Why, hello there, fellow reader and/or book lover!

So, I’m sure, if you are reading this right now, you’re probably very curious to find out exactly why you should never give a book a one-star rating. Or, maybe, a zero-star rating… and, yep, I am going to reveal this “secret” to you, but I want to let you know in advance that all the explanations I’m going to give you are based on my personal opinions, and, of course, I’m sure there will be many people who will not agree with me.

And that’s okay! But… I just want to invite you, my dear reader friend, to continue on with an open mind.

Okay, now… let’s proceed.

First: What Are Book Ratings?

So, if you’ve never read a digital book (also known as an e-book or eBook) before, you may not know this, but, again, I’m assuming that, since you came to read this page, you probably know that digital books can be rated by their readers online.

These ratings often show up right on the book’s main page on every online retailer/website where it is listed–for example, on Amazon’s website, Barnes & Noble’s website, Apple Books pages, etc.

Typically, ratings are shown on a 5-point scale. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 10-point scale for books, but, hey, you never know–maybe there’s a website out there that does that!

Ratings are meant to help readers decide whether or not a digital book is worth purchasing and downloading. Increasingly, readers actually look to the book’s rating before anything else, and a lot of online retailers have accommodated this by showing a book’s rating right alongside nothing else besides the book cover, title, author, price, and genre in searches.

Why Do Star Ratings Matter?

For one, eBook ratings matters because, as we explained above, a lot of readers use star ratings to decide whether or not to get a certain eBook. This happens pretty much because of human psychology; we tend to trust what other people have to say about a book, and we, in turn, value the rating that other readers give eBooks.

However, there is one other reason that star ratings matter… and that is on the author’s end.

Why Ratings Matter to Authors

As a dedicated reader, I’m sure you have favorite authors, and I’m sure you love to hear not only about the newest book releases by those authors but also the details of those authors’ lives outside of writing. I mean, honestly, some authors and other writers are basically celebrities, and us readers love to hear all about them!

Now, I’m sure you probably give your favorite authors great 5-star or 4-star ratings all the time, right? Because, of course, you love their books, you want those books to be recommended to other readers as much as possible, and you probably care about the author enough to give them a little love with such an amazing rating!

However… what about the authors that aren’t your favorites? I mean, not, like, authors that you dislike or anything–just the ones that you haven’t heard of yet. Do you care about what ratings their books have?

Buckle up, y’all. I’m going to share a little story with you.

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Once upon a time, there was a young woman struggling to get through her first year of college. In high school, she succeeded pretty easily, especially in art-related classes, but, now, there were just… well, a lot of scienc-y classes to take, and they weren’t fun. Actually, they sucked.

At the end of each school day, though, she sought refuge in her dorm room, where all she had was a mini-fridge, a bed so high she had to use a ladder to climb it (and, no, it wasn’t even a bunkbed), and, of course, a laptop. A laptop that had free, university-provided Microsoft Office on it.

So, she spent the final few hours of each of her days just sitting and doing what she always loved best–creating art with her words… right there on that laptop.

By the end of her freshman year, she had done something quite wonderful–she had crafted a book, a book! But, at the same time… she had dropped out of school. Well, you give some and you take some, I guess…

So, with all of her extra time, she self-published the book. But then… she had nothing else to do, and the days kind of grew longer and longer. And then she had to start seeing a therapist. And then she was diagnosed with clinical depression.

The next few weeks were some of the hardest she had ever faced. But, all the while, she kept holding onto one hope–the hope that someone, somewhere, would read her book.

And then, in the midst of one of those worn out days, boom! An e-mail… straight from the website she had published through… someone had read her book–and they had rated it!

Oh joy, joy!

She felt so warm, actually, hot inside, like her heart was burning up. She hadn’t felt like this in so long, and she couldn’t wait to read the book’s very first review!

And she checked her eBook’s main page, and she scrolled down to read the review, and oh god, her palms were so sweaty and her heart was racing and her head was… oh, wait…

There was nothing on the bottom of the page but… one star. One. Star.

She started shaking. Her heart stopped beating. And her eyes, uncontrollably, felt a deep, dark pain.

After that, the days got longer again. I mean much, much longer. And, she supposed, the only way to even possibly make them feel shorter again… was to take the book down.

And then no one would read it ever again.

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Now, guess what? What you just read… that was a totally true story. And it was about me.

And… yeah, it didn’t have a happy ending, did it? But… I’m hoping it kind of started to explain what getting a one-star rating can really feel like to an author. Though, of course, my example is a tad on the “extreme” end… but, stay tuned, because I think we may just re-write that ending in a minute.

A Quick Overview of What 1-Star Ratings Can Do

Now, to keep things moving along here… let’s see if we can explore all the impacts, mainly negative, that one-star reviews can have, shall we?

