How to Choose a Star Rating for Book Reviews
How to choose a star rating for your book reviews on online review sites matters a great deal because they can make or break the success of any book. Learn how I choose the right star rating for me for each read.
One quick peek at any online book seller or book review site and you’ll see the industry-wide 5-star rating option.
How a reader chooses their ranking between 1 – 5 stars is such a personal preference but it has an enormous impact on the book’s reach to a new audience.
I want the reviews on my site to be as helpful to you as possible so I’ve outlined how I rate the books I read so that you know what to expect when you’re looking through my reviews.
Why Generous Ratings are Important
I truly sympathize with authors:
The level of vulnerability it takes to put your story out into the world and be open to the entire internet reviewing your heart’s work is insane.
For this reason, I’m quite generous with my stars because ratings can make or break the financial success of a book and I want to encourage the right reader to find the right book. This is more likely to happen with more books available to read!
I don’t want to be responsible for punishing a book with a low star rating just because it wasn’t a 5-star favorite for me. There’s a chance it could be a 5-star favorite for you!
I believe that most authors deserve a bit of grace even if their books weren’t my cup of tea.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5. Best Books Ever
To achieve a full 5-star book review, I can feel the enthusiasm deep in my gut when I close the cover of the book after the last page.
This book immediately goes to my list of Favorites or at least to my list of “Recommend to Friends” because I want to tell everyone about it.
I think about it long after I’m done reading. I chose to read the book over doing anything else when given the opportunity.
It doesn’t have to be ground breaking material or award winning writing, it just has to do what I believe a book is meant to do — inspire and entertain me.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4. A Really Great Book
Most books I finish end up in the 4-star range.
If it easily held my attention through the last page and the ending was satisfying, the book gets 4 shiny stars from me.
Did it make me laugh? Did it make me cry? Did it make me feel anything? Probably a solid 4-star book.
⭐⭐⭐ 3. Meh
I very rarely give a book 3 stars because it is very rare that I feel so neutral about a book. I usually either really enjoy what I’m reading or I can’t even finish it.
I’ll finish a 3-star book but it takes me too long to get to the end. It can feel like the story drags during parts. The writing is just fine and the story has direction but it doesn’t hold my attention.
A potential 4-star book might get a 3 if there is a problem with the plot I just can’t ignore.
I’ll be generous with a 3-star rather than something lower because often my disappointment is more my fault than the book’s. I might have picked the wrong book at the wrong time or I’ve got too much stress in my real world to be able to focus.
⭐⭐ 2. Do Not Recommend
I would give a book 2 stars only if something was truly awful about the experience of reading it. Perhaps it was a Do Not Finish because one more page would be torture.
Maybe the writing is just purely awful or it hasn’t been in front of a solid editor.
I’ve given 2-star ratings to series books that ruined the first or second book in the series for me and just completely went off the rails.
⭐ 1: Truly Awful, Give Me My Money Back
I can’t think of any book I’ve ever given a 1-star rating to.
It would have to be something so awful I couldn’t even finish it. It would have to have nothing redeeming about it and something that through even my very generous lens has nothing of value. I have yet to encounter something this terrible.
🚫 0. No Stars
If you see no stars on my book rating it is likely that I just haven’t finished the book yet or I didn’t click the stars on the rating.
To see No Stars on any of my profiles or reviews is not a reflection of my opinion of the book, I just haven’t rated it yet.
Now You!
How does my scale compare to yours? I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below.
Let me know if your scale has something I haven’t considered. Go ahead and chime in!
More Tips for Readers
If you take your book reviewing seriously enough to have found this article helpful, you really won’t want to miss my tips on how to rate spice in books, too!
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