The Book Harpie

What Do Amazon's "Editors" Know?

2009-11-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it's difficult to say...

But as you no doubt know, everyone is coming out with their Best Books lists, and this has made The BookHarpie wonder if they are worth a dingo's kidney.

Since The BookHarpie is lazy, a simple list from Amazon's 2008 selections was chosen to analyze. Below you will find the Top 10 Middle Readers, with additional data.

Now about that data. # of Rev's is the number of reviews that were written by Amazon Customers. If you notice there is somewhat of a correlation between that number and sales. (The BookHarpie leaves it to others to quantify that relationship.) Star Rating is self explanatory. Range, in this case, refers to the lowest and highest Rating. For example, there was no variance for "Our White House" and "A Thousand Never Evers". Both of these books got 5-Stars; while most of the other books had Ratings that ranged from 1 to 5. Apparently there is no correlation between this phenomena and sales.

Finally, Sales is the Sales Rank on Amazon. Note that Amazon is most annoying in that it has no overall sales figure for any particular book in all it's manifestations -- at least not one it is willing to share. Consequently, The BookHarpie has chosen THE most successful version of the book. Granted, not the best statistical course to take, but The BookHarpie did say it was lazy. And this seemed fairer than using the worst sales figure.

Now, The Harpie will leave it to every adult to draw their own conclusions from this smattering of data, but what is apparent to The BookHarpie is that Actual People did not read the Amazon's Editors list before making their purchases. If you exclude the D'uh Choices, like the Wimpy Kid and Beedle books, Amazon Editors did not do that well with their guesses. Their first choice, for example, did not even rate that well with the people who read it. And only two of three of their choices were unanimously praised with only 4- and 5- Stars. (Unfortunately for the publishers, high ratings don't necessarily correspond that well to sales.)

However, having said that, the overall Ratings were rather good. So in that case, we might conclude that these mysterious editors can at least recognize a good book when they read one. They did list some that at least some people thoroughly enjoyed.

Concluding: All I can say is that if I was going to be purchasing books for pubescent hormone crazed individuals, that I would take Amazon's 2009 List with a grain of salt. A starting place, but one which one should approach with caution.

Expect more detrita for your perusal in the future. And yes, we might get back to that Vine thing.

Amazon Vine... What About It Makes People Idiots

2009-11-02T04:45:00.000-08:00

This is Part I of commentary on a post that originally appeared on the SLJ (School Library Journal) site on October 28, 2009. In this section, BookHarpie will discuss the amateur nature of the post by a kidlit book diva.

BookHarpie has always thought that the SLJ was a serious sort of publication. They've got a print issue. They've got articles and a Google Page Rank of "7". You know, they seem like the real-thing. But the ole Harpie was pulled up short by a post that appeared in October when Fuse #8, aka Betsy Bird, Amazon reviewer #32 (classic status #37 as of this date), posted a commentary about Amazon's Vine program and it's reviewers.

You can find that post here. BUT let me tell you that it's been thoroughly edited from the original Yes, EDITED and without any notice of said changes. The author, you see, apparently did not do any research and when people called her out on the fact that she apparently just made stuff up, she went back and sneakily edited her post so that it didn't look as lame as it was. [Thus possibly making commenters look like they didn't know what they were talking about.] This, of course, is extremely uncool and in extreme violation of good posting netiquette. (The law reads something like you are allowed to go back and fix spelling and broken links... but no material changes without notation if people have commented.)

For example, she wrote originally that Viners (people who are apart of Amazon's Vine program) can choose 2 items per month which they sometimes have to return. Well, guess what? As was pointed out several times by people who actually know, they may choose up to 4 items per month.

One commenter said: I am just really surprised by the lack of accuracy in this post. First of all, Viners are able to get up to 4 books per month which they get to keep--always.

To which the author replies: Interestingly I did originally write that it was four items, but in my research it was unclear as to whether or not it was four or two.

To which I can only respond by rolling my eyes and saying: Oh really.

(By way of disclosure, we should tell you that the BookHarpie is a part of the Vine Program, which is only natural, for wherever there is a need for a critical eye, there will be a need for BookHarpie.)

Beside the tacky last minute CYA, the Really Lame part of this response is that all of this information is available on Wikipedia ('Amazon Vine' link see entry under "Vine Voices Newsletter). So hello, despite claims to the contrary, it doesn't look like any research was done. BookHarpie means, who doesn't Google and look at Wikipedia when starting their research?!? Sooo, nope... not any apparent research. And BookHarpie would have thought the SLJ had higher standards.

Next... Why that silly article on the Amazon Vine in the First Place. Or, you are keeping my golden words from the eyes of the masses.

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For other pertinent thoughts see Steffan Piper's "Amazon Vine as Target Practice"

Welcome... sort of.

2009-11-02T04:01:00.000-08:00

As the Roosevelt chick said, "if you don't have something nice to say, come sit next to me."

And that's what BookHarpie is all about. Getting down and dirty and telling it like it is. If you're a sensitive writer or blogger, DON'T LOOK. Or at least get a box of tissues to wipe 'ooh wittle eyes'.

You can complain about everything either in the comments or to BookHarpie at gmail.com

I'll accept tacky commentary for post from anyone as long as it's not very nice.