International reviews on .com

[bookworm]

Anyone else seen this? Amazon reviews from international sites showing up on the .com store? Pretty cool.

[TimothyEllis]

About time. 

But not seeing them on my books though. Wonder if its just for books where .com doesn't have any or less than international?

Or maybe they are rolling it out?

[Simon Haynes]

Yep, one of mine just jumped from 240 to 385 on Amazon.  (I get a lot of reviews on the UK site.)

I'm happy, because it'll help to even out a single bad review on a new release (for example.)

[Jeff Tanyard]

Yep, one of mine just jumped from 240 to 385 on Amazon.  (I get a lot of reviews on the UK site.)

I'm happy, because it'll help to even out a single bad review on a new release (for example.)

Which book are you talking about?  I don't think I'm seeing what you're seeing.   

[cecilia_writer]

We have seen .com reviews on .co.uk for quite a while now (at least I have!).

[TimothyEllis]

We have seen .com reviews on .co.uk for quite a while now (at least I have!).

That's been a thing for a long time.

What hasn't been happening is the other way, which seems to starting now.

[notthatamanda]

Not happening on mine yet.  I'm in the US. Bookworm, where are you?

I thought the way it worked was that if you didn't have any reviews on a specific store, it would take the .com reviews and put them in that store. But once you got a review in a country store, it would revert to those reviews and the .com ones wouldn't show anymore.

I've always had to go to a specific store to see the reviews there, though most of them show up in author central first.  My latest review showed up on goodreads, then a couple of days later on .com. They haven't put all the goodreads reviews on .com though.

[Simon Haynes]

What used to happen is this: You got US reviews on 'other' amazon stores with no reviews.  (e.g. my Riddle in Bronze has no reviews on Amazon.com.au, so it shows 7 reviews from amazon.com instead.)

What happened today: A Robot Named Clunk has all the reviews from Amazon (240) AND the 116 reviews from Amazon.co.uk all combined to make 350+ ratings and reviews on the US product page.  Each review on the US page now says 'Reviewed in the United States' or "Reviewed in the United Kingdom"

However, the UK page still shows 116 ratings, and the CA and AU pages still have their own 6/7. It hasn't merged in that direction yet.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HGAJV2/ (Now showing UK + US reviews merged)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005HGAJV2/ (Only UK)
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B005HGAJV2/ (Only AU)
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B005HGAJV2/ (Only CA)

[Simon Haynes]

This product page has US, UK and CA reviews all combined now:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S2ZMS3H

[notthatamanda]

Thanks for clarifying Simon.  And it just happened with mine. It doesn't show on my author page, you have to go to the individual book page to see it.

[Simon Haynes]

I think they're going in ASIN order. (Hal 1 is my oldest title, just about. Everything up to Hal 9 has been merged in that series, but not Hal 10. Nor has Riddle in Bronze.)

It's fantastic as far as I'm concerned, because 1/3 to 1/2 of all my reviews are on the UK site. Some of my product pages are now doubling the review count ... plus my ratings tend to be slightly higher in the UK, perhaps because of english humour?

Also perfect timing, as I'm running a countdown deal on half my stuff.

[cecilia_writer]

Thanks Simon. I had a quick look at one of my earliest books (from either 2012 or 2013) which has been permafree for ages, on .com, and I am quite glad of the UK reviews being visible as the USA ones are mostly appalling! (Though despite that it seems to have quite a reasonable ranking in the free charts)

[Bill Hiatt]

This isn't happening for me yet, so I assume it's rolling out gradually. It wouldn't make too much difference, as I don't have a huge number of international reviews, but I know there are some, especially in the UK.

[notthatamanda]

I just clicked on the first book in your signature Bill and it's there.  I saw a UK review on the book page.

[Bill Hiatt]

I just clicked on the first book in your signature Bill and it's there.  I saw a UK review on the book page.

So it is. They were down at the bottom of the page, so I didn't notice at first.

[alhawke]

I see a review from one of my books from the UK, the other book doesn't have it. The one that shows is a verified purchase--maybe that's why?

It just appeared this week. I like it. 

Now if they'd only list the total internationally instead of displaying individual review per country. If you happen to get a bad review (I have a lukewarm one), it's the only one displayed front and center for your book in that country.

[Bill Hiatt]

This change could be problematic for someone who gets much better reviews in one market than in another--particularly if the one with the better reviews is the primary market. However, it seems like a blessing for everyone else.

[Nobody]

Happening here as well. Most of my reviews just doubled, because I have lots of international reviews (mainly UK & Germany). I know this change is not showing up for everyone, so they're probably A/B testing. Let's see how it goes. I agree that it's good to dilute bad reviews.

[Simon Haynes]

I'm sure the reviews will go the other way too. It's probably just a matter of time.

