Rating System

[Shana @ Literarily]

I loved the discussion that occured in the comments of S. Krishna's post about rating the books she reads.

I'd love to continue the dialogue here.

A few questions:
Do you rate books on your blog?
If so, tell us about your system.
If not, do you rate books on Amazon, Library Thing, Goodreads, Shelfari?
If so, what system do you use there?

Should ratings be based upon a set of criteria or how you 'feel' about a book?

I really like J. Kaye's sytem of rating books. It would come in so handy with a book I just finished. I'm really struggling with rating it for Amazon. It was erotica, and overall, I didn't care for the book because of the explicit sexual references. BUT it was very well-written and I would feel badly giving it a certain less than stellar rating just because of the content, which I didn't *personally* care for.

My three main criteria for juding a book are:
Character development
Prose
Plot

But since everything is based upon a five star system, I need two more criteria. I was thinking:
Organization - doesn't jump around, isn't confusing, past and present clearly dilineated
Diaglogue - natural and realistic

What do you think about those five criteria?

Final question: would anyone be supportive of a univeral rating system for book bloggers? If you're one who prefers a subjective, loved it, liked it, didn't like it approach that probably wouldn't work for you. And that's fine! :)

[Tracee]

I review for a magazine, and the criteria they use are as follows:

Characterization
Plot which includes originality
Writing style and presentation
Credibility-which includes research
Pacing
Other qualities

These seem to help me when writing a review. I find it really difficult to assign stars to book reviews, but I guess it's only fair to other readers.

[Cheryl]

I don't review professionally, but this is what I do.

I use stars and it pretty much boils down to how much I liked a book. A rating of 5 stars is strictly reserved for books I would read again and again. So three or better is really good. I break it down on the sidebar of my blog if you want to check it out. My blog is called "Unadorned Book Review" because I like to keep it simple and therefore don't do half stars. I give a quick synopsis (with no spoilers-because that drives me crazy with movie reviews), my take on the book and a star rating. I don't rate/review books anywhere else, but I've only just begun and I've thought about it.

I like your 5 criteria and I would like a rating system for book bloggers, but I would only use it here.

http://unadorned-book.blogspot.com

[Bobbie Crawford-McCoy]

I review books on my blog Book Reviews By Bobbie.

I found that a 1-5 rating scale wouldn't allow for many variables.
I write my reviews about the books and I believe that my reviews are somewhat the "feeling" kind.
If people don't like how I write my reviews, I certainly haven't heard anything about it ;-)

This is The System for My Book Reviews:

I have created a 1-10 diamond rating system for my reviews to explain what I thought about a particular book and how much I personally enjoyed it.


♦ (1 out of 10 Diamonds) - Mind-numbingly awful

♦♦ (2 out of 10 Diamonds) - I did not like it

♦♦♦ (3 out of 10 Diamonds) - It was ok

♦♦♦♦ (4 out of 10 Diamonds) - I sort-of liked it

♦♦♦♦♦ (5 out of 10 Diamonds) - I really liked most of the book

♦♦♦♦♦♦ (6 out of 10 Diamonds) - I enjoyed it

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ (7 out of 10 Diamonds) - I really enjoyed it

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ (8 out of 10 Diamonds) - Thoroughly enjoyed it

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ (9 out of 10 Diamonds) - Loved it!

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ (10 out of 10 Diamonds) - Absolutely LOVED it!!

So far I've only received compliments and several people want to read the books and have added them to their TBR pile because of my reviews.

[Shana @ Literarily]

Tracee - I like that list. In my mind I think your magazine's #2 and #5 both fall under Plot. As far as credibility, do you find it inapplicable in some instances (I guess I'm thinking fantasy, which I don't read much of and maybe you don't, either.)

What magazine? :)

Cheryl - I'm sure you'll be asked to post reviews on Amazon soon if you're getting review copies from authors & publishers.

Bobbie - Do you review on Amazon? If so, how do you translate your 10 stars to 5?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts everyone!

[Bobbie Crawford-McCoy]

Hi Shana,

I do post some of my reviews on Amazon when the author requests it. I add the first part of the review and direct them to my blog Book Reviews By Bobbie (leaving a link) to read the rest of the review.

Did you know that once you've posted your review on Amazon.com, they own your review? When you post anything on their site it belongs to Amazon.com.

I have an equivalency scale:

1-2 diamonds = 1 star
3-4 diamonds = 2 stars
5-6 diamonds = 3 stars
7-8 diamonds = 4 stars
9-10 diamonds = 5 stars

I added my diamond rating scale to my blog not too long ago, so some of my reviews on Amazon might not be exactly as stated above :- )

[Shana @ Literarily]

Bobbie, so what exactly does it mean that Amazon owns the review? I'm assuming there is a reason you're not comfortable with that. Just curious.

Do you find that people click through to read the rest of the review on your blog?

Thanks for explaining your rating system. It makes sense!

[Bobbie Crawford-McCoy]

Hi Shana, this is direct from Amazon.com:

"you grant Amazon a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. You grant Amazon and sublicensees the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content, if they choose."

When I write a review, I've put personal time and effort into writing it.
I write the reviews for the Author and their publishing house, because I've been sent their book for free.
I don’t have a problem with the Author and their publishing house reproducing my reviews.

It's my personal opinion that if I post the whole review on Amazon.com, people are not encouraged to go to individual blogger sites as often, which isn't good for the bloggers.

I prefer to post partial reviews on Goodreads and LT, while I post the full reviews on Book Reviews By Bobbie. Goodreads and LT allow hyper links thankfully.

I understand that the reviews wouldn't exist with out the book and Author.
This is why I only post part of the review on Amazon.com, while directing them back to my blog to read the full review. That way I still retain ownership over the bulk of my review.

No, I don't think so. Amazon.com is smart...they don't allow hyperlinks to anything other then Amazon.com; I haven't been able to create any live links back to my blog.

Though my blog is pretty new on wordpress, I've been getting an average of about 40+ hits daily from many different places. Some days are 60 to 70+ hits.

Amazon.com has not been a referrer as far as I know.

You're welcome! :-)

[Tracee]

I review for Affaire de Coeur. Just started - it's just so hard to come up with a rating system, don't you think?

[Amy]

I don't have a rating system because I have a had time assigning books to a certain rating, but also b/c I have a hard time feeling excited about any book not rated the top. As a reader, I don't necessarily like seeing someone else's rating b/c it puts preconceived ideas in my head.

I do rate them on amazon or LT when I review there, but still find it hard. ;)

[Ruthie @ Ruthie's Book Reviews]

I use a scale of 5 skulls - and it's rated on how much I liked the book. When I do the review I will talk about plot, charaacterization and such, but otherwise it just comes right down to whether I loved the book, the inbetween, and whether I just couldn't finish reading it!

[cessie]

I can imagine your feelings about rating a book you don't *personally* care for.
I don't do ratings on my blog. I just give my opinion and feelings and thoughts. I don't review professionally but just because I like blogging about the books I read.
A lot of authors and books are not following any 'rules' at all and therefore it's not easy to set criteria for judging a book. It all depends on the tastes of the readers of course...so in one way or the other...I don't think it's up to me to rate a book that way. So that's why I just write about what a book did to me.
I do rate on Goodreads...and I often find myself doubting which rate to give ;-).
It depends on so many things....

[chrisbookarama]

I used to rate books by stars but found I nearly always rated books 4 or 5 out of five! I started feeling like it was pointless for me to do it. I now will say Recommended, Highly Recommended or Recommended for a certain group. It's probably not much better.

Your system sounds pretty good to me.