Positive reviews certainly help your book, but negative reviews on Amazon can have a bigger impact, according to a 2003 study published by the Yale School of Management. Multiple glowing reviews for a book tend to be dismissed by shoppers as "hype" generated by the author or publisher, the study found. Negative reviews, however, are taken more seriously because buyers usually believe they represent honest criticism from disappointed readers.
Buyers understand that no book pleases everyone, and that any book reviewed often enough will get an occasional thumbs-down. But in some cases, a single detailed, critical review can devastate sales on Amazon, particularly with nonfiction how-to books.
The study, The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews examined random titles from Global Books in Print and bestsellers from Publishers Weekly. You can read the entire study here:
#www.WeberBooks.com/reviews. pdf#
Early on, Amazon's decision to allow readers to post negative book reviews infuriated publishers, chief executive Jeff Bezos recalls:
We had publishers writing to us, saying, "Why in the world would you allow negative reviews? Maybe you don't understand your business--you make money when you sell things. Get rid of the negative reviews, and leave the positive ones."
Yes, negative reviews can hurt sales in the short term, but over the long term, allowing criticism builds credibility and helps shoppers decide what to buy, Bezos says: "We don't make money when we sell things, we make money when we help people make purchase decisions."
This how-to book, published in January 2006, had very strong sales and overwhelmingly positive customer reviews on Amazon for its first six months. Then, a harshly negative review appeared in June 2006 that seemed to effectively question the book's value. Immediately, sales slumped, shown here by the rising line indicating a worsening Amazon Sales Rank.
Over the next several weeks, Amazon users who read the negative review consistently voted it "helpful," causing it to rise to the top Spotlight Review position. This made the negative review much more visible to casual shoppers and bolstered its credibility. Sales weakened further.
Certainly, it's not unusual for sales to taper off three to six months after a book's publication. In this case, however, sales began deteriorating immediately after the negative review and worsened as the review gained visibility.
What's the lesson for authors and publishers? Ask for reviews. The more often your book is reviewed, the less likely that a minority opinion can dominate. Numerous authentic reviews lessen the chance that a single review can overtake and monopolize the Spotlight position.
Niche nonfiction and instructional books seem particularly vulnerable to a single, devastating review. Other books are less review-driven, especially political and religious tomes. Conservative pundit Ann Coulter's books are clobbered daily with nasty reviews but sell like hotcakes. Kevin Trudeau's book Natural Cures has had monster sales on Amazon for nearly three years, even though many reviewers attack the author and argue that his book is merely an advertisement for his subscription Web site.