at the top of the information about a book.
Along with readers, there are also a lot of authors that are active on sites like Goodreads. This makes sense of course since authors are very often avid readers themselves. By adding their own books to the site catalogs, authors gain a promotional tool and provide readers with information about their stories. However lately I’ve noticed an interesting trend. Many times I see an author add their own work to the site, and also provide a rating. Now, authors put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into their writing and most of the time feel that their published work is deserving of a high rating, and rightfully so. But when it comes to a site where readers are rating a book that they’ve read, is it fair for authors to be providing a rating of their own work? Of course an author is going to give their own book 5 stars, but what does that then do to the rating overall? Do readers realize when they are looking at an average score, that it could be based on a few reviews from readers as well as a rating from the book’s own author?
I’ve heard that some authors feel it just doesn’t look right not to have a rating for a book in their catalog, so they rate their own book as well using the 5 star rating. I don’t recall ever seeing a site provide the option to say, “I can’t rate this because I’m the author” or “I’m the author so I’m going to rate this but don’t include it in the average rating.” From an author’s perspective, they really aren’t given an alternate option on these sites. Of course, since the sites really are designed more for readers that seems fair. I find it interesting when I see a book with a 4.5 overall rating but then when looking into more of the detail find that most of the ratings are 3 stars or lower but with the 5 star rating from the author the average stays up high. I’ve learned to always take the average rating with a grain of salt and pay more attention to the details, but not everyone takes that time.
Do you think it’s fair for authors to provide 5 star ratings of their own books? Do you look at the overall rating of a book on these sites? Would your desire to purchase/read a book be affected by the overall rating? Should these sites provide an alternative for authors?
*And for those that might be curious, the picture above is indeed an iPhone but it’s not *my* iPhone and yes, it really does ask you to rate an app when you are deleting it from your phone. Crazy, I know.
Posted in Ramblings
It does bother me and I’m surprised that Goodreads, which I use, doesn’t come up with a way to accomodate this, since authors who use the sites are registered as authors, not just as another user who happens to be the author of those books. They could at least set it so that the author’s rating isn’t calculated into the average.
It would be nice if the author could put a personal rating and was totally honest about it! Like “3 stars. It’s not bad, but I think I got the pacing wrong” or something. That would be insteresting. If I get published I’ll try to resist the temptation to rate my own books!
I just don’t add my books, and therefore don’t rate them. It just seems attention-whorish to me, but anybody else’s mileage may vary.
I tend to think less of authors when I see that they have rated their books, much less rated them at 5 stars.
Great topic, Emily! Once or twice I’ve seen authors on Goodreads give their books less than a 5-star rating, much like I think Junkfoodmonkey is talking about, except unfortunately without the explanation for the lower rating which I agree would be very interesting. Even the rating itself is interesting — that they feel that certain books they’ve written weren’t a complete success.
If the authors add their books on Goodreads, but don’t give them a star rating, I see nothing wrong with this because part of the purpose of Goodreads is to help authors to have an organized promo page with their books on it.
If they give their books 5 stars on Goodreads, it does start to get a little weird, especially for the reasons you mentioned (skewing a more honest average put in by the readers). It can look too manipulative and defensive on their part. For some reason, it bothers me more to see it on Amazon than on Goodreads.
You’ve brought up something that I’ve been puzzling about for a while too, Emily.
When I’m looking at a book and trying to decide whether I want to read it, I tend to look at the star ratings. Rather than just rely on the ‘average’ listed with the book titles I scroll down to see the individual ratings from my friends and other users of the GRs site. This gives me a better idea of whether I’ll like the book because: a) I can discount the 5 star rating the author has given then the book; b)I can see what my GRs friends thought of it as they are often a good measure of whether I’ll like it myself; and c) I can discount the 1 star ratings from those I know have a grudge against the author of the book.
I do roll my eyes a little if I see an author has graded their book 5 stars – some authors even give a little ‘review’ of their book. I can understand why authors do this, it’s another promotional tool at their disposal, but I also think it’s a bit embarrassing.
To be honest, I think that authors should leave the ratings to the readers.
I have added my own books to my catalogue on goodreads but I have not rated any of them. I add a comment to the effect of “I wrote this book” and that’s it.
I don’t like the practice of authors rating their own works, but I guess if that’s what they want to do…
I’d prefer it if goodreads made it impossible to rate your own books, they could just give an extra shelving option of “My written work” and not have a rating option there.
I assume authors love their own books, to be honest I just ignore it. I use Good Reads and rarely check a rating before I buy/read something. It’s just not where I go for recs, I get those from friends and review sites (same thing really). If Jen or Lily or you or whomever review it and say it’s enjoyable and it’s a genre I like I’ll get it. I don’t check Good Reads and same for some authors. I’ll buy the authors I like sometimes without reading the blurb. LOL
When I rate my books at Good Reads I do not add reviews, I already reviewed it once and I’m not copying and pasting every single mini-reivew from my site to there. No time, I’d rather be reading. So I just give it a star. Then I compare, I start at the top, my friends …. usually we are pretty close, then I may or may not scan down to the “strangers” and see what they rated it but I don’t give it much value because I don’t know them. I find yaoi books rather humerous because there are people who give every single one 5 stars. Uh huh. Sure hon, they are all freaking amazing. *eye roll*
As for authors they are in a bit of a tight spot. If you say your book is 5 stars you look like you have an inflated ego, if you say it’s 3 stars then I wonder why you don’t love your own book, what is wrong with it if even the author doesn’t love it. LOL So I just ignore them as a rule. And I don’t think one 5 star rating will skew results that much, not after 10 or so people rate it.
