what’s up with our ratings?
Recently, we came together as a group and discussed our rating system that has been in place for over two years. Our system was simple: read a book and rate it on a scale from one to five STACKS, with five STACKS being the highest. When we came up with the scale we thought we were smart, the term STACKS fit nicely into our whole “book stack” theme.
However, as time progressed and we delved deeper into the book reviewing world we realized a critical flaw in our ratings. They were subjective.* Guidelines were never established, parameters not given. We didn’t have controlled values set for each rating. Questions like: do we judge books on entertainment value or writing alone? What’s more important, characters or setting? Or is it a big fat combination of it all? We never really discussed these things.
As you can imagine, throwing five girls into the wilds of book reviewing has turned out to be an eye-opening experience. Each of us have our own political and religious beliefs, a favorite genre, have elements that annoy us in books, have things that make us happy in books, etc… Without standardized ratings, you can see how we could each rate a book differently based on our own preferences and life experiences. We always thought that was a good thing! But we realize that when one of us rates a book 2, and another of us rates it a 5, that means that you, the reader, won’t have a clue as to whether or not the book is actually worth reading.
So for now, we will forego ratings and just fill up our reviews with honest thoughts and feelings. Yes, the reviews themselves are subjective; but since our opinion is based on how we feel we will tell you the whys and the how comes, and let you judge for yourself without the influence of a rating.
We would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this! What works for you, what doesn’t? Are you part of a collaboration blog? Speak up and tell us what you think, we’re listening!!!
*we’re all still rating books individually on goodreads
STACK Girls – Stacy, Shannan, Nancy, Sarah and Amanda
I do a scale of 1-10 — which my mother’s had me doing for movies since I was about three — and it’s just how much I liked it and how good I thought it was. It might be THE PERFECT BOOK but if I didn’t like it it’ll get a nine or something. It’s highly subjective, but aren’t all ratings?
Personally, I always think that each blogger has to do what’s best for him or her, and since there are so many of you working collaboratively, this sounds like the best decision to me! Honestly, though I like seeing ratings as well, the words in the review are what matter most to me!
I’m not part of a collab blog, but I helped judge writing contests for several years. My fellow judges and I were required to rate all entries, and at least three judges rated each piece. However, even using the same scale and extensive parameters, we frequently disagreed. Usually this was by no more than a point or two, but the implications could still be significant.
For you, I think it might be easier to break your rating system down into components like readability, characterization, plot, and overall enjoyment. If nothing else, these may help you come up with a “Stsck” number later. Also, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with not having a rating system until you all figure out how you want to proceed and get used to your new system.
As a regular reader of your blog, I deeply appreciate how conscientiously you are addressing this issue.
Good luck! Thank you for all your incredible work!
I think you either need to scrap the concept of star ratings entirely since there are multiple people on this blog and to encourage some kind of continuity or just consign to the fact that you’re going to have different feelings about a book. This may be one blog but you are three individual people. I think scaling down ratings to something mechanical in order to streamline would absolutely kill the love for the rating itself, be it good or bad. This isn’t a scientific process. Reading in and of itself is personal and subjective. I don’t believe a rating can be anything but.
You could make a game of it if you already know all three of you are reading the same book and have a book battle review or something. Or if there’s a time gap between reviews link to each others. Personally if I see a blog with multiple people behind the wheel I’d rather see three individuals than three clones.
I understand why you made this decision. When I first started my blog I didn’t have ratings. Now that I rate my reviews on goodreads, amazon, b&n, and tbd I decided to go ahead and rate on my blog too. I love how 1 girl can rate a book 2 and another 5! I normally only put stock on ratings from people who have similar book preferences. If you decide to rate again maybe you can put the reviewer’s name big at the end or something. I agree that ratings are very subjective.
You all are leaving really awesome comments! Thank you so much for the feedback! Maybe one of these days we’ll get clever and come up with something cool, but it IS a lot of fun to just give our honest opinions about what we read
Ya’ll are awesome!
brava! I stopped rating books about a year ago and took down all my star ratings on goodreads for *exactly* these reasons. (It was after an on-line firestorm where an author had responded nastily to a critical review, and the thing went viral, and a lot of random people went and gave the book one-star ratings on Amazon – a crowd response to one individual’s online gaffe which I found vitriolic and frightening. There but for fortune!) Who am I to call a book good, bad or indifferent? All I can do is tell people what I liked about it or didn’t like.
I also have a huge amount of respect for reviewers who don’t like my writing, or who don’t finish it, and who refrain from rating it.
It’s so hard to be honest sometimes without being critical; I don’t need to be judgmental as well.
Right with you sisters! I have always loved reading your reviews. Your opinion of a novel means a lot more to me than a rating. You’re thorough, direct, respectful, kind, gracious, and often funny!
I stopped rating books several years ago, except when I carefully choose to put a review on Amazon and am required to do so. Then I give five stars because nothing less will do.
Okay, so confession – I did give Susane Colasanti’s KEEP HOLDING ON five stars on Goodreads recently. It’s such a critical novel for kids who have experienced bullying that I had to give my extra stamp of approval.
Keep up the OUTSTANDING WORK!