THE Group for Authors! discussion

Is there anyway to get reviews posted on Amazon imported over to GoodReads?

Good question. There should be. If there is a way to do it I am not aware of it. Others may know. k

The reviewer has to post the review to Goodreads. GR does not allow anyone to import reviews.

haha I'd be more interested in the other way around but yeah, the reviewers have to post where they want. You can't force anyone. It wouldn't be right.

Well darnit. I wouldn't force, or even ask, anyone, but if Amazon and Goodreads are bedfellows, it seems like they should share reviews somehow.

S.H. wrote: "Well darnit. I wouldn't force, or even ask, anyone, but if Amazon and Goodreads are bedfellows, it seems like they should share reviews somehow."

The reviews do not belong to either Amazon or Goodreads, they belong to the reviewer and cannot be shared.

Actually, the way Amazon writes its terms, once a customer/reviewer posts, they grant Amazon a non-exclusive license to the reviews, so I would guess they pretty much could do it should they choose.

And Goodreads did/does sell its API (I assume they still do)...GR reviewers have an option to opt in/out on having their reviews shared elsewhere.

In both cases, reviewers still maintain copyright over their reviews but by posting them on somebody else's website they grant those sites some (limited) rights as well.

First, Amazon and Goodreads would have to agree on the definitions of each star rating . . .

The situation is worse than you all know.
You can't even have reviews transfered from Amazon.com to Amazon.co.uk, the English Amazon site - or vice-versa. Grrr.......
Anthony

To a certain extent this is a zero sum game.

If Amazon made it easier for authors to get more reviews, then this would benefit all authors. The competition for readers would not change. My X number of reviews would increase to X+Y, but then so would everyone else's. Readers would soon come to expect a higher number of positive reviews before they committed to buying a book.

There are some book promotion websites which insist on a minimum number of positive reviews. But if every author was getting more reviews, these websites would almost certainly increase their thresholds. It wouldn't be enough to get ten reviews. In future you might need twenty or thirty or fifty.

Frankly, I don't think we should be worrying about trivial issues like this. When we stop to think about it, it doesn't make any real difference whether .com and .co.uk reviews are mixed or kept separate. A blanket change which affects everyone equally will not bring more readers to buy books or my my book more competitive than yours.

Surely, our aim should be to focus on writing better books and publicising them?

You're probably right, but as no reviewers in the US seem to know the situation, I have to try and get hold of them and beg them to post on the UK site - and usually I can't trace them.
I have noticed that many Indie writers have a few dozen reviews on the UK site and only half a dozen on the US site - and vice versa, so it wouldn't bump up the review numbers on either side of the Atlantic.
Another minor irritation for Indie writers, alas, but as you say, we should shrug off the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune', and get on with our writing!

I would strongly recommend against contacting reviewers. That can come across as too much author interference. I think it's one of those things that we just have to shrug off.

Savvy reviewers know we can post at multiple Amazon sites with the same login so won't need the reminder (we'll either post at multiple sites or not, and asking won't change the behaviour).

Less savvy . . . well, no real point in contacting them. They won't know how.

Yes, I agree, although you are allowed to leave a comment for a reviewer in the review comment box - which is what I used to do. But it seems that reviewers don't look at the box ( I don't either!)
Anthony

Dear Iola,
How do you log in to post on multiple sites?
I write reviews on a regular basis and it would save much time if I could do that.
Anthony

You can use your Amazon US login details to log in to other Amazon sites. Unfortunately, you have to post the review separately at each site (which is why I only post at US, UK and AU). I do cut-and-paste one review rather than writing separate ones, but it's still time-consuming.

Does anyone know if it is against the culture of India to write reviews? I don’t see a lot. I love Bollywood, I believe Bollywood produces more films than anyone else, many romance books have a Bollywood feel (I write romantic mystery, there are some commonalities). I would love to break into the India market, it is huge.

Iola wrote: "First, Amazon and Goodreads would have to agree on the definitions of each star rating . . ."

good point... mmm...

When I (as a reader) reach the end of a kindle book, it prompts me to review it. When I review a book there, the review automatically posts to Amazon and Goodreads. I later have to go to goodreads and mark which shelves I want the book on, but otherwise this is handy for me.

Does this not happen for anyone else? It seems like it does when I see other goodreads reviews with the bold opening line (same as Amazon review headline).

If you want to post reviews on both Amazon and GR, you may do so through the kindle. However some people do not want to post in both places. Also, some people don't read on kindles.

I do cross post of Amazon and GR, but there is the star rating issue (as mentioned previously), plus GR allows more freedom of language, as well as spoiler tags, which Amazon does not have. Cross posting to various sites is extremely time consuming.

I don't review directly from my Kindle - I didn't realise that if I did, it would post in both places.

I'm an old school typist, I'd never get a 'real' review banged out on my Paperwhite or Fire. I do wonder how many of those folks banging out a short sentence review realize they're posting them to the Amazon page, and not just making private notes for themselves.

You can always copy and paste.