How to Rate Books on Amazon

There is something very important to know about Amazon reviews. And let me say preemptively say that this isn’t an angry rant against anyone who reviewed me badly, this isn’t about author pride, nor is it about somehow cheating readers. It is about Amazon’s rating system and the AI algorithms that are involved within. If you read books on Amazon, do not rate them as if this were on Goodreads. Do not give anything under three stars unless very special circumstances apply. Now I can hear what you are saying. What? Why the hell can’t I do that? What if it is a bad book? It really is about author pride and misleading readers, isn’t it?

No, it really isn’t. You see, Amazon’s rating system is made to be used for tools, cutlery, pots and pans, toilets . . . a variety of non-subjective things that can physically be measured by how well they perform their task. When you get a non-stick pot that sticks, that’s something you can physically judge against the standards of what it said it was. That, my friend, is a two-star rating. But books, they don’t work that way. If they say they are a genre and you open them up and they are that genre they are already at least a 3-star rating. Because they are 100% what they said they were. We’ve gone past the one-star of TOTAL SCAM or COMPLETELY UNUSABLE, and the two-star of VERY MISLEADING or INCREDIBLY BROKEN and entered into the realm of the subjective. What is a three-star rating? Well, a three-star is still considered quite negative by Amazon algorithms but in real talk it means the product is what it says it is and it functions but for personal reasons I do not like it.

Take this review. And please for the love of all that is holy understand that this is not an attack on the reviewer. Just a lesson to all readers. The book in question was not broken. It was not a scam. It functioned just as intended. That review was a legitimate opinion on a functional item and should be a three star. Three stars = bad book. I don’t like it, but it is a book and it works as intended. The reality of the current system is that anything below a 4-star rating simply gets dropped from advertising and disappears from being shown in the market. A broken rating of two stars or one star is not a book review, not on Amazon. It is an attack on the novel’s ability to be seen by other readers. And a very effective one at that. There are a lot of books that I don’t like but I would never two star them. I’m a writer and I’m here for all readers. I don’t want them to not see a book that they might love. Now don’t be dissuaded from rating three stars. That is a legitimate way to tell people you didn’t like the book. In fact, the review above would have been a perfect three star because it explains in detail all the reasons that the reader didn’t like it. The words of that review are actually very helpful to us writers and to possible readers as well. They can see what turned him off to it and compare that with what they themselves enjoy. I appreciate getting such in-depth perspective and hope I can use it to write better and stronger novels in the future. In summary, let me put a simple Amazon guide to help you all review books there the way they are meant to be reviewed. As a bonus I will leave at least 20 words that you can copy and paste for your review if you are one of the many who doesn’t know what to write or say.

• 5 stars = Love the book and I definitely plan to follow this series. I suggest that you check it out as well.
• 4 stars = It was good but there are other books that I prefer more. If I were you, I would check this out if you are in need of a new read and don’t have any idea of what to read next.
• 3 stars = I couldn’t get into it. The grammar is good, the words are good, but the story just didn’t do it for me.
• 2 stars = The book is broken. There are multiple spelling mistakes, formatting errors, and it is does not fulfill its function. This is supposed to be a book, not a crossword puzzle.
• 1 star = This is a scam. Someone stole another author’s stuff and posted it as their own. One star this and report it to Amazon.

There you have it! You can read my sadly 4.4 starred book here if you are curious about it. And remember to please please please do the stars right for anyone you read in the future. Also feel free to keep this article on bookmark so you can copy and paste the sample reviews in and give the authors who you like the oomph their books need to succeed and grow in the wild ecosystem of the Amazonian web forest. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!