I foundย this on the Self Publishing Reviewย and had to share. Apparently, Amazon has been toying with the idea of using drop-down menus for reviews. I guess they’re trying to encourageย readers to leave reviews, by simplifying the review process.

I also suspect that Amazon is trying to improve their search engine and optimize their suggestions. Having a standardized means of classification is a much more efficient way of searching, and using the public to do so is probably the only way of achieving this without hiring half the Earth’s population.

The new review form is as follows:

From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books

These are the submenu contents:

From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksFrom the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksFrom the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksFrom the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksNow, will this be helpful? Amazon is obviously not convinced, hence the beta-testing. A lot of authors will be upset to find their books reduced to half a dozen simple questions. And readers will probably want to say something more than that an author’s writing was “okay.”

Still, this has obvious merits for Amazon, so don’t be surprised if it takes off and becomes the new way of reviewing your book!