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It can be intimidating to write a review, and the process doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Readers even say it’s irritating when the seller immediately sends an email asking for a review, and they haven’t had time to finish the book yet. Here are a few tips to make leaving a review easier.
Don’t Be Rushed
Enjoy the story and take notes as you’re reading. The author doesn’t expect you to be a professional writer—that’s their job. The author loves it that you take the time to express how you felt about their story.
Read Reviews on Other Books
What sort of reviews help you select a book to buy? Do you like quotes pulled from the book? Do you like fair warning about emotional triggers? What do others say that you can appreciate about their review style?
Hook the Reader
Why did you pick up this book? Why do you think another reader should or shouldn’t? What was your takeaway? Explain what caught your attention.
Don’t Be Afraid to Be Brief
A brief review is as effective and counts as much as a detailed one:
- I loved this story!
- I’ll be buying more from this author.
- Kept me reading until way too late.
- It felt like these characters were real people.
Don’t stress over a lengthy review. Even a couple of sentences are helpful to the author. Simply telling other readers why you liked a book is helpful.
Don’t Write a Synopsis of the Book
Authors spend a lot of time on their story blurbs on the sales pages where readers can learn the premise, so don’t write a synopsis yourself. Instead, focus on elements you feel particularly strongly about or you think that readers will want to be aware of. If you liked a character, explain why. If you didn’t like a character, make it clear why you felt that way. Did you appreciate the author’s writing style? How did the story make you feel?
Avoid Spoilers
Please don’t give away spoilers about secrets. Writers take special care to reveal plot points and secrets at appropriate times in a story. Reviews giving away the big moments are disappointing the the author, and readers don’t appreciate knowing what’s going to happen ahead of time. If you’ve done this in the past, please be kind and revise.
What Matters Is How You Felt about the Characters and Their Story
What worked or didn’t work? Was the story satisfying? Did you appreciate character development? Did the story end the way you hoped or was the conclusion better or worse than expected?
Always Proofread
Did you use correct character names? Do you have typos? Did you give away a spoiler?
Leave Reviews on Helpful Sites
There are places to leave reviews that help the author with visibility and sales. Here are a few big ones:
- Your blog
- Amazon
- Goodreads
You Love Books, so Have Fun
Readers read reviews to make buying choices. Everyone appreciates a well thought out commentary on a book. Be creative with your remarks and write as though you’re speaking to the next reader trying to decide what to buy.
Happy reading.
This article had a lot of good advice. However, there is one touchy subject it didn’t address. What do you write if you didn’t like the book? Some of my fellow readers don’t review books they don’t like. I think this gives other readers a false impression of the books they’re considering. So, how do you review a book you didn’t like?