I think that having any evidence that Amazon reviews drive sales would be fantastic news for everyone. I’m a nonfiction writer so I know it would interest me.
Please share any specifics you have.
If I’ve just read a book by a prolific author, and want to read more by him/her, I might use those reviews as a way of choosing which to read next and maybe what to avoid. Every author who’s written a dozen books or more has one or two that aren’t to his usual standard; I’d like to know which ones they are. I suppose they might be meaningless to sales in the sense that I’m going to buy one of that author’s books anyway and it’s just a case of which one, but yes, I will consider thoughtful reviews by people who seem to be knowledgeable of the author’s works, can spell and form sentences, and don’t seem to be shills.
This is exactly what I was going to say. Also, if I want to study a particular topic, and I don’t know anything about the authors in the field, I’ll use the reader reviews to help decide which book to buy. I’d say reader reviews play a huge role in helping me pick out what books I purchase.
I’m not saying reviews are 100% meaningless, but on the list of things that will noticeably impact your sales (for better or worse), reviews are near the bottom. The author who freaks out because somebody gave her a 1-star review and thus her entire career is over (and it happens all of the time) is being completely irrational because that’s just not the way it works. Those are the type of authors who will send out mass emails to everybody they ever met in order to garner some good reviews, and they’re the ones who play ridiculous games on Amazon, including harassing reviewers and leaving positive anonymous reviews.
Check out the fourth review here. 
Purely anecdotal evidence from other authors and my publishers.
I’m interested as to why you think a review would not have an effect on sales. Of course people are wary of the anonymous review process, and sometimes rightly so. But a guidebook to a particular area, for example, that has two positive reviews, is likely to sell better (on Amazon) than a competitor that doesn’t (or has a negative review). Not hugely odd or controversial, I would say?
So you seem to have actual evidence to back your claim. Just anecdotes that you don’t want to share with us. OK.
Reviews only have weight if they come from a trusted source. People will buy a book at a friend’s recommendation. They will buy a book if the see a review in a magazine or maybe even a blog that they’ve been following. They might buy a book because someone here on the Dope will recommend it.
But Amazon reviews are anonymous reviews by strangers who may have axes to grind. Few people give them much value.
The two guidebooks in your example may sell better with good reviews, or they may not. The question is how much people are willing to give credit to a review. A book with two bad reviews by people who obviously have an ax to grind could easily outsell a different Amazon.com book with two great reviews by the author and his wife. But the assertion that good reviews drive sales needs something more than a “well, it makes sense to me” explanation.
As for me, I’ve never made a decision on buying a book due to an Amazon review. I don’t think many others have, either. The reviews will just confirm their own opinion and the choice to buy one book over another – even on the subject – is much more dependent on factors like price, availability, name of the author, reputation of the publisher, etc.
Hardly a scientific sample, but generally the average reviewer rating is most likely to affect my decision on a non-fiction book where there are other books on the same topic. For example, if I’m looking for a biography and there are 5 titles available I’ll go with the one that has a 4.5 star rating/100 reviews quicker than the one with a 5 star average/2 reviews or a 3 star review/50 reviews. I’ll also go to the “Look Inside” feature and look at the index; if I’m looking for a general bio on Abraham Lincoln for example I might see how many index listings there are for William Herndon, Salmon Chase and Nancy Hanks to see how often they’re mentioned in each because it gives an idea how thorough they are or what parts of his life they focus on.
UNLESS- it’s about a particularly controversial figure or issue. If Ann Coulter or Michael Moore writes a book you’re going to have hundreds of 1 star reviews from people you know damned good and well haven’t read it and probably a lot of 5 star reviews from others who haven’t.
Novel’s ratings I usually only pay attention to if they’re particularly low or if they’re 4.5 star or better after many reviews.
Obviously there’s anecdotal evidence and obviously good reviews will be of some value over bad reviews or no reviews.
So what. Obviously you’re telling someone or posting a message here or on Facebook or any other means of informing people about a book you like will probably results in more net sales than not doing so.
Can you say anything more? Do those reviews help certain types of books, or certain formats, or certain price points, or anything of any specificity at all? Can you give me anything that I don’t already know?
This is my profession and livelihood. Petrobey Mavromihalis’s assertion of evidence would be like money in my pocket. It would be huge, considering that nobody in the actual writing or publishing industry has this information.
But it’s not. It’s the same meaningless nonsense that people who don’t know anything love to post. It’s not evidence. It’s just talk. Nuts to that.
Absolutely, and that’s all I’m saying. The obvious ‘so what’ is that you sell more books, even if only a few.
I’ll show you my detailed studies in support of my claims if you show me yours. Until then we’ll just have to rely on personal experience and trust.
It’s looking unlikely.
You need a new agent and / or publisher.
Ok, that’s maybe a bit harsh, and as you say different genres probably have varying rules. But are you seriously saying that having good reviews on Amazon is not a positive thing? I’m not an Amazon fan (I was a bookshop manager for many years), but we live in the real world. Making a living out of writing is next to impossible and anything that helps should not be sneered at.
???
You sound somewhat bitter?
Goddamn I should have gone to grad school for whatever that dude did. What the hell class was that for?