So, 1-star ratings oftentimes…

• Make it less likely that other readers will give a book a try
• Decrease an eBook’s ranking in book searches, also making it difficult for other readers to discover
• Lower the perceived quality of an author’s overall portfolio
• Pull down an eBook’s overall quality rating
• Lower an author’s confidence

Mainly, I want to highlight that last point, especially since I have experienced it firsthand. And, after all, every other point on the list is just a fact of statistics–but lowering a person’s confidence is something that isn’t just a statistic.

Remember, authors are people, too, and behind every book is someone who wrote it (assuming it wasn’t written by AI or anything, of course). And authors have to work really hard to get their books out in the world, and these writers always put their best efforts into each and every one of their books. So, perhaps, try to put yourself in the shoes of a book’s author before you ever decide to give it just 1 star.

I mean, how would you feel if someone gave you a “bad rating” on one of your own biggest accomplishments?

Furthermore…

Now, I just want to elaborate a little more on the 1-star topic. And, really, this section is going to be mainly made up of nothing more than my own opinions, so please keep that in mind, but also read on with, well, an open mind, too.

Honestly, I think that 1-star ratings should not even exist. I mean, online book retailers could remove the option to give a 1-star rating completely by default, and I’d be overjoyed with that. Because, personally, I don’t ever see a reason where giving a book a 1-star rating is truly justified.

The only scenario I can think of is one in which a book is full of hate speech, discriminatory statements, etc… and, in those cases, reporting the book to be taken off of the online platforms it’s listed on would be much more beneficial than giving it a one-star rating. And, if and only if the book cannot be removed, I would say that then it would be okay to give it just one star–but make sure you also include a retailed review that warns readers of the book’s contents and your reasoning for giving it one star as well.

Which leads me to this…

All ratings of 3 stars or less should also include a written review when posted. That way, you can give honest feedback to the author of the work instead of just an unexplained one-star stamp.

In my experience, most readers are also proficient writers themselves, and they can be great at giving well-thought-out reviews for books–often giving both things they liked about it and things that they didn’t. And that’s also super important to remember when you’re writing a book review–keep it constructive, not destructive!

And, if you can’t think of anything nice to say, then perhaps it would be better to just not say anything at all. Think of it like this–if someone criticized every detail of your own work without any room for one single praise, do you think you would really listen to them?

You can also think of it like this… if you believe you could write that certain book better, well, why don’t you?

Now, lastly… I just have to include this additional note because I feel like a lot of readers don’t realize this, but an eBook’s star rating can affect how much money an author makes. This just goes back to the fact that lower-rated books often receive less purchases by readers, and this actually affects an author’s, again, a real person’s, income. Even free books that receive low ratings can affect income, too, because free books are often offered by authors to let readers get a taste of their writing before going on to purchase their other books, and, if those books aren’t appealing to new readers because of their rating, then this makes it harder for for those authors to attract readers/future book buyers.

So, just as a bit of an FYI to those who still want to give books a one-star rating… you are likely hurting someone else’s income, so think before you rate!

Last: Let’s Rewrite a 1-Star Rating

Now, I did promise you a happy ending, right? So, here’s what happened next in that lil’ story we saw above…

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The next few chapters of that young woman’s story were rough. They were quite full of negativity, and, let me tell you, they would not be easy to read.

However, she worked hard, day after long day, to rediscover her confidence, specifically her confidence in her ability to write. Because, after all, writing was what she loved, and it was what made her happy–and that’s all she wanted, after all!

So, months and months and many more months later, she opened a fresh document on her laptop. And, although the blank page be terrifying, she put her fingertips to the keyboard. And she typed.

Then, days and days and months and months of typing key after key… another book came to be.

And she named it after its main character, because that main character showed her how to laugh again… and how to be happy again.

And that character’s name was… Emma Lenford.

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I know I haven’t shared much of my own story, specifically my story of mental health, here before, so I just wanted to share a bit of it today with you all. Because, after all, you all are my readers, and I trust and care about you all so very much. And, if you’re not one of my readers just yet… well, you made it through this entire post, so you are one now!

Of course, that character that helped me find light at the end of my dark tunnel was and is at the center of my Emma Lenford book series, which you can learn more about below, if you’d like.

Alternatively, if you’d like to get started reading the first book in the series, which is the one that jump-started my journey to a better wellbeing (and I may write another blog post on that in the future…), click below to try it out completely for free!

And now, here are just a few takeaways from today’s post…

TL;DR

• 1-star ratings deter other readers from picking up a potentially great eBook
• 1-star ratings can and do take away from an author’s confidence and income
• All ratings under 3 stars serve no purpose without a detailed written review

The bottom line, y’all: think about the consequences of a simple 1-star rating before you give it.

–Kari