And maybe eventually they'll even set up a unified subdomain like you get with Apple and Kobo - so that when you create a url with the subdomain, it automatically takes the user to their local amazon store.

[Bill Hiatt]

I'm sure the reviews will go the other way too. It's probably just a matter of time.

And maybe eventually they'll even set up a unified subdomain like you get with Apple and Kobo - so that when you create a url with the subdomain, it automatically takes the user to their local amazon store.

I'm surprised they didn't do that long ago. From what I've seen, every click causes a certain number of potential buyers to fall away, so being able to send people directly to the correct store is a huge advantage.

[DrewMcGunn]

Who'd a thunk it? I had no idea I had a review on the amazon.es website. I'm not sure if this change is impacting the star rating of the book or if it's simply giving prospective buyers an opportunity for more diverse reviews. We'll have to take the good with the bad, I imagine.
Oh, that review from the Amazon.es website... 1 star...
Oh, well... the more the merrier.

[Jeff Tanyard]

This isn't happening for me yet, so I assume it's rolling out gradually.

Same here.  This is what I'm seeing right now:





I imagine it'll take the spider a couple of weeks to crawl everywhere.  Or however that works.  I don't know.   

[Denise]

What used to happen is this: You got US reviews on 'other' amazon stores with no reviews.  (e.g. my Riddle in Bronze has no reviews on Amazon.com.au, so it shows 7 reviews from amazon.com instead.)

What happened today: A Robot Named Clunk has all the reviews from Amazon (240) AND the 116 reviews from Amazon.co.uk all combined to make 350+ ratings and reviews on the US product page.  Each review on the US page now says 'Reviewed in the United States' or "Reviewed in the United Kingdom"

However, the UK page still shows 116 ratings, and the CA and AU pages still have their own 6/7. It hasn't merged in that direction yet.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HGAJV2/ (Now showing UK + US reviews merged)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005HGAJV2/ (Only UK)
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B005HGAJV2/ (Only AU)
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B005HGAJV2/ (Only CA)

I'm browsing from Canada. I see only the 249 US reviews.

At least it explains why I can't see it. I haven't seen it for any book yet. They aren't showing it for us, I think.

[notthatamanda]

Who'd a thunk it? I had no idea I had a review on the amazon.es website. I'm not sure if this change is impacting the star rating of the book or if it's simply giving prospective buyers an opportunity for more diverse reviews. We'll have to take the good with the bad, I imagine.
Oh, that review from the Amazon.es website... 1 star...
Oh, well... the more the merrier.

Did you have to run it through google translate? I ran one through google translate once and part of the review was "I'm not sure I read it."
I think that was on Goodreads though.

[Simon Haynes]

From Amazon.com

Must be rolling out bit by bit?

[ashleycapes]

US store is showing some of my international reviews as of today, nice to see the small boost in overall numbers

[Bill Hiatt]

Who'd a thunk it? I had no idea I had a review on the amazon.es website. I'm not sure if this change is impacting the star rating of the book or if it's simply giving prospective buyers an opportunity for more diverse reviews. We'll have to take the good with the bad, I imagine.
Oh, that review from the Amazon.es website... 1 star...
Oh, well... the more the merrier.

Did you have to run it through google translate? I ran one through google translate once and part of the review was "I'm not sure I read it."
I think that was on Goodreads though.

This is one of the few things I worry about. Aggregating reviews from predominately non-English-speaking markets with those from English-speaking markets could lead to a lot of confusion, particularly with reviews like the one you cite. Lumping them all into one star rating is misleading in some ways.

I guess part of my problem is that I just don't trust the way Amazon deals with reviews. I've come to terms with Amazon's weighting of reviews, but just recently I noticed that Amazon doesn't just produce a fictional average--it actually manipulates the percentage of reviews at each score point as well. I never would have noticed, except that a particular book of mine only has three reviews: two five-star and one one-star. Even someone with my limited math can tell that 67% five-star reviews and 33% one-star reviews. But not according to Amazon's math. According to Amazon, 48% of the reviews are five-star and 52% are one-star. That justifies Amazon's 2.9 average rating (as opposed to the 3.7 that would be an actual average), but it doesn't accurately reflect how many reviews are actually in each category. By the way, none of the reviews have helpful votes. Two of them (one five-star and the one-star) are verified purchases. One of the five-stars is from a reviewer who has a badge as top contributor in fantasy. There's no obvious reason for the rating average to be as far off from the math as it is (and in fact, it used to be 3.25).

Sorry for the digression, but I guess that's why I keep finding things to worry about Amazon review changes. I know this one seems like a winner, but the changes Amazon makes in this area hardly ever seem to actually benefit authors. This one could be an exception. We'll see.

