How to Write a Book Review

Helpful Tips & Industry Insights into Becoming a Trusted Voice in Book Marketing

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Last week we shared an article about why book reviews matter to authors and publishers and the market at large. This week we are going to focus specifically on the ways in which consumers utilize reviews and how you can become a trusted reviewer whose opinion readers, publishers, and authors alike appreciate and solicit.

It’s no secret that consumers most often want to spend their money on products that are trusted and recommended. The more reviews and ratings a product has, the better it looks to potential buyers. Even while shopping in person, many people will look at Amazon simply for reviews before purchasing a book at their local indie bookstore. So books with hundreds of reviews will naturally draw more attention than a book with as few as seven, fifteen, or even thirty reviews. When deciding between two books where all other factors are equal, the number of reviews is likely to be the deciding factor.

I want to help authors, not that billionaire who owns Amazon. Do authors really benefit from reviews?

Yes! 100% of authors sell more books when they have more reviews! Even, and sometimes especially, when those reviews are posted on sites like Amazon and Goodreads. As we’ve discussed, reviews show that something can be trusted and has been trusted already by numerous people. Our publishing house sees direct correlation between books (and authors) that have the most ratings and reviews with books that sell the best year over year.

Is writing reviews complicated?

Not really, or at least, it doesn’t have to be. And many people have their own review systems that work well for them that are different from what we will be describing below. But if you are interested or need help, here’s our cheat sheet for reviewers—whether you are just starting out or have hundreds of reviews under your belt already. For the purpose of this article, we are focusing on non-professional book reviewing, posted exclusively to sites like StoryGraph, Goodreads, Amazon, personal blogs, and/or social media.