The blog has had a quiet few days as I tooled around in NYC at BOOKEXPO. Sadly, this is not a recap post…but it is coming! I am waiting for my books to come in the mail first. In the mean time…I have this to entertain you. 😉
It has been ages since I’ve written a true discussion post for Books In Her Head. But I’m back with some fresh ideas as I transition into summer and am hoping to make this a more regular feature. That being said, my title for these discussion posts is subject to change (although I am rather fond of “food for thought”).
The subject that I want to discuss today is rating books, and by rating books I mean star ratings. When I originally started blogging I was a huge fan of star ratings and incorporated them into every review that I published on this site. However, in June of 2014 I rid my blog of my rating system. You can read my explanation here but it basically boils down to that I felt that the star ratings were far too limiting and didn’t fully convey my thoughts. Flash forward to 2017. Now I am a lot more cognizant of the way that my reviews, my recommendations, and the books I give as gifts affect the authors and publishing houses I love. I’ve begun more consistently cross posting my reviews on Goodreads and Barnes and Noble, and will likely start cross posting on Amazon in the near future. But, I have run into something that I haven’t considered in a long time now that I am more regularly cross posting…should I be star rating in addition to my reviews? The short answer is–well yes. Whether I like it or not many people consider star ratings almost exclusively when considering a book to read, and one of the simplest ways that I can garner support for a book/author I love is to assure future readers of its goodness. Because many potential book buyers don’t necessarily read reviews…star ratings are the way to go.
So why am I so hesitant to just start adding star ratings? Well first of all I have grown rather accustomed to their absence. I adore writing critical reviews and even summarizing my thoughts in a final short paragraph, but boiling everything down to five stars? I think that I’m going to have to re-teach myself. There also is the whole 1/2 star debate that I’ve been observing from the sidelines for years…but where do I personally stand? Also now I need to create star graphics…
As you can see from the size of these paragraphs, the pros of using star ratings clearly outweigh the cons. It will be a small adjustment for me that could have a large impact on the industry that I care about. At the end of the day, that’s good enough for me.
What are your thoughts? Do you use star ratings when you review?
xoxo
