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

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!

However, I think that GRs handily beats LT in its social aspects.

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.

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.

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?

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 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.