Amazon Reviews

[AmyBean2]

Does anybody write reviews for Amazon? What's it like for you?

I've written 8. I don't put much effort into them, since I am giving them away to Amazon. I usually write a little blurb about the book and then a paragraph or two about my opinion. 500 words, tops.

I am getting a lot of "1 out of 3 find this review helpful" and I can only think of 2 reasons.

1. I suck at this.

2. People are voting this way to help their friends, move other reviews up, or something along this nature.

I don't care either way. I am quite content to be in the 30,000 range (hey, I was 54,000). I'm just trying to understand the politics behind Amazon reviews and reviewers so I know what to expect.

[Grouch]

Amazon reviews are the reason I ever started with Epinions and, consequently, are the only reason I'm here with y'all today (for better or worse...).

Other than two reviews I wrote for my former professor's short story collections, I only wrote one Amazon review in my entire life--it was for Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. It just so happened that Andy Diamondstein saw it (or was cruising through Amazon rounding up potential reviewers), sent me an e-mail inviting me to join Epinions as it was launching, and the rest is history (for better or worse....). I have no idea why I wrote that little mini-review of "Geisha." The spirit moved me, I guess.

I've read some incredibly good reviews at the bookstore sites--ones that would rival the best at Eps; but I've also read some incredibly fluffy-dull ones, too--again, rivaling the competition at Eps.