Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#11

Post by tialys » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 3:46 PM UTC

nickolai wrote: post #5

tialys wrote: post #2

This is why I hate the 'star' review system. It very often leads to users trying to 'punish' the maker of the product, and creates an incorrect perception that the product itself is flawed. This might be a great book, but someone browsing through titles will only see that it has a 1-star rating and assume it sucks. I really think there'd be a lot of potential in some sort of hybrid review system that could weed out t…

Well they review it as 1-star saying in essence that it is poor in terms of value for money, while throwing some flak at the publisher for not selling it cheaper. Im not sure what you could hate there - or why you would want to remove it. If someone found something is poor value for money I'd rather know it before I buy. That kind of reviews saved me from a few bad purchases already. I do agree there must be some par…

What happens when the price changes then? Suppose it's on sale in a month for $1.99 and still is loaded up with 1-star reviews that say "SO OVERPRICED!" -- not very useful then is it? Ideally, I'd love to see a completely independent review source that has common 'tags' that are easily understood. Rather than complain about the price, just check a box that says you don't believe it was a good value at the price, so when someone looks for reviews, they see "Customers don't think this product is a good value at $14.99" (Which is relevant, and useful even if the price changes).

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#12

Post by tialys » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 3:49 PM UTC

alex_c wrote: post #7

tialys wrote: post #2

This is why I hate the 'star' review system. It very often leads to users trying to 'punish' the maker of the product, and creates an incorrect perception that the product itself is flawed. This might be a great book, but someone browsing through titles will only see that it has a 1-star rating and assume it sucks. I really think there'd be a lot of potential in some sort of hybrid review system that could weed out t…

Pricing is an important factor in a purchase decision, so shouldn't it be a valid factor in a review? A 1-star review saying it's completely overpriced, while not perfect, is still better than reviews I see in the app store like "Amazing app, love it! 1/5" or "Pretty cool app, but it crashes on load and I can't use it, 4/5" (and those are the intelligible ones).

I made a comment below about price changes and how it hurts the usefulness of such reviews, but I also wanted to add that what you mentioned is another example of where the system fails. A 1/5 or 4/5 review that contradicts itself with a single sentence 'this rocked/sucked' isn't useful. We should be forcing people to provide a real review, or not allowing them to do so at all.

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#13

Post by ori_b » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 3:50 PM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #10

joshfinnie wrote: post #4

What I find funny is that this would have never happened if they charged the standard $9.99 e-book price (which in itself is absolutely too much for e-books). The $5 difference is causing quite a stir which I am sure is not worth it in the long run.

Why is $10 too much for an ebook ? - surely it depends on the value of the content inside it. Valuing a book by it's physical properties is a practice that's gone on for far too long. Lots of technical books are full of "padding" and duplication because no-one will buy a 50 page book which concisely provides the useful information for $10-$20. It waste a huge amount of time both of the author and the readers.

I would gladly pay more for a thinner, more concise book.

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#14

Post by detst » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 3:54 PM UTC

thalur wrote: post #6

I have no probelem with people leaving 1* reviews without reading the book, just like I have no problem with Amazon removing those reviews (and only those reviews). Yes they are annoying, but they are also one of the few visible ways to protest. While "not buying the book" will probably be effective in the long term, an indivudial non-purchase isn't going to be noticed by anyone. A similar situation to this frequentl…

> I also find the opposite very annoying: when fans rate something as 5* before it's even released.

I've received early copies of books with the hope that I would review it early.

But I don't often look at Amazon reviews so I don't know if this would fully account for what you're talking about.

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#15

Post by ig1 » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 3:58 PM UTC

ori_b wrote: post #13

ig1 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is $10 too much for an ebook ? - surely it depends on the value of the content inside it. Valuing a book by it's physical properties is a practice that's gone on for far too long. Lots of technical books are full of "padding" and duplication because no-one will buy a 50 page book which concisely provides the useful information for $10-$20. It waste a huge amount of time both of the author and the readers.

I would gladly pay more for a thinner, more concise book.

Me too. But sadly the market at the moment doesn't seem to support it.

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#16

Post by Tichy » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 3:58 PM UTC

"And that means more bookstores will be closing."

