plugged in book reviews
The Impact of Online Book Reviews: A Scholarly Examination
Indeed, as potential book buyers seek out more information regarding new and existing book releases and increasingly turn toward online communities for advice, the proliferation of review sites, word of mouth chatter and other Web 2.0-like tagging activities have expanded alongside book e-commerce sites. Sites such as Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari and others use reader input to create “tag clouds” for books. Tapping into consumer interest and reflections, authors have utilized online reviews to re-edit and release new editions of works first published in noncommercial venues, as well as modified books previously self-published and community-compiled creations.
Yet the proliferation of such sites and the increased interactivity permitted by Web 2.0 has not only allowed increased freedom of expression, but has allowed reviews to be “mined” to find preferences, trends and to potentially influence future book publishing decisions. With potential effects throughout the supply chain, from the types of books authors write, the books publishers decide to accept, the activities and incentives given to promote specific books, to the books that survive and are successful enough to be recommended by booksellers, one would expect toolkits to help make these decisions. Trends in reviews have important implications, as reviews act as information signals to other potential customers about book quality.
In this essay, we examine the overwhelming and increasing impact of online consumer book reviews in an age in which consumers can make their opinions widely available to anyone in the world with an internet connection. While the rise of consumer review sites such as Yelp or Rotten Tomatoes receives significant attention in both academic and practitioner communities, we argue that the impact of book review sites on business decisions is still largely underappreciated. Despite important anecdotal examples of blogs and online reader reviews swaying publishers’ decisions, it is not well understood whether the proliferation of online reader reviews is changing which books are published or how books are produced. Building on recent literatures within economics and marketing that investigate quality signaling and viral buzz in other contexts, we aim to bring tools traditionally used to understand product offline diffusion to the emerging area of book publishing and online product review generation. For scholars studying the economics of digitization or product diffusion, this paper provides a launching pad to extend investigation into digital marketplaces and question areas yet unexplored. Accordingly, by tapping into consumer interest in reviews, authors can garner consumer feedback to improve their works.
Conspicuously omitted from the list of potential subjects in estimation of policy-relevant topics for book reviews is the study of reviews themselves. Such reviews may be informative and thereby increase the practical reader impact of a book while influencing readers in their decision-making regarding book purchase or library use. Consequently, influencing book investment and knowledge flows to knowledge seekers via online book reviews could be influenced through policies or procedures guiding online book reviews. Such subsidy could arise from public-sector advertising and, as recommended in National Research Council reports, superbook lists that motivate their production and more casually circulated benefits. Their quality may be enhanced by conveying expert opinions of knowledgeable users (with enhanced sales and advertising activities), tightening publication guidelines and sanctioning poor performers via customer and employee outreach, developing cheaper access to end-user readers, or suggestion-based motivation programs for authors and publishers contributing newly available book reviews to sparsely reviewed works.
Comprised of expert opinions, reviews of literary quality, and criticism of a work’s value based on its accuracy, readability, and scope, book reviews in theory reflect the qualities sought by readers in choosing an information system. Yet research has traditionally omitted any explicit role for these crucial cues or has at most marginal advice to authors projecting or readers inferring such content literatures. Contributing is an analysis incorporating perceptions in its examination of the impact of online book reviews upon reader behavior. Findings indicate that the policy-relevant focus of book reviews within traditional media is just as important in cyberspace and that the viability of online book review sources is enhanced by linking more narrowly targeted reader groups to more narrowly targeted books.
Researchers and practitioners alike have offered several models and equations in an effort to quantify the credibility of website information. Most of these focus on the online shopping context, such as Doh and Kim, Fleishner, Peterson, and Zhao and Lee. However, one issue that has research attention from many different fields relates to the credibility and trustworthiness of online book reviews. Since the early work of Guittard and colleagues, there has been an ever-increasing discussion aimed at understanding the situational aspect of trust formation in online reviewing forum. The larger consumer-generated word of mouth literature takes a situational perspective as well, suggesting that some features of websites impact purchasing intention more than others. While many researchers have examined product reviews, relatively few have addressed online book reviews. This is surprising, since books, whether in-print or out of print and available as e-books or still available as printed books, are an important part of electronic commerce.
