You might remember that story from a while back, where Amazon customers were using tags to express their frustration over the ebook price of J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy. Well, now that the book is available, it looks like the problem is evolving: at the time of writing the book has 18 Amazon reviews, averaging 3.5, and 13 of those reviews mention the price. It’s become a polarising issue that is totally distorting the book’s reviews.
As the book continues to sell and more people actually finish The Casual Vacancy and can express an opinion, this problem will probably become less evident. But for now, the reviews section for the book has basically become a message board in which many customers either give one star for the high price (and a rumoured font problem that I’m not sure is real I can’t replicate but which has been verified by others), or give five stars because they want to counter what they see as unfair one star reviews. Only 3 of the reviews actually comment on the quality of the book.
I’m sure that most of these reviews will end up being deleted, because they don’t count as genuine reviews at all. But it’s still interesting to see how this issue seems to be causing annoyance for a small but vocal group of readers. I doubt there’ll be any dent in the book’s sales or profits, it’s clear that there are people out there who want to register their disdain for high ebook prices by doing more than simply not buying a copy.
Reviews based solely on the price are unfair, but I think price will always be a factor in how readers weigh how much they liked a book. A high price suggests better quality, and if the book doesn’t live up to these high expectations, then it’s more likely to receive mixed and negative reviews from people who actually finished the book. People feel cheated when the $18 ebook isn’t all they hoped and dreamed it would be. In the long run, the negative reviews could dent sales because people who were on the fence about buying it (this genre doesn’t appeal to everyone who might be somewhat curious about Rowling’s new work) are less likely to buy a book that critics didn’t like, particularly if the price stays higher than most other ebook options. Already I can say that I might not buy the book based on the reviews I’ve seen.
Posted by A.M.B. | September 28, 2012, 2:45 pm