At the worst case they'll just have to change. Maybe they'll become cafes where you can borrow a kindle at the counter for browsing the selection.

Or they'll become like lists on Facebook.

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#17

Post by Tichy » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 4:00 PM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #10

joshfinnie wrote: post #4

What I find funny is that this would have never happened if they charged the standard $9.99 e-book price (which in itself is absolutely too much for e-books). The $5 difference is causing quite a stir which I am sure is not worth it in the long run.

Why is $10 too much for an ebook ? - surely it depends on the value of the content inside it. Valuing a book by it's physical properties is a practice that's gone on for far too long. Lots of technical books are full of "padding" and duplication because no-one will buy a 50 page book which concisely provides the useful information for $10-$20. It waste a huge amount of time both of the author and the readers.

"Why is $10 too much for an ebook ? - surely it depends on the value of the content inside it."

I think if we are talking about entertainment books (novels and such), there simply is too much competition. At the end of the day, a lot of those entertainment books could be exchanged for another entertainment book. I suppose for similar reasons cinema tickets tend to not vary too much with the content of the movie?

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#18

Post by jonnathanson » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 4:02 PM UTC

tialys wrote: post #2

This is why I hate the 'star' review system. It very often leads to users trying to 'punish' the maker of the product, and creates an incorrect perception that the product itself is flawed. This might be a great book, but someone browsing through titles will only see that it has a 1-star rating and assume it sucks. I really think there'd be a lot of potential in some sort of hybrid review system that could weed out t…

I don't have as deep of a problem with the way reviewers use the star system, but I do take issue with how limited and, consequently, limiting it can be as a review metric.

This is especially apparent in certain categories, like Blu-rays, where people will arbitrarily use the star ratings to review either the content of the movie, the tech specs of the film print, the transfer from original stock to Blu-ray, the number of extras available, and so forth. It's gotten to the point where a star-based review of a movie, at a glance, is essentially meaningless. (Conversely, at least Netflix removes some of this problem due to its contextual purity).

The same thing applies, albeit to a different and lesser degree, with books. People use star ratings as referendums on the publisher, the author, the price, the cover design, the time of day, the weather, how many people showed up to their party last weekend, etc. There is no consistency in measurement. That's the nature of UGC, I suppose, for better or for worse.

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#19

Post by Tichy » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 4:03 PM UTC

larsberg wrote: post #9

tialys wrote: post #2

This is why I hate the 'star' review system. It very often leads to users trying to 'punish' the maker of the product, and creates an incorrect perception that the product itself is flawed. This might be a great book, but someone browsing through titles will only see that it has a 1-star rating and assume it sucks. I really think there'd be a lot of potential in some sort of hybrid review system that could weed out t…

I haven't gotten any direct numbers from them, but the authors of technical books that I've talked to have told me that your Amazon sales are proportional to the number of reviews, not the rating associated with the product. They claim that just getting more reviews is important and always worth comping review copies to people you know will write a review, even if they are not all 4/5-star reviews. If I had to guess,…

Hm, sounds more likely to me that they got it backwards - if a book is "popular", not as in liked but as in featured in many pop contexts like TV and newspaper reviews, it will also receive more reviews, because more people will have bought it.

Re: Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

#20

Post by falcolas » Wed, Apr 06, 2011, 4:03 PM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #10

joshfinnie wrote: post #4

What I find funny is that this would have never happened if they charged the standard $9.99 e-book price (which in itself is absolutely too much for e-books). The $5 difference is causing quite a stir which I am sure is not worth it in the long run.

Why is $10 too much for an ebook ? - surely it depends on the value of the content inside it. Valuing a book by it's physical properties is a practice that's gone on for far too long. Lots of technical books are full of "padding" and duplication because no-one will buy a 50 page book which concisely provides the useful information for $10-$20. It waste a huge amount of time both of the author and the readers.

To me, $10 for an ebook is too much because of the significant restrictions that come with it. For your average ebook, you can't resell it, you can't lend it, it can arbitrarily be taken from you; you don't "own" the book. $10 for a license to read a book seems far too high.

On the flip side, the convenience of ebooks helps to defray some of these obvious cons.