How to Write a Simple Book Review and, More Importantly, Why You Should

I want to talk about writing a quick and easy review of a book. But more importantly, I want to tell you why you should.

Reviews should be simple and easy and not take much time. A while ago, I did a youtube video about it. You can find it here.

But the bigger question is why should you? Fair question.

It doesn’t matter how many books I’ve written, or how much money I spent in advertising, ultimately the algorithms rely very heavily on the information provided by the purchasers themselves. There is a difference between books that get one review an books that get 20 reviews. If you have a book that gets 20 or more reviews, it is more likely that this book will be picked up by the advertising algorithms that Amazon or any other book seller uses. At the end of the day, it is all about sales. This is indeed significant, because when it’s picked up by the algorithms it gets in front of more faces.

Reviews don’t necessarily only amount to a monetary reward. In fact, many authors will tell you that a good book review will float their boat for many weeks. I don’t mind telling you that there is been times that have been tempted to give up writing completely only to have a really nice review sent to me. The review can make all the difference in the world.

So, it could be that those kind words you wrote are the kind words that keep your favorite author at their keyboards.

A simple review includes the following three elements:

State if you like the book. Ex. “I just read book X, I really enjoyed it.”State what you liked about the book. Ex. “It is really well written, and I love how the characters came alive on the page.”State an intent. Ex. “I can’t wait for the next book in the series.” or “I can’t wait to read the rest of his/her works.”

Here is an example of something similar. An actual review of my novel, Riapoke. “Very entertaining for sci fi lovers. Quick enjoyable read.” 

Quick, concise, and easy. It didn’t take them more than a few seconds to write that and then hit submit.

Next we will move on to what I consider more of a mid-level review. Mid-level reviews are little bit more in depth, they’re typically the ones I leave when I write a review. They consist of the following.

A little bit about the beginning part of the story. Some of the aspects of the book that I like. A recommendation about what to do next.

Here's an example of one from my book Riapoke.

Stories of ‘strange’ neighbourhoods and remote towns have existed for years and will continue. The premise of something being ‘not quite right’ is a superb vehicle for a tale of terror. Mr Nowak draws the reader in with a rapidly evolving plot which all sounds very normal, and then things start to go wrong for a few of the characters, and in a bad, almost irretrievable way.

The sense of foreboding is related well and feels like the stuff of nightmares. I was impressed that when the pace picked up the action rarely eased, which if not done well can be exhausting.

Paranormal activity in such a story is fitting, rather than added as some auth

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