Some Review Analysis

Was just thumbing through my audible reviews, and it occurred to me there is some interesting analytics that can be taken from it. The empirical stuff first.

Much like on the main Amazon page, (and Audible, I understand, IS Amazon) it operates off a 1 - 5 star system.

The primary difference is people can give a rating without necessarily giving a review.

At the moment for Endeavour:

Out of 244 ratings:

48% of Reviews are 5*
35% of Reviews are 4*
14% of Reviews are 3*
5% of Reviews are 2*
0% of Reviews are 1* (there was actually one, but it is statistically insignificant)

As the hawk eyed among you will see, that doesn't add up to 100%. I have rounded at 0.5 up or down.

Now where we get to the point of this post, which is how many of those who rated against a star versus left a reviews (25 reviews in total):

5* - 6%
4* - 3%
3* - 14%
2* - 30%
1* - 0%

And the breakdown of how that features against those 25 total reviews:

5* - 52%
4* - 12%
3* - 20%
2* - 16%
1* - 0%

Due to the fact the Audible system doesn't demand a review to rate a work, I would suggest more people would be inclined to just give a quick 'one click' star rating than do on Amazon which requires some kind of review to be associated with the rating.

Another factor is that this is still only a fraction of listeners (in this case) but does give another layer of ability to drill down into the figures over Amazon.

As we can see, if someone likes a work, giving it a 4 or 5 star rating, they're happy to rate it highly, but are not too fussed about shouting it out to the world by leaving a review.

For the 16% of people who rated it at 2 stars, 30% of THEM are more than happy to complain about it. That is versus out of the 48% of people who rated Endeavour 5*, only 6% reviewed.

In other words, for those who have published or self published who are noticing a few bad reviews. Don't take it too much to heart. If someone doesn't like something they're far more likely to tell people about it than if they do.

Which about fits in with the old adage of if someone likes something, they'll tell one person. If they don't? They'll tell a hundred.

Hope this makes sense to people. It does to me, but I tend to think in % quite easily. If this needs to be recast to ease understanding, I will do.

Interesting stuff, Ralph, and congrats on the high rating.

Just as an aside, self-published stuff can suffer Catch-22 quite easily with reviews. If they're good, people think your friends/family/paid chaps have been put up to it. If they're bad, they're believed and people are less likely to buy.

I wonder if the rate without reviewing option will become available on Amazon.

Statistics, statistics. The only stat that really counts is sales. Last time I checked your book was doing splendidly. But an interesting read, nonetheless.

Too late to edit my earlier post, unfortunately.

Worth noting that those who rated but didn't review might well have reviewed instead if they hadn't had the rate-only option available.

Goodreads also offers the rate without review facility. At this stage - with a lot less data than Ralph! - I don't see a lot of difference between the review level on Goodreads and Amazon.

Goodreads 4.75 over 16 ratings, Amazon UK 4.6 over 5, Amazon US 4.5 over 8.

thaddeus6th said:

Interesting stuff, Ralph, and congrats on the high rating.

Just as an aside, self-published stuff can suffer Catch-22 quite easily with reviews. If they're good, people think your friends/family/paid chaps have been put up to it. If they're bad, they're believed and people are less likely to buy.

I wonder if the rate without reviewing option will become available on Amazon.

Click to expand...

Yes, and sometimes negative reviewers will try and point that out. That's why its even more crucial to be whiter than white when it comes to reviews.

Droflet said:

Statistics, statistics. The only stat that really counts is sales. Last time I checked your book was doing splendidly. But an interesting read, nonetheless.

Click to expand...

Ultimately, the only stat that matters is sales, if ones goal is to earn a keep out of it. But different writers come with different goals. Some are quite happy for just putting something out there with fairly modest sales expectations.

White's my name

[Well, pen name].

And now I'm picturing your avatar giving a cocked finger gun and wink!

It is true that people are way more likely to complain about a bad service/product than they are to complement a good one.

thaddeus6th said:

I wonder if the rate without reviewing option will become available on Amazon.

Click to expand...

Unless I'm seriously mistaken Amazon US does offer the possibility of a star rating without a review. I have given star ratings without bothering to type a review to several of my latest kindle books. (They ask for one, but I don't give them one. I assume that means my star ratings are recorded none-the-less.) I almost always just give star ratings for Audible books, partly because the skill of the reader can really help or hinder the book, that I'm not sure it's fair to review a book on my enjoyment when a large part of it could be because of the reader.

I think you still have to have a review, but it only has to be a couple of words long.

I'm with Parson on this one. My Kindle asks me to rate a book when I finish it. I sometimes have, but if it's a book I want to leave a review for, I log in and do that on their website.

ratsy said:

My Kindle asks me to rate a book when I finish it.

Click to expand...

What model?
I've bought books on Amazon and had them on PaperWhite Mk1 and now DXG. Amazon nor Kindle has never asked me to rate a book.

I do review stuff on Amazon via website when I feel like it. Sometimes stuff bought elsewhere! I use this name.

I have a Paperwhite, not sure which model it is, but I could check.

There are now three versions of PaperWhite. the 1 & 2 are similar. The current 3rd one is much higher resolution as is current Touch.