[Simon Haynes]

I just took a look at the book you're talking about, and one of the reviews isn't a verified purchase. It looks like they take an average of the other two.

1+5 = 6, and 6 / 2 = 3, which is the average it ought to be showing. Since it's 2.9, it's possible they modify the percentage by applying a tiny deduction to older reviews? (I noticed the 5 star is 2 years older than the 1.)

Oh - I just hovered over the '2.9 out of 5' and saw this popup:

Amazon calculates a product’s star ratings based on a machine learned model instead of a raw data average. The model takes into account factors including the age of a rating, whether the ratings are from verified purchasers, and factors that establish reviewer trustworthiness.

I guessed 2 out of 3 in that case.

[Bill Hiatt]

I just took a look at the book you're talking about, and one of the reviews isn't a verified purchase. It looks like they take an average of the other two.

1+5 = 6, and 6 / 2 = 3, which is the average it ought to be showing. Since it's 2.9, it's possible they modify the percentage by applying a tiny deduction to older reviews? (I noticed the 5 star is 2 years older than the 1.)

Oh - I just hovered over the '2.9 out of 5' and saw this popup:

Amazon calculates a product’s star ratings based on a machine learned model instead of a raw data average. The model takes into account factors including the age of a rating, whether the ratings are from verified purchasers, and factors that establish reviewer trustworthiness.

I guessed 2 out of 3 in that case.

I actually wasn't quibbling about the average. I was quibbling about the fact that percentages of each review type have been distorted to match the average. Amazon doesn't say it's doing that, it just does it. Also, Amazon has never said it didn't count unverified reviews at all, just that it weighted them less. And even if they don't count at all in the average, that still doesn't explain the odd manipulation of the percentages in this case. It appears that Amazon is manipulating both the rating average and the percentage of each rating received but only publicizing the first part.

Maybe this is just a glitch of some kind. I looked at a title with only five reviews, and percentages for each type of review is exactly what it really is. Of course, for some reason the average is the same as the arithmetic average at 3.4 (it would have been 3 if only verified purchase reviews counted).  It's hard to see how the two books would vary that much if the same process was really being used on both. Even if it's a glitch, though, that still doesn't increase my faith in Amazon's handling of reviews.

[Writer]

My UK and DE reviews are kinda like Goodreads reviews, usually anywhere from a half star to a full star lower than my US averages. So you can imagine how I feel about the change. 
     

[Jeff Tanyard]

Bill, I'm currently seeing a 3.3 average for that book.  Just FYI.

And I agree that the percentages are jacked up.   

[Simon Haynes]

Bill, I'm currently seeing a 3.3 average for that book.  Just FYI.

And I agree that the percentages are jacked up.   

I voted up the 5 star review yesterday. Maybe that helped?

[Bill Hiatt]

Bill, I'm currently seeing a 3.3 average for that book.  Just FYI.

And I agree that the percentages are jacked up.   

I voted up the 5 star review yesterday. Maybe that helped?

Thanks!

I'm still seeing 2.9.

Perhaps I'll inquire when I have the time and see what kind of nonresponse Amazon has on the issue of review percentages being incorrectly reported. My titles vary, with some being exactly what they should be and others not. Some seem rigged to match the review average, and others don't. Typical Amazon.

I've always been inclined to think Amazon should present the review data without all kinds of algorithmic distillation and let the prospective buyers decide how to interpret it.

As for the new change, as Writer points out, the impact depends on how an author's reviews are in the other markets. It could hypothetically help or hurt. For me, it makes a slight positive difference, since I don't have that many reviews in other markets.

[DrewMcGunn]

Who'd a thunk it? I had no idea I had a review on the amazon.es website. I'm not sure if this change is impacting the star rating of the book or if it's simply giving prospective buyers an opportunity for more diverse reviews. We'll have to take the good with the bad, I imagine.
Oh, that review from the Amazon.es website... 1 star...
Oh, well... the more the merrier.

Did you have to run it through google translate? I ran one through google translate once and part of the review was "I'm not sure I read it."
I think that was on Goodreads though.

No. While the review was on Amazon Spain's website, it was written in English. While I'd like to begrudge it, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. The reviewer had an idea of what time travel fiction should be. My book wasn't what he was expecting, so he 1-starred it. I might feel differently if it was the only review I had, but fortunately I've got enough reviews that the only people who might take that review to heart are people who'd feel similarly to that reviewer. And, isn't that why people check out reviews, to focus on books they might like or steer clear of books they're not likely to enjoy.

[Marti Talbott]

I think they're going in ASIN order. (Hal 1 is my oldest title, just about. Everything up to Hal 9 has been merged in that series, but not Hal 10. Nor has Riddle in Bronze.)

It's fantastic as far as I'm concerned, because 1/3 to 1/2 of all my reviews are on the UK site. Some of my product pages are now doubling the review count ... plus my ratings tend to be slightly higher in the UK, perhaps because of english humour?

