Weekend Read-Review writing



Happy Friday Friends! I'm doing something a little different from the weekend read this week.

It's all about one word that makes an impact to the author of the book you're reading-Reviewing. 

We all love getting recognized at work or school for doing a stellar job on a project, or assignment. It gives you "shooting stars" of warm fuzzies or written plainly, it makes you feel good.

An author enjoys being noticed for their work as well.

The books that make you laugh, cry, cheer are written by hard-working individuals for you, their reader.

Taking the time to write how the book made you feel, a favorite quote, quirky characters, swoon-worthy moments of romance, the list can go on indefinitely. This is the gist of writing a review.

 (No spoilers please, i.e. if you retell the story, or give away the plot, your friends can't be surprised by how the book unfolds). Shh, true confession-As a child, I used to unwrap my Christmas presents and rewrap them so my parents wouldn't know. Scotch tape was my #1 friend then, but the element of surprise-wasn't. It's like that for the next reader of the book when they read a review with spoilers before diving into the pages themselves. Not fun.

Reviews don't have to be full of prose like an Elizabeth Barrett Browning sonnet, they need to come from you, the person who spilled the coffee on their blouse or shirt at work this morning, or the one who pulled into your child's schools drop-off lane five minutes before the bell rang. (Judgement free zone here-I've done both before).

To me, it's like a "thank you note" to the author, for undergoing many hours of work to create their piece of artistry for we readers to enjoy.


Interested in writing a review? If you're new to it, I've created a "how-to" which lists some of the major sites where you can leave a review and what to do to start.






A Guide to Reviews


Amazon:

Log into your account or sign up to get an Amazon account (Email address, create a password)
Put the author’s name of the name of their book in the search bar
Scroll down to the middle, under the customer review bars there will be a grey bar which will say, “write a customer review.”
Click on that bar and it will open a new page where you can rate by the number of stars you think it deserves if you'd like you can add a photo of the book(optional), (no spoilers please, let your friends be surprised at how the book unfolds),  headline and write your review.
Please click “submit” once you are finished
In about three days, Amazon will email you to let you know your review has been accepted.

Barnes and Noble:

You can log in with your Facebook or Google accounts or create a unique sign-in just for Barnes and Noble
You will need to search again by the author’s name or book title
Scroll down until you see the “Customer Review” section.
Once you click on the green bar to review it will open a new page.
You can give the book the number of stars you think it deserves and create a review.
Once you hit “submit review” it will take up to 5 days for them to alert you that your review has been approved and is now on their website.

Books-A-Million:

You will need to create a log-in for this website (Email and password)
Please search for author’s book in the search bar
Click on the “write a review” link next to the stars, it will take you to the review page.
From there, you can give it your star rating, headline, and write your review (they label their comments).
It will take closer to a week for them to approve and put your review online.
They will notify you, usually when it is online.


Goodreads:

You will need to log-in or create an account (it can be linked to your Facebook or Google log-in).
Search for the title of the book.
Once the page loads, click the “Read” button underneath the photo of the book.
That will take you to the review page.
You can choose the number of stars and underneath you’ll see “Bookshelves/tags” Please create a “shelf” for the author’s book to put it on. Ex. Contemporary Romance or you can add a new category and name it what you’d like.
Once you write your review, you can click the “Save” button and it will immediately publish.
You can also click to “Add to your update feed” and it will post to Facebook for you.



Have fun writing your "thank you note" to an author.







My "to be read stack" is dwindling, do you have a book you'd recommend? And, if you need a book recommendation, ask me, I love sharing books with people.

Happy reading! I hope you have a fantastic weekend!





Comments

  1. This is a nice explanation for writing a review. I had never thought of it as a thank you note. And you write so many nice reviews.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Barbara. It's something we readers can do for the authors. Happy to write them: ) Have a fantastic day!

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