I Have a Question

I'm nonplussed.

I was doing some research for another post and I had a bit of a ... revelation? A shock?

I ended up on dear old Amazon looking for reviews to compare. And yes, I found one that I had done. But there was another review listed as well about this same book. The more the merrier, right? Well ... maybe.

You see, as you probably can tell from my posts, I'm a reviewer who loves to dive into a book and bring out my favorite parts to share with readers. That means I'm a bit verbose. I guess I'm not the norm but that's alright with me.

What stuck in my craw is this -- there was my very indepth review with eight short paragraphs covering the characters, the motivation, the writing and what I found great about it, and the other review was nine sentences long. NINE SENTENCES and yet three out of four visitors found THAT review the MOST helpful.

Mine only received one vote.

So here is my question: How long is too long?

Authors seem to love the attention to detail that I try to bring to my reviews.
Why don't readers? So now I'm wondering if the response on Amazon is an indication that visitors there are geared and programmed towards the 30 second sound bite or is this the attention capacity of readers now-a-days everywhere?

If a review had to be condensed in some way - what are the key factors that would grab a reader's attention. Is less better? Or is it a sign that people are being conditioned to lower their expectations and accept less as best?

Anyone have any insights for me?