TechFlash talks about angry Kindle owners giving 1 star reviews to Game Change, one of the eBooks that has been delayed by Publishers.
- Just yesterday we found out that if Amazon’s supposed dominance of eBooks continues publishers would probably cave in and go with $9.99 prices.
- Measures like adding 1 star reviews seem great – You put more pressure on Publishers.
However, you have to wonder if it’s taking things too far.
Publishers are already getting punished via lack of eBook Sales
If a Publisher takes the ‘delay the ebook for months’ route they already take a hit.
Here are the various negative consequences for Publishers -
- The book is not going to have the same buzz when the eBook finally releases. eBook sales are lost.
- Some users boycott the book entirely.
- Publisher gets a negative reputation and their other books might suffer.
Publishers are willing to take this hit because they think the advantage in hardcover books sold compensates for the loss in eBook sales.
Also, they don’t want to lose control of Publishing.
1 star reviews for the hardcover are like 1 star reviews the Kindle was getting
They’re not really reviews and they have an agenda.
- Users are entitled to write about how the Publisher’s decision is terrible.
- They’re entitled to boycott that eBook down the line or even other eBooks from Publishers.
However, why are Kindle owners reviewing the hardcover and creating the illusion that it’s a bad book.
The Book and the Author are adversely affected when they don’t deserve it
The Publisher’s decision is a strategic decision.
- It doesn’t mean the book is suddenly a bad book.
- It doesn’t mean the Author and the Publisher deserve to suffer on hardcover sales.
By adding all these 1 star reviews Kindle owners are misleading actual hardcover buying customers.
You can’t review a product you haven’t used. It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are.
It’s wrong when it’s done for the Kindle and it’s wrong when it’s done for a hardcover book.
On the Internet Users have unrestricted power
We’ve talked about this before when talking about piracy i.e.
There are a lot more homeowners than burglars, but there are a lot more consumers of digital content than producers of it.
Users can take an idea, even when it’s not right or fair, and just turn it into reality.
There are no checks on users – even when they are behaving in very unfair ways.
It’s a dark day for content creators - users are beginning to think they’re entitled to do whatever they want – even things that they know aren’t right.
If you think about it –
- Kindle owners boycotting Game Change is fine.
- Kindle owners reviewing Game Change negatively and affecting sales of the Hardcover – how do you justify that?
Just the way anti-DRM people reviewing the Kindle with 1 stars is wrong, people who have no intention of ever buying a hardcover version of Game Change reviewing it is wrong.
What do you think?
Filed under: books Tagged: | lack thereof, user restraint
I’m of two minds on this subject. I agree that reviewing a book you haven’t read read is unfair and wrong, as it effectively destroys the rating system’s usefulness for hardcover readers. At the same time, the rating system is the only feedback mechanism available right now. There has to be some way to tell the publishers WHY we aren’t buying the books, this information NEEDS to reach them in a coordinated way, and the rating system is the only way Amazon lets us do that. Perhaps the system needs to evolve into several different ratings for different purposes.
It’s quite remarkable to see the publishers repeating the same bone-headed mistakes that almost destroyed the recording industry during the last decade. Refusing to sell to consumers in the format that consumers require, will do only one thing, namely making piracy the default way to obtain content… People will not stop using ebooks just because the publishers don’t like them.
This has happened before with the PC game Spore. Users upset over the draconian DRM on that game bombarded it with one star reviews. The result? The company changed their policy on DRM. I don’t think any other method would have gotten that result. Sales boycotts can be explained away many different ways. Letter writing campaigns can be ignored. But something like this is public and has the potential to hit these publishers in their pocketbooks.
As someone who has used Amazon for a long time, I’ve noticed the reviews on a high profile, politically charged book like this are always next to worthless anyway. You just end up with people at each end of a polarized issue hashing it out for the vast majority of them. (Look at the comments from some on Amazon accusing the Kindle protest votes of being placed by “Palinbots,” for instance.) You don’t really end up with reviews so much as a battle of who can yell loudest.
Aside from that, Amazon users who seem obsessed with policing the reviews are doing a good job voting the “real” reviews up and the Kindle protest views down. Furthermore, someone on Amazon’s boards noted that these reviews don’t run contrary to Amazon’s review policy. (I haven’t looked into this myself.)
Especially after reading the curt response someone claims to have gotten from Harper posted on Amazon’s board for this book (short version: we don’t care about the Kindle, get bent,) I really feel no sympathy for what’s going on. Apparently Amazon feels the same, as they continue to allow these type of reviews. And it’s not as if Amazon’s reviews are the only ones out there anyway. Not to mention the only people who seem really upset are either political partisans who see these reviews as a battleground or self-important Amazon reviewers who see these protests drowning out their own precious opinions.