There has been very limited research to date that takes a close look at online book reviews, particularly with respect to the perceptions and evaluations of those who read these reviews. This paper takes a scholarly perspective to investigate the phenomena that has become the normal method for readers to judge whether a book is worth reading. Specifically, do readers familiar with a book subject evaluate a review differently than those not familiar with the book subject? The findings from our study raise questions with regard to the trustworthiness of online book reviews. We find that readers familiar with a particular book subject find less value in reading a book review that has a low level of review text quality compared to the case for readers not familiar with a particular book subject.
Bookstores and other businesses are now encouraging this influence in order to have their concerns and needs communicated to the specific audiences that have the greatest impact as influencers. Book promotion (pre- and post-publication and outside of the traditional media) is a key part of the marketing mix in the book-publishing process. Major media companies track print and broadcast media as well as online (where books are available for sale) to understand the media landscape and reach multiple target demographic or psychographic audience segments. With the increased social responsibility taken by corporations for the profits they gain, the tone of reviews in book publications and better intelligence gained about what reviewers might actually say about the book make more efficient distribution of prepublication copies possible. Marketing teams can save resources when they know where to send and who to target. By influencing online review sites, it is possible that a unique retailing space being developed can drag some independent publishers and some commercial publishers into the space. Shop at Amazon.com, know a hundred different co-workers and could likely see an average positive book review on Amazon’s website and a recommendation for reading from a specific person’s social network before they order the same title. Given the ability for online retail websites to obtain information on customer purchasing and viewing habits, it is likely that they can monitor and lead trends in book interest and soft/promotional sales.
Many web-based online retailers expanded into new media and made changes in their editorial coverage. Book publishers found more opportunities to introduce books to the public during time periods when new titles were likely to be reviewed. Some online non-book retailers post news, information, lists, and links on their websites. Events or media presence prior to a book being published could help to build awareness and excitement. When interest in a particular author or his/her book builds, positive word-of-mouth discussions can lead to increased print book sales. Online reviews change the nature of how traffic reaches online retailer websites, as few of the reviewers have a vested interest or tie to the commercial fate of a book. Written word-of-mouth has a very dramatic effect on book sales. A book recommendation from a friend is very influential. Positive word of mouth is so important in the consumer product review that a quarter of a billion purchasing the Internet site to acquire it in order to influence their customers’ perception.
Traditional reviews in print sources are important for helping readers decide if they want to purchase a certain book. Reader interest motivates the purchase of books. If a reader hears about or sees a book he/she wants to read, he/she is more likely to purchase the book. Although interest may be generated through news articles, links, and consumer reviews, fans or followers, online or on mobile devices, may see online book reviews. Traditional non-book journalists at newspapers and magazines or at specialty publications often review books. However, book publication trends have been changing the sources and audiences of book reviewers; less traditional reviewers, like blogs and fan pages, are more common. In 2008, an important shift occurred; traditional and new media began to compete at the consumer and book industry levels.
The aim of the present study was thus to assess the relative influence that non-credible factors, such as genre, author, and book content, may have on ratings for both Amazon.com and Goodreads.com in terms of bibliometrics. Rather than rating the books themselves, raters were provided with the front cover of the book, its price, and its author. The goal was thus to gain some insight into which non-ORC may subtly influence ratings, particularly as front covers become more important as books are primarily sold online, and to understand more about the influence that the author and the type or genre of book would have on ratings for a fiction book. Such findings could prove useful to both authors and publishers.
Consumers are constantly turning to online book reviews to assist in their book-buying decisions. Even consumers who do not typically write reviews end up doing so if they feel that a book is exceptional or especially bad. Participation is thus heavily influenced by the quality or integrity of the book. Ignoring the influence that the content of the book may have on participant behavior on these review sites can result in a loss of revenue to authors and publishers, especially when these factors are significantly influential in the related bibliometric indices that measure the worth of the scholar.
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