So why don't reviews work? (as a marketing tool)

[Pinotage]

I guess the follow up question to this would be:

How can reviews be made more useful as a marketting tool?

Any opinions? From buyers and publishers alike?

Thanks!

Pinotage

 

[Li Shenron]

I guess the follow up question to this would be:

How can reviews be made more useful as a marketting tool?

Any opinions? From buyers and publishers alike?

Thanks!

Pinotage

Perhaps:

1) publishers should host a review section in their websites; each book published should provide a quick link to a list of reviews, which can be written by anyone visiting the website

2) have a simple system like IMDB that shows how "useful" a review is (anyone can give a vote to a review), and the page automatically sorts reviews in descending order of average vote

So when you want to buy book X, you go to their website, click the link, get a list of 20 reviews each of which has been itself given an evaluation. Fanboys' and bashers' reviews will quickly drop down the list because everyone else will rate them poorly. Solid-good reviews stay on top.

 

[R_kajdi]

Perhaps:

1) publishers should host a review section in their websites; each book published should provide a quick link to a list of reviews, which can be written by anyone visiting the website

I'd figure that would only exacerbate the existing problems. The review process needs to be less connected to the publishers themselves, not more. Think movie reviews, instead of video games. Movies get screened pretty well universally, not to a couple of guys. If you don't screen a movie, it's seen as a tacit sign that it sucks, or at least is just summer movie fodder.

2) have a simple system like IMDB that shows how "useful" a review is (anyone can give a vote to a review), and the page automatically sorts reviews in descending order of average vote

So when you want to buy book X, you go to their website, click the link, get a list of 20 reviews each of which has been itself given an evaluation. Fanboys' and bashers' reviews will quickly drop down the list because everyone else will rate them poorly. Solid-good reviews stay on top.

A Metacritic-like system would work, but you need a couple of decent independent places that have a reputation for decent reviews both good and bad. Real independence of the review process would be awesome, but I'm not sure that it would be exactly appreciated by authors. However, that's the only way for reviews to go beyond being what they are now (essentially jokes-- just like the video game industry)

I'll also add that I think reviewers need to rise above a lot of the genre bias that I've seen, and go more towards a neutral review. There should be no difference in a review score if the book turns out to be a genre you like or hate. Again, think professional movie reviews. Do you honestly think Ebert & Roper actually like most of the Summer Blockbuster shovelware that they review? No, but they still manage to give an honest review on it.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

I'll also add that I think reviewers need to rise above a lot of the genre bias that I've seen, and go more towards a neutral review. There should be no difference in a review score if the book turns out to be a genre you like or hate. Again, think professional movie reviews. Do you honestly think Ebert & Roper actually like most of the Summer Blockbuster shovelware that they review? No, but they still manage to give an honest review on it.

I'm also thinking the Ebert & Roper are making a living doing their job. As a consumer, you can feel free to demand that the reviewers be impartial and unbiased, reviewing anything and everything, but let's face it... the reviewers are just people doing this because they happen to like rpgs. You can't really demand that unprofessional rpg reviewers act just like professional [whatever] reviewers. Or you can, but it's not going to be very helpful.

If the reviewer in question is trying to get a job in the rpg industry, then they're already putting forward effort to be unbiased and so forth. And if they don't care about that and are reviewing things out of a love of rpgs, you're just annoying them since you're demanding they treat it like a job, just to save you money. When the reviewer might very well have bought the product in question, and not gotten as a review copy.

Personally, I kinda like Li Shenron's suggestions.

 

[R_kajdi]

I'm also thinking the Ebert & Roper are making a living doing their job. As a consumer, you can feel free to demand that the reviewers be impartial and unbiased, reviewing anything and everything, but let's face it... the reviewers are just people doing this because they happen to like rpgs. You can't really demand that unprofessional rpg reviewers act just like professional [whatever] reviewers. Or you can, but it's not going to be very helpful.

If the reviewer in question is trying to get a job in the rpg industry, then they're already putting forward effort to be unbiased and so forth. And if they don't care about that and are reviewing things out of a love of rpgs, you're just annoying them since you're demanding they treat it like a job, just to save you money. When the reviewer might very well have bought the product in question, and not gotten as a review copy.

Personally, I kinda like Li Shenron's suggestions.

There is a lot of truth to this. However, if you're not trying fix the actual problems in the system to make the whole thing more useful, there's no point in worrying how to make reviews more relevant and useful. And really the only way to do that is to move towards a more objective review of the material. I will say that the reviewers aren't the bulk of the problem-- I added that comment to try to keep things a bit more balanced and not so anti-developer.

 

[Dan Bell]

I'm looking to pass out free pdfs to any reviewers interested. Email me at danbell1977 {no spam please} @yahoo.com
Thank you.