Stars - what do they mean?

No, I'm not referring to the Oscars last night.

My science fiction group, The Minnows Literary Group, now has four anthologies that benefit Doctors Without Borders (Out of Time, In A Land Far Away, Centauri Station, and Still Out of Time), and the combination of the four sell around 100 copies per week. We appreciate that people leave reviews, but, occasionally, the stars given don't seem to match the reviews.

Amber over at WANATribe once posted a blog post about the rating system difference between Amazon and Goodreads, but I can't seem to find her post. So, I thought I'd give a quick recap here.

On Amazon:
1 star = I hate it
2 stars = I don't like it
3 stars = It's okay
4 stars = I like it
5 stars = I love it

On Goodreads:
1 star = did not like it
2 stars = it was okay
3 stars = liked it
4 stars = really liked it
5 stars = it was amazing

As you can see, Amazon's scale is more extreme on the Dislike end, while Goodreads allows for a more extreme Like rating. Therefore, 5 Stars on Amazon is really more like 4 Stars on Goodreads. Keep that in mind when I love your book but only give it 4 stars on Goodreads. ;)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams