How to Write Reviews and the Importance of Them

The Importance of Reviews

Authors love to get good reviews.  Reviews of an Authors work should be honest.  If you don’t like something and review it, it might A: encourage the author to improve their work B: make the author realize they might want to take up something other than writing.  A review of a book lets readers know whether they might want to buy a book or not.  Personally, I look at reviews on Amazon if I’m considering a book or not and they are highly influential.  I might find out if the book is a stand alone or not.  I prefer stand alone books.  If there are a slew of one-star reviews, I know not to waste my time with a book.  That being said, some Indie authors (self-published) may not have many reviews and need to get some. 

Working with Goodreads 

I barely have any reviews on my poetry book, but recently I learned how to get some.  I became an author on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/) and joined some groups.  Goodreads is not just for authors, it is also for readers; in fact, it’s more for readers than authors.  That being said, being a Goodreads author has been very beneficial to me.  I belong to two reviewing groups, One is “Authors Needing Reviews” at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/53280-authors-needing-reviews ; and the other is “Genre Specific Review Groups” at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/100482-genre-specific-review-groups .  I have done 2 reviews for the Authors group and have gotten 2 in return.  I have agreed to do 2 more for the Genre Group and will get another 2 in return.  Unfortunately, it’s undetermined how many will make it on Amazon, and how many will have to simply stay on the Goodreads site.  Amazon has rules where you must have spent at least $50 to write a review.  They also might not let you review a product if a product is for sale in a different country.  One of the reviews I did was for a lady in the UK and I’m in the USA so it wouldn’t let me post on Amazon.  One review was for another lady in the US and it let me review her book (I spend a lot on Amazon).

How to Do Reviews

If you’ve decided to do reviews, which I recommend, and need to know how to do them, the first thing you should do is read reviews.  Find the ones you like and use them as a guideline to write your own.  There are all kinds of books that need reviewing: fiction books, non-fiction books, and poetry books. Non-fiction and poetry reviews are different from fiction book reviews.  In non-fiction and poetry reviews, you don’t have to worry about spoilers like you do in fiction reviews.  Telling what these books are about, in detail, is desired.  In a fiction book review, you have to leave out some details to avoid spoiling the book.  In all book reviews, talking about the mood an author portrays is a good idea.  Saying what you like about a book is a good idea too.  Reading an explanation of how to do reviews might not be the best style of learning, so I’ll give you links to the reviews that were listed above.  One poetry book review I did was “Unconditional” by T.Renee, and is on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/UNCONDITIONAL-Just-Me-Scattered-Thoughts/dp/1634927761/  under the review title “A Collection of Poems Worth Reading.”  It should be noted that coming up with a title for your review is important, informing interested parties what you will be talking about.  I also posted this same review to her Goodreads page.  The other review I did was for “Moon Petals” by Jessica Ginting, which can’t be found on Amazon, but can be on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38469438-moon-petals without a title, but under Natasha Gruss.  Looking at the other reviews for these books is a good idea too.  The reviews that I have received for my poetry book “Un-Clenched Emotion” can be found on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327/ and on my Goodreads Author Page at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32282264-un-clenched-emotion These are examples of Poetry Reviews.

A few more words.  I have agreed to do more reviews for the Goodreads Groups I mentioned above.  Right now, I’m scheduled for 5, so I will not have much time.  I also need to mention a free marketing book that I got over twitter: “The Self-Publishing Tools of Trade Every Author Must Know” by Lama Jabr, which has a lot of links for authors to market their books.  It could have had more information about why each marketing step is important and how too, but the links allowed it so I didn’t have to use search engines for things like finding places that do free reviews, and places I could advertise my free book.  It was all there in one place.  There are many more beneficial links in Jabr’s book, so if you’re an author, I recommend it.  The links for free book sites that I placed on this blog all came from Jabr’s book.  There’s a non-fiction book review example for you!  I hope this helps you want to support authors and review a book.