Friday, February 19, 2010

Some thoughts about reviews

I'm guessing it's in poor taste for authors to write about reviews and reviewers, so I'll preface this by saying I'm not talking about anyone or anything in particular, just a random thought I had this morning.

First of all, I'm a pro-wrestling fan, and have been for about ten years. If you read my short story "Silent Night" I guess that would be clear, since I based it in that world.

Ok, so that's the back story, here's the real story. My favorite pro wrestler is Chris Jericho. He is also a musician, and his band Fozzy released their fourth CD at the end of January. It had been five years since their previous release, so this one was highly anticipated by people like me who are infatuated with everything he does. The CD did not disappoint. In fact, in my humble opinion it's their best yet. They're no longer a band stumbling through covers and trying to find their voice, they're a straight ahead rock band that finally has a personality, and an identity.

The other night I was looking at the CD at Amazon, and out of curiosity I looked at the reviews. Before I had my own book for sale on Amazon I never looked at the reviews. I'm the kind of person who wants to make my own judgement about things. If I were ever going to actually read a review, I'd tend to trust a well known reviewer, not a random name on Amazon. For example, if I were going to buy a Gay Romance Novel I'd look at Book Wenches, or Literary Nymphs way before I'd read an Amazon review.

One of the reviews attached to this CD was a one-star review. I literally gasped and made the :O face because how could someone give my baby a one star review??? I read the review, and I found so many holes in it. I came up with counter-arguments to everything that was said.

So, that's when it hit me. Those kind of reviews are meant to be taken with a grain of salt. Those and the rash of one star reviews that The King's Tale has been racking up at GoodReads. I'm guessing Chris Jericho will never read the one star reviews at Amazon, and so why should I?