Firstly, if you haven’t read any of my books before, I hope you’ll click on the – My Books – link above and check out a few of my titles! However, the points in this post can be applied to any book you have read and enjoyed.
• Why Leave a Review
• How Easy It Can Be!
Why Leave a Review
It goes without saying that as a reader, you are not obliged to leave feedback on a book. You’ve already taken the time to purchase it, and spend your hard earned money on it. Authors just hope that if you really enjoyed their book, then you may want to read their future work. If you leave a glowing review for a book you loved, you are playing a vital part in ensuring an author, whose work you enjoy, will be given the opportunity to carry on writing.
When it comes to deciding whether or not to leave a review, I guess a lot depends on how much you want to re-live the enjoyment you got from a particular book. If a book didn’t particularly excite you, then maybe it doesn’t merit any feedback.
Writers have bills to pay, just like anyone else, and a great review really DOES help the author, more than you might think. At first glance, a positive review can do the obvious: convince potential readers that a book is worth purchasing.
In the wider scheme of things, retailers such as Amazon LOVE books that generate positive reviews. Its founders may have been passionate about books, but ultimately Amazon is a business, and a huge one at that. It needs customers to buy books. If a potential customer visits a book page without any reviews, positive or n*******, they could easily be put off purchasing (excuse the asterisks - I just hate writing that word out!).
So, Amazon loves rewarding the books that generate the most positive reviews with MORE exposure! When books with positive feedback attract so many buyers, why would a retailer want to waste their advertising space and promotional tools pointing customers to pages with no reviews? The simple answer is: they won’t!
So, the next time you leave a review on a book you’ve thoroughly enjoyed, take pleasure in knowing that you have put a smile on the author’s face (you have - I promise!), and that you have prodded a promotional piece into the Amazon Jigsaw Juggernaut.
How Easy It Can be
Let me just get this out there! Yes, it can be a pain in the ass to:
1) Write a review after reading a book. Where do you even start?
2) Take the time to log in, find the book, and leave the review!
Some people genuinely love writing reviews, and I take my hat off to all of them. If you’re one of these lucky people, you can skip point one, and maybe even point two, as you’re obviously an avid reader and reviewer.
I will hold up my hands, and admit that I do not particularly enjoy writing reviews. I could even stretch to saying I struggle to write them. Give me 10k words of story any day of the week! I can’t quite put my finger on why; maybe I just feel like I’m always leaving out something that should be included? Sometimes, I just can’t get my brain to start working and find a way to start composing the review.
An easy way around this is to not think of what you’re writing as a book review. Sometimes a potential reader just needs to know that you enjoyed the book. One of my favourite book reviews was for Partners In Crime, and it simply read: BRILLIANT. The reviewer also rated it five stars.
Feel free to write as much as you want, but bear in mind that one simple word or short sentence will work just as well for Amazon (or Goodreads) as a long, professional book review.
Don’t get me wrong, professional book reviews are an important part of the publishing process for an author, and in most cases these longer reviews will end up on multiple websites and blogs around the world. These in-depth reviews also serve an additional purpose: sure, they advise and critique like a conventional Amazon or Goodreads review, but they are also content in their own right. They analyze stories, and provide deep insight into a piece of work.
But when it comes to poking Amazon’s supply/demand algorithms, a small, snappy testimonial is like: GOLD DUST!
Leaving the review: I can help there too!
You may notice I’ve only spoken about positive reviews; I couldn’t build up the courage to write anything about the ‘bad’ ones. I guess you should read the above, and then twist it around.
• Why Leave a Review
• How Easy It Can Be!
Why Leave a Review
It goes without saying that as a reader, you are not obliged to leave feedback on a book. You’ve already taken the time to purchase it, and spend your hard earned money on it. Authors just hope that if you really enjoyed their book, then you may want to read their future work. If you leave a glowing review for a book you loved, you are playing a vital part in ensuring an author, whose work you enjoy, will be given the opportunity to carry on writing.
When it comes to deciding whether or not to leave a review, I guess a lot depends on how much you want to re-live the enjoyment you got from a particular book. If a book didn’t particularly excite you, then maybe it doesn’t merit any feedback.
Writers have bills to pay, just like anyone else, and a great review really DOES help the author, more than you might think. At first glance, a positive review can do the obvious: convince potential readers that a book is worth purchasing.
In the wider scheme of things, retailers such as Amazon LOVE books that generate positive reviews. Its founders may have been passionate about books, but ultimately Amazon is a business, and a huge one at that. It needs customers to buy books. If a potential customer visits a book page without any reviews, positive or n*******, they could easily be put off purchasing (excuse the asterisks - I just hate writing that word out!).
So, Amazon loves rewarding the books that generate the most positive reviews with MORE exposure! When books with positive feedback attract so many buyers, why would a retailer want to waste their advertising space and promotional tools pointing customers to pages with no reviews? The simple answer is: they won’t!
So, the next time you leave a review on a book you’ve thoroughly enjoyed, take pleasure in knowing that you have put a smile on the author’s face (you have - I promise!), and that you have prodded a promotional piece into the Amazon Jigsaw Juggernaut.
How Easy It Can be
Let me just get this out there! Yes, it can be a pain in the ass to:
1) Write a review after reading a book. Where do you even start?
2) Take the time to log in, find the book, and leave the review!
Some people genuinely love writing reviews, and I take my hat off to all of them. If you’re one of these lucky people, you can skip point one, and maybe even point two, as you’re obviously an avid reader and reviewer.
I will hold up my hands, and admit that I do not particularly enjoy writing reviews. I could even stretch to saying I struggle to write them. Give me 10k words of story any day of the week! I can’t quite put my finger on why; maybe I just feel like I’m always leaving out something that should be included? Sometimes, I just can’t get my brain to start working and find a way to start composing the review.
An easy way around this is to not think of what you’re writing as a book review. Sometimes a potential reader just needs to know that you enjoyed the book. One of my favourite book reviews was for Partners In Crime, and it simply read: BRILLIANT. The reviewer also rated it five stars.
Feel free to write as much as you want, but bear in mind that one simple word or short sentence will work just as well for Amazon (or Goodreads) as a long, professional book review.
Don’t get me wrong, professional book reviews are an important part of the publishing process for an author, and in most cases these longer reviews will end up on multiple websites and blogs around the world. These in-depth reviews also serve an additional purpose: sure, they advise and critique like a conventional Amazon or Goodreads review, but they are also content in their own right. They analyze stories, and provide deep insight into a piece of work.
But when it comes to poking Amazon’s supply/demand algorithms, a small, snappy testimonial is like: GOLD DUST!
Leaving the review: I can help there too!
- Find the Amazon sales page listing your book. (If it’s one of my books go directly to it by clicking the purchase link next to the book you believe merits the feedback. You’ll find it on the My Books page on this website.)
- Scroll down the Amazon product page until you find a button asking you to leave a customer review. Click it.
- Scroll down until you find the book you want to review.
- DO THE BUSINESS, and you’re done ☺
You may notice I’ve only spoken about positive reviews; I couldn’t build up the courage to write anything about the ‘bad’ ones. I guess you should read the above, and then twist it around.
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