UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

All books receive more ratings than reviews. It's easier to just click on those stars than it is to put a few words together. But based on my experience the ratio of ratings to reviews differs by quite a bit across all of my titles. These two from the same genre show a marked difference, with Void having less ratings but more reviews:

Imperfect Strangers 195 ratings (3.83 avg) · 79 text reviews
Void 174 ratings (4.15 avg) · 100 text reviews

Those figures don't tell the whole story though. Imperfect strangers has sold a heck of a lot more copies than Void, with 4% of readers rating compared to 27% for Void.

Is it because the book is better liked and as a consequence more people are likely to review? Or is it because Void has been published at a point where more people are going to read my books having enjoyed the previous one?

How do your books line up with these figures? Do your later books enjoy a higher percentage of reviews when compared to sales? Or, do some of your earlier books have a higher conversion rate, suggesting that it is the book itself and not an established fanbase?

A good question.

I've thought that maybe older people don't review so frequently as younger readers, if at all. Younger people will often immediately turn to 'keyboard' of one sort or another to punch in their thoughts, or so I'm beginning to think.

I hate to admit this but I have not kept count of how many books I have sold. I used to. I had nice spread sheets and consulted them religiously for the first two years, then I was too busy keeping all the balls in the air (marketing, writing, etc) to keep entering sales on spreadsheets. Months went by. Then years. Now I have no idea how many I've sold.

Unless someone can tell me that Amazon keeps track and all I need to do is press the magic button...?

A lot would depend on your definition of "older people" Anna. I review quite frequently - mostly for books that stand out in their exceptional good points - or exceptional bad points........ books that are just Ok - I tend not to bother to review. I'm 65 - am I an "older person" ???

That makes sense, Flo (not the age thing; I'm not venturing down that avenue). Middling books getting less of a response than the extremes at either end.

I don't know of any magic Amazon button, Anna. Like you once did, I just add them to a spreadsheet at the end of each month.

You can download an Excel spreadsheet for each month, as far back as when you first published. Don't know if there's a way of combining them into one.

Thanks David. Yes, I must take a look.

Older people? Oh dear - trouble. You're obviously not 'older'! Heavens above - people older than you have just run in today's London marathon. No, 65 is not old. I was really referring to people who don't use social media or the internet very much. Someone approached me a few weeks ago and said he'd just read one of my books. I was amazed. He was a military man in his late 80's. I held myself back from saying a review on Amazon would be appreciated. Just.

But isn't it interesting to find out who reads your books?

My books are all in series, so I think it might work differently. Later books in the series all sell less well than the previous books. I think that's inevitable, as people either lose touch or don't want to continue. Now the whole trilogy is out, I do definitely see people reading book 1 then going out and buying the rest in one go (which is very gratifying).

As regards reviews and ratings... This thread prompted me to go and look, the first time in ages. I was pleasantly surprised (and rather chuffed) to find a bunch of new reviews, and even for my Socko novella that's only available to mailing list subscribers. Anyhow, I notice that the R&Rs for each book are roughly half of the previous one, which roughly ties in with the sales differences.

The one thing I do notice is that making book 1 permafree has done absolutely nothing for increasing the number of reviews. On Amazon I'm getting about 1 review a year, a few more than that on GR, and that's despite giving away thousands of books (of course it's a lot easier to stack a free book on the pile and not read it.)

Anna Faversham wrote: "Thanks David. Yes, I must take a look.

Older people? Oh dear - trouble. You're obviously not 'older'! Heavens above - people older than you have just run in today's London marathon. No, 65 is not ..."

You don't get let off the hook that easy, young lady!!!! Oh - well alright then - being as it 's you ;-)

I pondered this. I don't think it's an age thing as much as a cultural thing. Some people habitually leave reviews on amazon, trip adviser or whatever, and some people don't.
I confess that until I was a writer it never occurred to me to leave a review on Amazon, and that is as somebody who has been writing reviews for magazines of some decades!
So I think that somehow, I've managed to write books that don't appeal to people who habitually write reviews, or to Americans.

Tim wrote: "My books are all in series, so I think it might work differently. Later books in the series all sell less well than the previous books. I think that's inevitable, as people either lose touch or don..."

I suppose a trilogy or series is a more definitive example of what I was thinking, Tim. My trilogy shows the same result as yours: less reviews as they progress but with a higher rating and a higher ratio of reviews to sales. I guess it does demonstrate that the books are attracting readers that are reading them with an acceptance that they will likely enjoy them, and the same is likely to happen the more books that you release.

Congratulations on the new batch of reviews too :~)

Jim wrote: "I pondered this. I don't think it's an age thing as much as a cultural thing. Some people habitually leave reviews on amazon, trip adviser or whatever, and some people don't.
I confess that until I..."

Putting aside the actual number of reviews though, Jim, how does the ratio play out as your series progresses?

David wrote: "Putting aside the actual number of reviews though, Jim, how does the ratio play out as your series progresses? ..."

The only 'series' is 'Swords for a dead lady' and 'Dead man riding east.' With these two the first most definitely has more reviews and the second a far higher ratio of ratings to reviews.

For my Port Naain Intelligencer collection there doesn't seem to be any link between ratio and order of publishing, but then it's specifically sold as a collection and not a series, so might even support the theory as people start it with different books.

Flo wrote You don't get let off the hook that easy, young lady!!!! Oh - well alright then - being as it 's you ;-)

Phew! *Mops elderly brow with tissue*

I hope the tissue isn't elderly as well!

Much used and disintegrating like its owner.

How am I doing, Flo?

Exceedingly well Anna - almost (but not quite) completely forgiven! :-)

Now I am craving some Mr Kipling.

As a reader I do reviews not ratings, I don't just singularly rate a book. For me that would be pointless. Although, I don't know if I'd be considered one of the younger reviewing crowd, since I'm in my thirties. I don't mind writing the review for the book. Maybe because it comes naturally to me. As far as on my books as an author I have a lot of reviews and the rating only extend that by a few. My earlier book sales and gets more reviews than my newer ones. The new one still has more reviews than ratings, the ratings only exceed it by a few. Yet my new one is still selling just not as much as my earlier one, I wish it did though.

I also lost count of my sales, but thanks to Book Report I can go back and check them all. It's free to authors earning less than $1000 a month :) .

https://www.getbookreport.com/install

The best part is the ka-ching whenever you have a sale :0

I review every book I finish reading. Obviously I'm more likely to finish one I enjoy, so in my case that's a factor.

I'd only review a book I couldn't finish if I felt very strongly that others should be warned not to waste their money. Eg if it was totally unreadable or wildly unsuitable for the target audience. If it just wasn't my sort of thing, there's little point in me saying so.