I started this post back in March 2018 and is just getting around to finishing it. For the past year I’ve been busy with my books. I forgot all about it. But I am happy WordPress saved the post. 🙂
Writing and other forms of art are the only profession I know where the person is solely at the mercy of others’ opinion. I have seen many other professions who does horrible work and are still maintain their livelihood. It isn’t affected by the opinion of others. I mean unless they do such a horrible job that cause injury to someone.
(I semi-rescind that—if you sell online at platforms like Ebay and many others then your rating dominates the sales you make or do not make.)
Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way with the arts.
In my personal opinion. No, they could not because the same rating means different things on different sites. But unfortunately, this is the case. Especially involving on-line sale, a rating can determine if your book sell or not. No rating doesn’t always means the book isn’t selling. It means readers aren’t leaving a rating.
This is not so much the case publicly. In the public, people don’t care what type of ratings you have online because most aren’t going to sign on line and read them. They wants to know is it worth their while to read it. That’s why I keep stressing: establish an off-lline present. Do not put all your eggs in on basket. Spread them out. That way you won’t be solely at the mercy of rating systems that’s aren’t kind to new authors.
Personally, I do not look at the ratings when deciding to buy or read a book. I read the excerpt and if buying the book in person I read the preface or introduction. If I’m buying art I buy according to my taste not what everyone say. Then again, I have always been a noncomformer. 🙂
I’m sure you all know there’s a darkside to this rating requirement to gain sales. I’m sure many authors have faced it. The push to get reviews can lead into agenda not so pleasant situation for the author.
The URL below leads to a site that talks about how rating effects an author.
I think you are most likely to meet real readers offline.
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You are right.I have found more serious readers offline.
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No they shouldn’t but the algorithms rating affect the book sales more so than reviews. Clicks determined if your book is seen not the ratings.
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Thanks for reminding us of the algorithms and SEO’s. 🙂
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