Book Reviews and Why They Matter
- Arlene Laskey
- Oct 20
- 2 min read
I have started to ask friends and family to write a book review for Quest for the Enlightened Pilgrim and the Trip Journal. Some have asked about that. Why? and How? are common questions.
I found an article online about this. You can read the whole article here, but here are some highlights:
4 Reasons that Book Reviews Matter
You share your experience with other readers. These days, everyone wants to see the reviews before they choose a restaurant, an item to purchase, or a book to read. Just seeing lots of reviews is a good sign, but seeing a high star rating and a few useful comments is fantastic!
Your review can help others decide if they want to read the book. A well written review can give other readers enough information to know if it could be something they would enjoy, but not so much information that they don't have to read it themselves.
Your feedback can help the author improve. I think my friend Bill has some ideas to help me improve the Trip Journal. I have my own ideas as well, so I might do an update of that one. You might have some useful feedback as well!
You support the author. As a new author, I love to hear your feedback. Amazon likes it also! Seeing more reviews for a book can help it to rank higher and get more visibility on Amazon.
Tips on writing a book review on Amazon
If you have purchased the book on Amazon, go to your order history and click on Write a Product Review. Choose a star rating, write a little something, add a title, and submit the review.
If you purchased your book directly from me, you can still write a review, here are the links. The process is the same. (You may need to log onto your Amazon account to do this.)
The article mentioned above (here's the link again) has a great suggested format for book reviews. Here are a few of my favourite tips:
Be honest. Be kind and respectful, but honest feedback is appreciated by everyone.
No spoilers, please! Focus on the book's content, what you liked (or didn't like) about it.
Be specific about parts of the book. You don't have to include all these, but you could mention the characters, the plot, the writing style, the themes.
Include a recommendation. For example, "if you are a fan of x style of books, you are likely to enjoy this one."
Book reviews are powerful. Once you have read one of my books, I would really appreciate if you could leave me an honest review. And while you are in the flow, write reviews for a few other books you have read.
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