Why Are Reviews Important?
Imagine that you have just finished a fantastic book. The plotline was engaging, and the characters were unforgettable. The ending left you with a mixture of satisfaction and questions, causing you to search for answers, such as when the sequel releases. Now here's the big question, did you leave a review?
Let me re-phrase the question. For the last three things you bought online, did you use the reviews left by other customers to sway your decision?
Just like so many other products, books need reviews to stay in the eyes of readers. When you review a book, it helps that book move up on the hierarchy next to thousands of others. Without reviews, books slowly drop further and further down the charts into obscurity.
Now that we established that reviews are crucial to a book's success let's move on to how your review can help further.
Review Do's:
Highlight the positive: Many reviews write a vague few words and end it there. To ensure other readers read it, too, be sure to highlight the positives in the book. Did it have diverse or memorable characters? Was the plotline engaging and well-paced? Are you excited to see other works by the author? These are all things that can pull readers' attention.
Fill in the title section: Amazon, for instance, has an optional area for you to write a title that can be seen first and let the readers immediately know you like the book before they read your full review.
Find some positives: There are going to be times that we read a book that wasn't what we thought it was going to be or had weak points (storyline, plotholes, etc.) In cases such as these, my goal is to find the positives about the book. The sandwich method seems to work the best, "The characters were memorable, keeping my interest throughout the story, especially the relationship between Sam and Rebecca. The storyline was good, although I felt like the middle of the plot left me feeling lost. This story is good for readers coming of age."
Let the author know what you like: When authors read through the reviews, they are looking to see what readers took away from the book. This often helps their writing style moving forward or even gives them ideas on sequels. We also like to see what readers enjoyed the most about the book.
The Don'ts:
Please Don't Be Negative: I know how disappointing it can be to buy a book. To start reading it and become disappointed when it wasn't a good read. Now hear me out, as awful a situation as this is, someone, put time and effort into creating this book—countless hours of editing, tweaking, and planning. To write how much you personally hated it online for all to see, unfortunately, isn't going to help the author write better books or other readers who may like the book find it. As much as it wasn't the book for us, it could be the book for someone else. If you feel the need to leave a negative review, try to focus on objective problems and be constructive. Even the best well-written books can get lost in the charts if it gets bad reviews just because readers didn't like the genre, writing style, etc.
Now I'm not trying to tell you exactly how to leave a review. I am only looking to point out how reviews affect a writer's career and sales, what books they write next, and how subjective negative reviews based on personal preferences can seriously hurt a book's chance at success.
So, in the end, I hope this helps someone somewhere.
Author's need readers more than anything. You guys inspire us to create amazing, memorable stories with unforgettable characters. You all tell other people how great our books are, and you keep coming back to read more. We can't thank you any more than we already should be doing.