Naturally we hope you'll buy the books in one form or another, but did you know that your influence isn't limited to a purchase? The very best thing you can do for an author is to review the books you read. You might have heard this already, you might have read requests for reviews in the backs of books. What you might not know for sure is that these aren't pleas from writers who just want to pad their Amazon pages with 5-star reviews.
Reviews are basically the tool that Amazon and so many other sites use to judge a book's "traffic." That means that the more reviews of any star-length that a book has, the more the algorithms see it as worthy of promotion.
Oftentimes, if an author wants to use an independent book promotion site (think of how you find books on places like BookBub) they won't even be considered unless they've reached a certain threshold of reviews.
So does that mean you have to give a book you didn't enjoy a great review? Nope! Not at all. But, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when you do go to leave your thoughts.
1. You don't have to write long! Lots of people synopsize the book for the readers, but that's not necessary. A couple of sentences explaining what you liked or didn't like about the story is fine. Of course, you CAN write as long as you want--but don't let that stop you.
2. Be specific. If you loved a scene or a character, say what you loved. If you're a fan of the author's other works, say that too. If you didn't like something, feel free to say what it was. But remember, don't be personal. Stick to the book.
3. Do NOT leave a review if you didn't finish at least most of the book. I know there is such a rating as DNF (did not finish) but that is an unhelpful and uncountable rating. I had a very kind member of my review team one time who wrote and told me she simply couldn't read the latest book because she objected to something about the start. She said she would have to give it very few stars but didn't want to leave a review because she had only read the first three chapters. I appreciated that. Had she finished the book and wanted to give it one star--that would have been fine.
4. Be honest but not brutal.
5. Last-- despite what I said about any review being helpful, I want to return to the rule about not being personal. For a while it was chic to be sort of "mean girl" on review sites. That's not cool. You may read a book and it just plain isn't your cup of tea. Authors expect that. Simply say "this book wasn't my cup of tea!" Writing things like, "This author should never pick up another pen--she can't write at all," or "who told this person she/he can write?" or my personal favorite "I never read X-genre but I read this one and didn't like it," might add to the number of reviews, but they don't help the author learn his or her audience and they don't make the reviewer a very nice person. Whether you liked a book or not--the author put heart and soul into it. You can hate it and say so, but keep the author out of the criticism.
There you have it. Leaving a review takes very little time but it produces very big results. Next time you finish a book, do the authors of GLIAS (and every author) a huge favor and zip over to leave a review. Believe me, if we could come to your house with thank you cookies, we definitely would!!
I try to write reviews 1 time every 2 weeks and usually have about 6 books or more to do but I enjoy doing it every time i hit enter i know that i have helped an author out by giving them another review it may not always be great but i am very honest when i write my reviews! peggy clayton
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