Amazon for the most part likes to work independently when it comes to the book industry. They can do it all but they know that sometimes you have to bend and work with others to make a better experience for the customers.
Amazon Displays GoodReads Ratings Also On Website
That is why Amazon is now showing Goodreads reviews on their website. You might be wondering why Amazon is doing that when they have their own review system? While no reason has been given, it is easy to guess why this change is so. Reviews can be manipulated and sabotaged, making it harder for customers to know if the reviews or legit or just trolls.
So. Amazon is starting to add Goodreads ratings to their book pages.
— Diana Urban (IN WRITING CAVE) (@DianaUrban) November 4, 2022
Goodreads notoriously doesn't do enough to moderate bot/spam/sock puppet accounts. They don't even require email address verification before rating. And now this will impact sales in a bigger way than ever. pic.twitter.com/kUB62fZc5c
With more than one review for books, customers can get a much broader idea of how readers of the book felt. Goodreads has been around for a while and has more reviews than Amazon. There are millions of books and not all of them get reviews on Amazon. Now, customers can see a Goodreads rating and Amazon can use that to move books that don’t have any reviews on their website.
Review Bombs
The downside of this is that Goodreads has seen its share of “review bombs” and authors that wanted to escape the Goodreads rating will realize they made a full circle. A “review bomb” is when a bunch of customers give a book a one-star rating because of something that the author did. This is an issue that Goodreads needs to address but they have a lax policy that lets this happen too often.
As of right now, not all books on Amazon display a Goodreads rating as this is still in the beta mode. You will only be able to see this if you visit on the desktop site. The Amazon rating is shown in stars while the Goodreads rating is shown using numbers.
Conclusion
What do you make of this sudden change by Amazon? I think it is great to see more than one rating system. I usually choose books based on reader reviews anyway but for many people, the average rating of the book plays a big part of whether they will read it or not.
I’ve long had mixed feelings about Goodreads and Amazon’s review policy in general. To me, it should be a simple matter of only allowing purchasers of the book to post a user review. Of course, this isn’t good for authors who rally reviews prior to launch, but it’s the most honest way to moderate user reviews. If you put your money down, you get a vote.
Yea, there’s always going to be a pay to win scheme but overall, good books tend to stand out even then.
Only being able to review books you purchased wouldn’t work for most readers. How about books you were given. I have hundreds of unread books in my home- some I have bought from charity shops, some from my late parents. Remember that Goodreads started as a site for readers to share their love of books.