Readers often ask me why they should write a book review, and why reviews are so invaluable for writers.
So I thought I’d explain why, if you love a book, you should write a review.
Find a New Author
Firstly, and most importantly, a good number of book reviews encourage readers to find a new author. Even for readers who already know the writer, there’s nothing like a recommendation from a peer to encourage you to press ‘buy’ on their latest release.
Inform Other Readers
Book reviews inform other readers about the style and readability of the book. Readers know how to describe a book often better than the author. You’d be amazed how long authors spend agonizing over the short book descriptions (well, I do anyway). It’s something to do with not being able to see the wood for the trees, I suppose.
Help Your Favourite Author to Find New Readers
Many online advertisers, such as BookBub, rely on book reviews to assess whether they will feature a book on their listings or not. Although these services are by no means free, a book has to be accepted to be listed. Acceptance depends almost solely on the number of reviews a book has. So you see, by writing a review, you help your favorite author to find more readers by enabling him or her to target their advertising.
Make a Book Your Enjoyed Visible to Other Readers
Finally, there’s the dark art of the Amazon algorithms; the number, and the star rating, of the reviews on Amazon play an important part in how visible the book is in the store. Of course the same goes for other retailers such as iBooks, Nook and Kobo. In short, book reviews determine whether the book is in the front window of the e-book shop, or lingering in the back of the store gathering dust.
Add to Social Proof of Your Favourite Book and Author
A book marketing guru, Chandler Bolt, compares the social proof an author gets from a book review to how we behave when choosing a restaurant in an unknown city. Do you choose the place that is full (and possibly has a long waiting list), or the one on the other side of the street that is empty? Most of us choose the place that is full, even if we have to wait to get a table. Perhaps the other restaurant had a case of food poisoning? It’s the same with books. Generally, readers choose the ones that have the most reviews.
Write a Book Review!
A review can be as short or as long as you like. Just one sentence will make a huge difference to the success of a book. So please, if you have read and loved a book, make sure other readers find it, and write a review!
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