One Star Ratings
As a reader, have you ever given a book a one star rating? As an author, have you ever received a one star rating?
This blog is not a vent. Feel free to place a comment, but please don’t vent. I will delete it. I’m simply curious to share opinions about how we rate books, which is subjective.
I’m a writer and I like to read. It’s a most enjoyable occupational predisposition. I rate books with this philosophy in mind: If I get through a book, enjoy it, and don’t think it had any major problems, it gets five stars. No book is perfect.
For me to give a book a one star rating, it would have to meet this criteria: Fundamentally flawed plot and characters, not written in a language the author is fluent speaking, translated into three other languages at random using Google translate, and then translated again into the language of publication without any editorial work.
I’ve given one book a one star rating once. Let’s call the recipient of this rating Author X. Let’s call his book Book X. I’m confident Author X wouldn’t care two hoots that I rated his book one star.
You see, what really got me peeved about The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown was basically that the book was over-hyped and consequently underwhelming. I rated it one star out of protest more than anything else. I should probably amend my rating to be fair.
In this democratized publishing world, it’s really useful when readers offer, at the least, a brief reason for a low rating. Authors need this feedback, but more importantly, other readers can consider the justification for the rating for themselves.
This blog is not a vent. Feel free to place a comment, but please don’t vent. I will delete it. I’m simply curious to share opinions about how we rate books, which is subjective.
I’m a writer and I like to read. It’s a most enjoyable occupational predisposition. I rate books with this philosophy in mind: If I get through a book, enjoy it, and don’t think it had any major problems, it gets five stars. No book is perfect.
For me to give a book a one star rating, it would have to meet this criteria: Fundamentally flawed plot and characters, not written in a language the author is fluent speaking, translated into three other languages at random using Google translate, and then translated again into the language of publication without any editorial work.
I’ve given one book a one star rating once. Let’s call the recipient of this rating Author X. Let’s call his book Book X. I’m confident Author X wouldn’t care two hoots that I rated his book one star.
You see, what really got me peeved about The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown was basically that the book was over-hyped and consequently underwhelming. I rated it one star out of protest more than anything else. I should probably amend my rating to be fair.
In this democratized publishing world, it’s really useful when readers offer, at the least, a brief reason for a low rating. Authors need this feedback, but more importantly, other readers can consider the justification for the rating for themselves.
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Eric
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Sep 23, 2016 06:41AM
I gave a one star rating once...it was for a 'continuation' of a series that I loved, written by another author after the original author's death, so there was an emotional component to it. I felt that the characters and setting just got trashed. The writing wasn't very good, either, but not bad enough to have rated one star without the disappointment.
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I would never give a book a one star rating. A one star rating feels like overkill to me and an indicator of an emotional "hot spot" from the reader. If I felt that angry or disgusted with a book I'd read, I'd probably just move on and try to put it out of my mind or write a private letter to the author.
I like Ginger's comment. I just finished a novel and closed the book pissed off--Would I give it a one star rating because it triggered something in me emotionally? Isn't that the job of good fiction writing? I have been trying to figure out why it pissed me off and though it has something to do with a few inadequacies in the plot, no mention of California native plants though the plot revolves around flowers, it triggered memories long ago suppressed--and now I am thinking about these things...It won't hurt me to do so. Maybe it's time. In this sense, the book is an effective one...I don't have to love it and if it reveals me to me, then I owe it a few stars.But Michael brings up another huge topic, and this hype. Indie's don't have access to hype. Trad pub authors, Tina Fey, Oprah Winfrey, etc do. This also brings up what I have been told and learned over the years--whether or not a book is successful is almost completely based on who you know, whose earlobe you tug at for a review, what talk shows you can get on--it has something to do with talent, yes, but more to do with. here it comes-- WHO YOU KNOW. Case in point, a woman in my writer's group who wrote what I feel was a boring series about her family history, just got a book deal. Her husband has-- connections.
So, no, I have not given a one star rating...If it's really bad, I don't do anything really but move on, unless it is so egregious, it has the potential to hurt people but I wouldn't be reading a book like this anyway.