Also perfect timing, as I'm running a countdown deal on half my stuff.

Nope, not ASIN, alphabet. You're an "H" and I'm a "T" and my books have not changed...yet. I have suspected they do a lot of things alphabetically, cuz I'm always next to last. Okay, I'll let you be right this once.

I don't see where you are seeing which reviews came from which countries. Maybe it's my browser.

[Simon Haynes]

They still haven't done all of mine.  I think someone up-thread suggested that maybe they don't transfer unverified reviews?

[123mlh]

Mine hasn't been done yet either but I suspect they froze reviews on the title I keep checking a year or so ago.

[alhawke]

They still haven't done all of mine.  I think someone up-thread suggested that maybe they don't transfer unverified reviews?

It looks like they only post verified international reviews now. That's what I've seen with my books so far, anyway. (too bad we can't pick the ones we want posted, right  )

[A. N. Onymous]

I noticed just recently that one of my Australian reviews has been added to the Amazon.com site for that book, which adjusted the rating. Easy for me to see because I have so few, so I know this was not the case a while ago. Anyone else noticed this?

[Bill Hiatt]

There was actually a thread on that a few days ago. You're definitely not alone in noticing it. It appears to be a recent change in the way Amazon handles reviews. Eventually, .com will have all the international reviews. I'm not sure if we've heard yet if the converse is true. It definitely isn't yet, but Amazon sometimes implements things in stages.

[alhawke]

I noticed verified reviews from the US appearing on the UK website yesterday on one of my books. But, you know, it's finicky as sometimes it matters the device I access Amazon from. But it looks like they're introducing this feature internationally, at least in the US and the UK (unless it reverts back??)

[A. N. Onymous]

There was actually a thread on that a few days ago. You're definitely not alone in noticing it. It appears to be a recent change in the way Amazon handles reviews. Eventually, .com will have all the international reviews. I'm not sure if we've heard yet if the converse is true. It definitely isn't yet, but Amazon sometimes implements things in stages.

Ah, my bad. I obviously missed it. No doubt Timothy will merge it in that case.

[Shoe]

Clearly a slow roll-out. International reviews just started appearing on my .com this morning.

[Marti Talbott]

How can you tell? Are the foreign reviews marked somehow? I have so many books I don't keep track of the reviews, so I can't tell if the number has increased.

[Shoe]

How can you tell? Are the foreign reviews marked somehow? I have so many books I don't keep track of the reviews, so I can't tell if the number has increased.

Your books are showing international reviews. Scroll to the bottom of your product page and you should see them.

[Marti Talbott]

How can you tell? Are the foreign reviews marked somehow? I have so many books I don't keep track of the reviews, so I can't tell if the number has increased.

Your books are showing international reviews. Scroll to the bottom of your product page and you should see them.

Oh cool, I can see them now. They are under International Reviews. Thanks Shoe!

[lea_owens]

My numbers are all over the place. With Muted, if I go to its .com Amazon page, it says 107 ratings while in the product details for the paperback it says 95 reviews - all OK, I get that 'ratings' includes those who just click a star rating after reading the digital version and don't write a review.  On my Amazon author page, it claims it has 97 reviews.
If I copy the link to a Facebook post, the link claims there are 90 reviews. I wrote in one fb plug, '95 reviews and 88 are five-star' (correct U.S. statistic) and someone tried to call me out because the link stated '90 reviews', not 95. Luckily, it confused them, too, as they went to the page and then wondered why I said 95 when there are 107.

I don't see international reviews there (yet). If I go to the .com.au page, I see that my 11 reviews in Australia have jumped to 41 ratings with 11 reviews. I can't see how the ratings are scored, though - it's easy to see 10 out of 11 reviews are five star, but no idea what the 30 non-review ratings are. Does anyone have a summary of what their non-review ratings are?

[Marti Talbott]

How very interesting. The reviews on "The Viking" just shot up to 1005. In general that might look pretty impressive to a reader, but we know that if our review totals are going up, all authors are seeing the same thing. I assume then, that while 1000 reviews looked pretty impressive yesterday, it might take 3000 to impress in the future. It depends on how fast the readers catch on.

[notthatamanda]

But where are all these rankings (versus reviews) coming from all of a sudden? Goodreads? They aren't bringing over all the rankings from there, the numbers don't match up on my books anyway.

[Marti Talbott]

But where are all these rankings (versus reviews) coming from all of a sudden? Goodreads? They aren't bringing over all the rankings from there, the numbers don't match up on my books anyway.

Amazon added the international reviews/ratings. Scroll down your list of reviews and you will see them. It actually has a heading - International Reviews - and it tells us which Amazon store they came from.