Review meme 1

This is going to be short and to the point to keep it as user-friendly as possible. Reviews are important, all authors know that, but I’ve been surprised at the number of people who have spoken to me about my books but when I’ve gently asked them if they could leave a review they look at me blankly and say they have no idea how to do that. It’s not the actual writing of the review – remember, it doesn’t have to be a full critique, just one or two lines to say you loved a book is just as welcome as a longer review (there’s a great post on Rosie Amber’s Book Review Blog right here to help with that) it’s the physical how-to-do-it bit that they’re finding a challenge. So, here’s a how-to-do-it guide in 3 easy steps!

How to leave a review on Amazon. (Apologies for the blurry photos but I’m no good at this editing malarkey!)

Step 1

Find the page on Amazon that has the book you are interested in reviewing on it. Scroll down that page until you get to the table of reviews that looks like this…

 Leave a review 1_edited

See that big button at the side of the table with ‘Write a Customer Review >’ on it? Click on that.

If you are not already logged into your account Amazon will ask you to do that.

Step 2

You will be taken to this page.

 Leave a review 2_edited

Select which star best expresses your feelings about the book by clicking on it. If you hover your cursor over each star (they will light up as you do) you will see they range from ‘I hate it’ to ‘I love it’ – not particularly sophisticated but it’s all we’ve got.

Step 3

A box will appear where you can write the review. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate – a few words to say how the book made you feel would be terrific.

I have usually written my review on a word document (because I’m going to post it in several places) so I copy and paste it into the box but you can just as easily write it fresh, right there and then.

 Leave a review 3_edited

Add a title – I usually use a phrase from the review but you can put whatever you like here.

Click on the ‘Submit’ button…

That is all there is to it.

And you know what they say, practice makes perfect!! 😉

IMG_0092

 

Further notes:

I don’t review direct from my Kindle, even though you get that handy reminder when you finish a book, as I need time to formulate something. But if you are only going to leave a few words, go for it.

I am writing from my own experience here but obviously there are other ereaders, and sites to buy books from. All of them will take your review so just find the book on the appropriate site and the process will be similar to that which I’ve outlined above.

I always post my reviews to Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Goodreads. You go through exactly the same process on the Amazon.com site and in fact you can leave a review on any of the Amazon sites through out the world which is useful if you know your author lives in Australia!

If you are a member of Goodreads this is a great place to leave reviews and the process is much the same but the stars mean slightly different things and you don’t have to add a title. So if you mark the book you want to review as the one you’re ‘Currently reading’ when you want to review it click on ‘Update Progress’ and you will be guided through the process.

If you have a paperback, and even if you bought it direct from the author (or were given it as a gift) rather than from the site you want to review it on Amazon and Goodreads will still accept your review. The only difference is that if you bought the book from Amazon your review will have ‘Verified Purchase’ by it and while this adds to the strength of your review it is not essential.

Although this is about the posting of reviews rather than the writing of them, Paula makes a very good point in the comments – spoilers can be heartbreaking for an author. Less is more, and if you can say what you want without giving the plot away we would be eternally grateful! However, if you find you can’t without revealing something of the plot stick in a *Spoiler Alert* to warn future readers. Many authors would rather have a review with spoilers than no review at all.

Thank you for reading!

If any one coming to this page feels something should be added to these notes let me know in the comments or send me an email and I shall add it in.

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10 Responses to Photo Guide to Posting a Book Review in 3 Easy Steps
  1. judith anne barrow August 11, 2017 at 8:55 pm Reply

    Brilliantly explicit – simple and to the point. Now to pass on to our readers!. Thanks, Georgia.<3

  2. Think you should also add something about not posting ‘spoilers’ or revealing the end of the story (as someone recently did for one of my books). I had worked hard to build up the mystery/intrigue/suspense until the final revelation near the end – and this reviewer told everyone who was involved and what happened – grr!

    • Oh isn’t that irritating!! I shall add something in about that but this is one of the problems with putting your work out there – anyone can then say anything about it. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting Paula.

  3. This is great – I think it would be good if you added something in the very first paragraph to say that a review doesn’t have to be a full critique. Something like ‘remember, just one or two lines to say you loved a book is just as welcome as a longer review’.

    I say this because I remember when, ages ago, I was at a friend’s house, and she was telling me how she loved all my books. But she’d never reviewed one, so I sat her down to do so! She logged onto her favourite of mine, and said, ‘but what do I put?’. She is by no means unintelligent or inarticulate, but hadn’t got a clue what to say. It’s easy for us, we’re writers, but not so much for others. I think that thinking a review has to be a full literary critique is something that puts readers off writing them, too, because they see all the book blogger ones on the Amazon page.

    Re what Paula said, if people want to describe the actual plot, they can always put **Spoiler Alert** at the top of it :). I’d rather have a review with spoilers than no review at all!

    • Thanks T, those points are now incorporated. The one about not knowing what to write is such a good one, and why I included the link to Rosie’s post. That is definitely the other thing that puts people off.

  4. Thanks for the shout out.

  5. This post will go a long way to improving readers wanting to leave reviews.
    Even a one liner will make a difference and be so welcome!


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