So… you read a book you really enjoyed. You tell all your friends (yay!) and if you’re a librarian, eagerly await a patron asking for book recommendations because now you can tell them about this underrated book (have I done this? Yes. Now go read City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer. It’s a city where you don’t want to go to sleep because if you do, you might turn into your worst nightmare. Art deco vibes. A man-eating pterodactyl. And a main character who’s a coward, but there’s a very important plot reason for that and she’s a fun coward, okay? Go read it.)
But do you want to make an author even happier?
Leave us a quick book review!
Here’s why!
- Social proof. Long story short, when other readers see people commenting on a book, they get curious. And those readers might see if those reviews mention anything that catches their interest (or makes them give a big old “NOPE” and bypass the book completely. This is why even negative reviews are important. You might not like that the big twist is that the main character is actually an alien, but I do and now that I know that twist is there, I’m going to snatch up the book because I want to see how well it was foreshadowed. For the record, I thought the author did well. (Click here if you want to know which book I’m referring to. Not naming it directly because yeah… spoilers.)
- Stoke the author’s ego and let them know someone connected with their writing. Not even going to hide this one. I love reading reviews because I want to see what you got of the story. It’s awesome when you see something I hoped you would, and also awesome when you make connections that I didn’t realize I’d put in there. Granted, if it’s a negative review, it’s not so awesome… but it means you did take the time to read my book, so that’s cool. And also, see “Social proof” above.
- Encourages the author to write more in the series. Or finish it faster. Nothing says “I should prioritize finishing this series” than a lot of book reviews. Especially because book reviews tend to be considerably more rare than sales or downloads. AND if you say what you enjoyed or wanted to see, there’s a chance the author is going to keep that in mind for future books.
Okay, so now you know why authors want you to leave a book review, let’s do a quick how.
There’s no one way to write a review. Some are really long and super detailed. Others are only a couple sentences. Either is great! Don’t sweat it. This isn’t supposed to be a chore.
But, things to keep in mind…
- Please don’t list major spoilers without a spoiler warning! Give other readers a chance to be surprised.
- Do say what you enjoyed! While this can be an essay (I’m certainly not going to protest), even a couple sentences is super helpful. Who was your favorite character? Why? Did you like the world-building? Was the prose fun to read? Was it a page-turner? Did you want to scream and throw the book across the room because the author ended it on a major cliffhanger and you wanted to know what happens next as of yesterday? Choose at least one, write a sentence or two, and you have the basics of a review!
- Feel free to say what you didn’t like. These reviews need to be honest, after all, and as I mentioned earlier, what might not be your cup of tea might be someone else’s, so this is still really helpful. Though… if you want to be nice to the author, maybe sandwich this with something the author did well?
Now… where should you share your review?
Some of the most popular places are going to be directly with the online retailer. Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google Play… those are all really helpful for the author, because you’re going right to where readers are looking to buy more books.
Goodreads is another good one, since it’s meant for book reviews, as are apps like StoryGraph.
But you can also share your review on your own blog or social media.
You don’t have to overthink this. Now, get out there and write a review!
* * *
Want to leave a review on one of my books?
Here’s a couple free first-in-series you could start with…
* * *
Happy reading and writing!
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 