Am I bitter that someone who purports to be an author doesn’t know the difference between anecdotes and actual studies?
You bet.
Where in the thread has he said anything about actual studies? If he says he knows people whose book sales have been improved by positive reviews, why don’t you believe him? I’m puzzled about the rancor.
I’ve gone to Amazon several times after hearing a positive review on NPR, and the sales of that book are always higher than they were the week before.
I thought it was a mantra among authors and publishers that word-of-mouth is what sells books. Isn’t that what he’s saying? Good reviews help sell books?
Or is the argument that good reviews *at Amazon don’t matter? They sell more books than anybody – how could it not matter?
This isn’t even close to true. The big box book stores and discounters like Wal-Mart and Costco dominate the consumer market, having several times the market share of Amazon. Last time I checked, Amazon sold fewer than half of the books sold online, for that matter.
Let me quote someone:
Who said that? Right, it was me. But I can’t quantify that statement in any way. I don’t know whether value means 100% more or 10% or 1% or 0.1%. I don’t know anything at all about that statement.
I do know that many books that get terrible reviews sell a lot of copies. But I don’t how how to quantify that statement either. I want a statement that’s more than a platitude, a statement that can be backed up by something other than anecdotes and hope.
Good reviews no doubt help sell movies, too, but there is probably a negative correlation between box office receipts and good reviews. Why? People go to movies based on word of mouth, not reviews.
If you’re going to conflate word of mouth with reviews, then there is no argument. Anything goes.
Last time I checked you’d play hell finding a book on the Battle of Bull Run or hula or the novel Sons by Pearl S. Buck at Wal-Mart or Costco while Amazon would have multiple titles or editions on both topics. While Wal-Mart/Costco sell more copies of books Amazon sells infinitely more titles than both stores combined or than Barnes & Noble’s stores could ever copy, so AuntiePam has a point as well.
And also- calm down. This is Cafe Society, not the Pit.
I’ll tell you one thing that helps sales on amazon–contests.
One year I happened to know who the Edgar nominees were before they were generally announced. The day before the announcement I checked those books on amazon, and then I checked them again the day after the announcement (I think it was a Monday).
For instance, one that was in six figures (495,330 in sales, for instance) shot up to number 4000-something, which was quite a leap. And that was after just one day.
ALL of the nominees had gone up significantly. Oddly, the ones that ended up winning (I knew that, too) had not gone up quite as much as some of the others.
Not a book, but in a similar vein:
I recently watched an independent film that was absolutely god-awful. Aesthetically it just looked bad: it wasn’t HD, there were no production values to speak of, the lighting was terrible, many of the actors didn’t wear makeup. OK, it’s really low budget, fine. But it was also critically flawed in its story. Although the premise was mildly interesting, the characters were entirely bland and unlikeable, the dialogue was ridiculously cheesy with every other line being some philosophical cliché, and the same point just got hammered home over and over with no developments.
Anyway, I look at the Netflix reviews and see tons of 1-stars and a fair number of glowing 5-star reviews. Not too surprising by itself, until holding some of the favorable reviews to closer inspection. They said things like:
“The first time writer-director of this film shows a lot of talent, and it looks like he’s really going places with his career. I can’t wait to see what his next film will be!”
HMMMM.
Well that’s quite rude of you, but hey ho.
Actually I have quite a good understanding of the difference between anecdote and evidence, as reading my posts should indicate. This has nothing much to do with me being an author - not really sure why it would.
I might point out that your posts don’t seem to offer even anecdote, but merely your own assertions.
Further I would have thought that the default assumption would be that positive reviews are beneficial to sales. Therefore the burden of evidence lays on those trying to say otherwise.
Nonetheless I will elaborate a bit further. I have been involved in the book trade in some capacity for the last 15 years or so - as a bookshop manager in London, working for a highly regarded literary agency and, latterly, as an author myself. Over this time I have spent the odd minute or so considering, and discussing, what sells books.
Absolutely top of the list is author recognition (which leads to the unfortunate rash of celebrity authors).
Second, as has been pointed out, is word of mouth, especially for new or less successful authors. But don’t believe this is a merely organic process. Publishing houses are now quite sophisticated in the ways they can start and direct ‘word of mouth’ campaigns. It’s not an exact science, by any measure, but can be remarkably successful.
Amazon reviews are definitely part of the overall ‘word of mouth’ buzz that a book creates. As to quantifying exactly the effect they have, I’m afraid I can’t tell you. However the first time I’ve come across people saying they are irrelevant or have no effect is in this thread. To the contrary several authors and publishers have told me that they have noticed a link between positive reviews and their sales. Obviously correlation and causation are not the same, but I do find it suggestive, and it matches up with common expectation.
Now I’m sure there are others with experience in the trade and their own opinions, possibly at variance from my own. But I don’t appreciate my opinion being ignored for no apparent reason.
Now that must’ve hurt the sales. Ha ha ha!
Well I just got my first Amazon review. Definitely noone I know (and 5 stars, since you ask).
Since then (a week) my Amazon sales ranking seems to have been consistently higher than in the previous few weeks.
Which of course proves absolutely nothing, but there you go.