WilliamDArand
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Amazon Review System
🕑 Added 2022-11-11 23:33:37 +0000 UTCJust as a reminder.
5 star is "passing".
4 star is "it's meh"
3 star and below is "please set this author on fire".
This isn't a good system, it isn't fair, but it's how Amazon does it. You can't fight against it, all you can do is review/not review based on that information.
I only mention this because its about time I remind people about the absurdity of the review system. I tend to do it at least once a year.
It's like those customer service reviews where they say, "Anything less than a 8 is a failing grade, out of 10." And your first thought is "then why do they have 1-7".
Comments
Alex Lindsay
It’s good that I think your stories are worth a five star rating even when not inflated
William D. Arand
Yep yep... Amazon does it just like customer service reviews... where they skew the whole scale so it means nothing...
dakota downey
I didn't know that I think I'm one of those people that did something like the pancake one since I assumed 3 was a decent story 4 was good and 5 was a masterpiece several of my ratings were 4s.
Michael Jackson
Given it a 5 star review and hopefully book 2 does not take tooooo long in coming as i think this an awesome start.
Drew Risch
Yeah, ask ally every book you write has at least one character I really feel attached to, it's definitely not just SSoSH
Drew Risch
They pull the same shit for personal reviews at the bank I work at. Anything other than a 10 out of 10 is a failing score, and there's like a dozen categories. If you don’t get 10s in all of them, you fail. It's absolutely absurd.
William D. Arand
Brian. My man. Dude. ... Thank you. Release days are always anxiety ridden, nail biting, horror days for me. Where I quite literally can't get anything done, I hide in my office, and play video games or read manga until the day is over. Pretending that I didn't release a book and I'm not freaking out about every little possible thing. Thank you for what you put down here. It helps a great deal. :)
Brian
Part of this is oversupply (crappy pulp writers, you know who I mean) along with a group of readers who seem happy as long as alpha-chad gets every woman within reach. I'm glad you've struck a better level of output quality and hope you can get a healthy living competing against the writer farms and the barely literate spew that seems to be the bulk of KU output. I mean, this isn't the genre of Tolstoy, Salinger, Victor Hugo, Bertrand Russel or Thucydides. However, I can relax and enjoy *every single book* from Mr. Arand without exception. Thank you for using grammar, for having an MC that is (mostly*) likeable, having love-interests that are more than vacuous wish-fulfillment, and (most important!) having some interesting stories that have variety! Yeah, yeah, Steve is kind of a monster, and Runner is a bona fide ass, as is Ryker. However, they have their lovable moments, and I can see some redemption, or some earned and satisfying conclusion coming to their individual arcs. All this to say, I wish Amazon had a six-star option to show you are different from the average "OK" author out there.
kir44n
No doubt. Ending to 5 was rough, but I didn't know people actually left negative reviews due to that. It's a bit silly. Will's stories and characters are all solid
David Morrissey
Funny part is a scale of 1 to 7 if considered one of the most effective, but least used
Matthew Shealy
Andy is great. But so are so many other characters you write Will. Don’t let the idiots bring you down about ssosh.
Dennis Erwin
Yep - any review I write is 5 star. If I really don't like a book I just don't review it. I've reviewed books I wasn't that fond of as 5 star - even if they weren't for me, I wouldn't bother with a review if they weren't well written.
William D. Arand
You'll be happy with Save State Hero then, Kir44n.
kir44n
D: that's unfortunate. SSOSH was my introduction to the Sovereign-verse, so it occupies a special place to me. While I was sad in how 3 and 5 ended (poor Felix! Man can't catch a break), it's still my favorite of the series.
Gadfium
I'm aware of this absurdity. I get annoyed, though probably not as much as you, when I see strongly positive reviews that then give the book three stars because theoretically (according to Amazon, but only in how they describe the stars publicly, not how they apply them behind the scenes) it is a "good" rating. I guess some reviewers think that only Steinbeck and Hemmingway get 5 stars. Only Tolkien gets 4 stars. And then all the other great contemporary authors who write the books we read every day get up to 3 stars. These folks don't understand that their 3-star ratings are in fact little nails in the book's coffin.
William D. Arand
There are legit people who review like that. I know you're kidding but it's real. It only ever makes me feel more conflicted about ssosh.
Kenneth Darlin
Always a 5 star
kir44n
System Overclocked is good. But no Andy and pancakes, so I'm afraid it gets a 4 out of 5. =P
