The Value of Stars by Sarah Nicholson

Who can put a value on a star?

stars with numbers for a quiz

You can buy a star from the internet – the standard star package is just £19.99. It doesn’t take much googling to find it.

But I’m not talking about celestial beings but rather star ratings given freely, which especially delight an indie author.

I’m fortunate to have picked up quite a few for my memoir and I love how they twinkle but for some reason I find it harder to give them away.

star stickers from a writing workshop

“You’ve never left me a review?” said a writing friend at the weekend. She was quite shocked when I told her.

“Um no! I don’t mind writing about a book explaining what I enjoyed but I find the star rating difficult.”

I probably tied myself in knots trying to explain my reasoning, so I thought I’d write a blog about it and see if I can untangle my thoughts and see what is going on in my head.

Firstly, I HATE filling in any forms that require rating something – so often I plump for the middle answer, unless I have exceptional feelings either way. I don’t like tiny boxes to fill in either, give me a 1000 word limit instead and I can write an essay on the topic.

I had to rate a friend’s sermon a couple of months ago. She's training to be a priest.

“Can I just write what I thought?”

“Of course.”

Phew crisis averted. I abandoned the printed sheet she’d given me with ticky boxes, opened a word document and waxed lyrical in full sentences about her great delivery and exposition without an arbitrary score.

sparkly hair slide

However, there isn’t an option for that online. Things need to be quantified.

Stars are the currency that drive the wheels of the algorithms. I do appreciate how important they are but I’d like my rating to be more nuanced.

I don’t have a definitive FAVOURITE book EVER, but there are some stories that have stayed with me and I remember how I felt when I read it or where I was at the time. But I couldn’t rank them all in order of preference, it depends on my mood which isn't quantifiable.

I am reticent to give a book 5 stars and discover further down the line the author has written another novel which is far superior – there is no sixth star to give her.

Ratings are subjective and how do I know that my star rating measures up to yours. Are they equivalent?

Maybe five is just too few to play with.

My son is a sports journalist and often writes player ratings after a match. These are generally out of ten. His range is usually between 4 and 8. He has never given a 10, that would be an exemplary match, no arguments with the referee, no fouls, no yellow cards and scoring a hat trick for the winning team, including a curving match winner from outside the box. Pretty much impossible.

Similarly, a score less than a 4 demands the player didn’t even try or did a deliberate tackle to cripple the opponents’ star striker.

In retrospect I guess my son only uses 5 scores for a regular match, but at least there is a nine and ten on the horizon for the exceptional player to aim at.

the pattern on my nightie hanging on the washing line

I remember when they suddenly introduced A* grades at GCSE to reward those whose work was of a higher standard. An A on its own was too easy to achieve.

I also remember a geography teacher giving me a mark of 11/10 for a piece of homework because I’d not only correctly labelled every aspect of a graph but I’d added something he’d not thought of.

Maybe what I’m saying is – are five stars really awarded for absolute excellence? The best thing since sliced bread? The pinnacle of literature? And where do we go from here? Haven’t we just boxed ourselves in?

Then I think about the people who have reviewed my own book. With each 5 star review I wonder if I am really worth it – like the L-Oreal commercial. I was a just above average English student, only getting a D in my A level. I am not great at grammar or spelling; those issues are ironed out by editors and spell checker. Have I really written a book that’s so worthy?

When the imposter syndrome battles with the sparkly reviews it can get messy.

Because of course we all know that most of our reviewers are our friends and we are just rewarding  each other – maybe, maybe not.

I do have a 4 star review from someone in Resolute Books (the collective of authors I belong to). At first, I bristled that she hadn’t given me 5 like everyone else, but the more I thought about it the more I love her honesty.

The words she wrote were kind and complimentary, they would have suited a 4 or 5 star review.

But now I have something to aim for. I want to make my next book better.

star made of sequins on my jumper

I’m not saying other friends are not honest but quite honestly it so often feels like we live in a bubble with only our friends and other writers we personally know reading and reviewing. It’s one of the reasons I had a period several years ago where I gave up writing, unfriended Facebook writers I’d never met in person and basically sat in a grump for a few months.

It didn’t last long and now I’ve built up a whole new network of writing friends – most I have met in person, but that is changing all the time as I network further afield and my words are getting read by new people, sometimes even people I have never met, or briefly meet when I recommend my book to them at an event.

That’s the real joy of reviews hearing from people who have no agenda, they don’t have to write nice words about me. They rave about my book in the same way I want to recommend books by other authors.

So, I suppose I’d better bite the bullet and start sprinkling some stars around. It only fair, not out of an obligation but before their words deserve to be read and I can have some input.

But I am curious to know how others feel on the subject. Do you struggle to grade a book and decide how many stars it is worth? Are you uber generous or super stingy? Are you kinder if you know the author personally? More cutting if you have never met them?

Let me know your thoughts…

(On a side note, if you liked the photos on this post - how many stars can you find in your house?)