Do You Trust Amazon Reviews?

[Mark Johnson]

Mostly, depends on the quality of the review. I look for people who care about doing reviews and take them seriously. You can tell a quality review when you see one; you know what i mean. I hate the reviews like, "My husband loves it." Or, "It's great!"

There are people who do care about giving reviews. We used to be able to test a lot of fun products until they recently changed the policy. The products were mostly from small Mom-and-Pop type of companies. Those reviews can make or break a company like that; it's the same thing with books.

You can usually tell a person cares about the review they are doing if they take time to add a video or pictures. I look for those before I look at ratings. Then I look for percentage of one star reviews on the product. If there are more than 10% one stare reviews no matter how good the product is I'm moving on. You can also go to the top reviewers list and go from there so you know you are getting quality reviews.

I'm an Amazon junkie, and love researching reviews when buying products. Hopefully this new policy change will help weed out the fake reviewers and the sellouts who really damaged the credibility of the reviews on Amazon.

[Reigning]

Okay. I'm going to say yes and no on this one. Why? Because yes there are true honest reviews out there from readers. I don't always read the 5 star reviews but at times I do. Now, I've heard from a few people about how authors etc will get people to leave good reviews and pay them for it especially with multiple accounts. A friend of mine has a friend who's an author and she ran into another author who was paying people to leave 5 star reviews even if they never read the book. But sadly this goes beyond just books as well. You just have to make your own honest opinion of said book. Now I did run into issues where the book was absolutely horrible but had amazing reviews.

[mrsdeg1983]

Yes, I trust them for the most part. You also have to take in their age and what not. What is awesome for my teen cousin isn't going to be awesome for me. I have no issue reading and reviewing Indie books. These people just want to get their book out there.

[dana012]

I do. But I still think it depends on the quality of the review and whether they make good points.

[kandscreeley]

I do not trust Amazon reviews or many reviews at all for that matter. I know everyone is different so I take everything with a grain of salt. What I do enjoy is getting a free first book of a series. Then if it really captures my attention, then I'm willing to buy the next few in the series. It doesn't matter if it's indie or not. To me that's one of the best ways to promote a new book.

[Sparkletime]

I like to read a couple reviews from each star rating that has one. I don't trust every review but sometimes a one star review is extremely helpful and sometimes a three star one it. I think it's good to look at several opinions present and consider them and then make a decision on if any are to be trusted.

[Bunny_Redd]

I find that if you look carefully you can sort the paid from the unpaid reviews, but often I can't trust most of the reviews.

[Osuma]

I Don't Really Have A Good Answer For This Question 'but I Think My Answer Is Going To be Yes An No ; I Will Say 'yes' 'because I Have Withness A Lot Of Good Testimony From People About Amazon' An 'No' Because I Have Not Really Gone Deep With Amazon' Like I Don't Really Know How It Dere Network Works!

[kjs237]

I usually do read the reviews on Amazon before I decide to buy a book. Reading them is one thing but trusting them is another. I always search for the 1 or 2 star reviews first to see why people didn't like the book. If several people mention the same issue, and it's something I would also have a problem with, I will probably pass on reading it. But if most of the negative reviews are from people who for no specific reason have given it a low rating or have rated it low for something that wouldn't be an issue for me, I move on to the higher rated reviews. I'm always suspicious of too many 5 star ratings as well.

[strawberrysab]

Most of the times a bad review is not about a bad book but about a reader expecting something entirely different from what he read. There are books who get reviews so conflictual. I prefer to read the sample and decide on my own.

[_Delly_01]

I clicked 'Yes', but now I'm starting to regret it. There have been a couple of times I've been duped by reviews just because of the hype surrounding the book. Especially books that are self-published by authors who have a strong social media presence. The followers are loyal to the author, not the quality of the book.

It's pathetic for someone to call themselves a writer and pay for glowing, anonymous reviews when all they're thinking about is money and fame; it's offensive to those who truly put themselves on the line, those that expose themselves to honest and potentially heart-crushing reviews, because writing is their ultimate dream.

[Kristin Ransome]

I tend to trust the reviews if there are many of them, but still don't base my choice to buy a book solely on those!

[dianaterrado]

I do trust Amazon reviews. But it's not my main basis on what books to read so it doesn't really influence me that much.

[lisalynn]

The bottom line is—no one can determine if any product is right for you or not. Only you know that after using (reading) it. That's why some people love a book and some people hate a book. It's the same book, but it lands differently for different people. Some basic information will help you decide if a particular work may be in your wheelhouse, but you can also get surprised by a book that's out of your regular comfort zone. Don't let other people tell you what to do.

[Florence Nalianya]

Provided there's a spectrum of reviews yes I do. It's fairly easy to spot those posted by a PR company or the author's mother!

Hahahha, my ribs, really??