*sigh*
*cracks knuckles and faces the panel*
I rated my books on GR when I started. I didn’t know any different, and saw other people doing it! I suppose I just thought it was a place holder of sorts. Yep, naive, sorry!
Now of course, other books have been added and I don’t quite know what to do. Don’t rate the new, and it looks like I *preferred* the older ones for some reason?! Keep up the 5* because at least it’s consistent and can be discounted by readers passing through?
Or…what I must get around to doing…find some way to delete my rating.
(anyone know if this is practicable??)
Clare, you can delete a rating (just click on the stars to clear them) but I’m not saying you should. Just that you could change/clear whatever rating for any book at any time.
Again not trying to influence!
*lol*
Thanks!
And I have known authors rate their books but make it quite clear in the comments that it’s their own, like Meg said.
I think these thing are ok so long as people are open about it. Though I don’t understand why or how authors can review their own books
.
I personally dislike it when authors rate their books 5 stars but then link to an offsite review. I can understand wanting to promote positive reviews and authors definitely should but I don’t think rating yourself and posting someone else’s review is really the way to do it.
I can sympathize with authors because I do think GR should have a function that says “I’m the author” of certain books which gives them control over their content (in the cover art, buy code, etc) but doesn’t let them rate it. Instead it’ll identify them as the author and everyone wins. In this one area I think amazon got it right.
Ummm, there’s an overall rating for a book? *Dear God. I really am oblivious sometimes.*
I personally find it weird if I see that an author has rated their own book and even more eye brow raising when I see that they have given their book 5 stars. I just dismiss it, to be honest, and go straight to what my friends thought of it. I think they are likely to be a tad more objective then the author, don’t you think?
I’ve rated all of my own books on Good Reads, and I thought the practice was not only common but also expected. LOL! It bothers me now a little bit to see the comments above simply because I don’t in any way want to appear conceited. I’d have thought readers and reviewers alike would expect an author to give their own book 5 stars. If you do not believe in your work, why would you bother to have it published?
What concerns me more than the skewed average which is caused by an author rating their own books, is when it has appeared that a book (or author) has been attacked. When I see a series of low ratings without explanation as to why, it makes me wonder if there is possibly a back story, maybe a personal grudge or vendetta. Of course there is also the possibility that the book really was that bad.
The bottom line is that you have to take into consideration that Good Reads can be a tool, but it is not fool proof. There is no way of knowing if the people who rate a book have actually read it. Also, it probably is unrealistic to expect an author to be objective about their own books. I would say, use your own common sense and discernment to evaluate the ratings and comments on Good Reads, and take the average rating with a grain of salt.
Yeah totally. I think, with the quality of programming we have today, that a site like GoodReads, where authors are in the GoodReads Author program, should actually prevent the author from rating their own book. Ditto Amazon.
Oh yeah, I went there.
Also, shout out for LibraryThing. I don’t have enough time to keep it as current as I’d like, but I love it. WAY MORE THAN GOOD READS.
Please route my hate mail appropriately.
Oddmonster: I love the book management on LibraryThing and it’s where I maintain my library. I have some of my books on GRs, but I don’t add new books to it.
However, I think that GRs handily beats LT in its social aspects.
It seems fine to me for authors to rate their own books under their author names. An author’s single rating isn’t going to seriously skew results, and I think an author’s just as entitled to an online opinion as anyone else.
These online rating pools are inherently unreliable, no matter how beautifully the site displays them. Determined individuals could be creating multiple identities and skewing rating for any reason. People could be rating books who didn’t read the books. It’s not scientific. It’s not statistically valid. It’s just an online poll.
Go authors, if you want to rate your own book. At least we can be sure you’ve read it!
Wow, I never considered that authors could be rating their own books. I will definitely be looking more closely at those ratings now.
Alas, I put my hands up in confession to this!
) I am a ratings whore indeed! With an ego the size of Manhattan and a confidence rating of zero (a psychotic combination indeed …), so yes I admit I do put 5 star ratings on my own books, but actually I did have a glimmer of honesty once (really, I did!) and put a 4-star rating on one. But I had to have a lie down and 10 counselling sessions with my work therapist afterwards, so I’m not sure what I gained by that moment of clarity.
To maintain the balance of my own sad universe however, I do put 5-star ratings on other people’s books that I like too, so perhaps I’m not all bad. Well, not completely anyway
)
Great article, btw! I’d give it a 5-star rating if I could!
Axxx
[...] When authors rate their own books on sites such as GoodReads and LibraryThing, are they skewing the ratin…? [...]