When you finish an amazing book, your first instinct (after you’ve sat catatonically for twenty minutes processing) may be to tell a friend.
With the advent of social media, telling a friend has become much easier. In fact, if you leave a book review, you can tell everyone. But why should you? What should you write? Where should you leave a review?
Why book reviews matter
Book reviews are extremely important in helping a manuscript gain traction and raise awareness. After a certain amount of reviews on Amazon, the company will start to promote the book – something that can dramatically help increase sales.
As a newly-published author, I find reviews are a great way to help me hone my craft. With every book I write, I want to make it the best I can – and reviews are extremely helpful in helping me see where I need to improve.
But book reviews aren’t just for helping authors make more money and get better at writing. They’re a great way for you as the reader to connect with other, like-minded folk out there. The online communities of Bookstagram and Booktok are full of people who have made strong friendships because of their shared love for reading. Book reviews can help you pick your next read, bond over a shared favourite book and keep up to date with the latest news in the book world.
What if you don’t like the book? Should you still leave a review?
You’ll get different opinions on this – so here’s mine. I’ll caveat it by saying I prefer the brutal, blunt truth in general life and I like to believe that years of working elsewhere in the writing industry has helped me develop quite a thick skin.
Yes. You should. If you hate my work, I’d rather you told me.
Other writers may not necessarily feel the same and I can’t speak for them. But I’m interested in everyone’s opinions – good and bad.
Where should you leave a review?
During my research for this blog, I’ve come to the conclusion that Amazon is a phenomenally important place to leave reviews. However, there are many places you can share your thoughts – and authors greatly appreciate the time you spend doing so.
For example, you can share your opinion on my debut novel, Venom and Blaze, here:
- Amazon
- Goodreads
- Storygraph
- on your own channels, such as your blog, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, Facebook and beyond.
The beauty of all those platforms is you can leave a review in a way that suits you. If you prefer to talk about the book, you can record a video or a reel for TikTok and Instagram. I prefer to write a review, so I like to post them on Instagram and my blog. It’s entirely up to you.
What should you say?
I like to write a brief synopsis of the story itself to kick the review off. While the synopsis may be readily available when you review on Amazon or Goodreads, it won’t be visible if you post on your social media. So giving your review readers a flavour of what the book is about, before you start delving deeper into it, just makes sense to me.
I like to lead with what I liked about the book, trying to be specific and clear. I then follow up with anything I didn’t like as much, explaining why I didn’t like it and indicating if these areas are simply just personal preference. For example, if the book is well-written but contains the death of a cat or dog, I wouldn’t want to read about this and it would go down as something I don’t like – but that doesn’t mean it’s not a carefully crafted book.
How can you get ARCs to read and review?
Reviewing ARCs is incredibly rewarding. There’s the excitement of reading something brand new – and the joy of knowing an author is going to really appreciate the review you come up with.
You can source ARCs by joining a Street Team, either with the publisher (which enables you to access a range of ARCs by different authors) or with the author themselves. You can also get ARCs through dedicated platforms that distribute these. My tip would be to make sure you don’t collect more than you can reasonably read and review, especially if some of them have tight deadlines.
Lastly, a big thank you!
Some people have already left reviews for Venom and Blaze and this is greatly appreciated! I know it can be time-consuming, collating your thoughts and putting them out there online, but as an independent author, I value it greatly.
Happy reviewing!
Leave a Reply