Earlier this month, my husband and I made a reservation for a lake house based on a single positive review. Unfortunately, that review was misleading and we were forced to cancel and request a full refund.

It seems everyone wants a review these days. Online purchases, restaurants, the garage that changes your car’s oil, the post office, the doctor, the dentist, and even the vet all ask you to review your interaction with them. Even authors ask you to leave a review of their book. It’s so annoying!

So how Important Are Reviews?

When you buy a book online, do you check the star rating? Do you look at how many reviews it has? Do you read the reviews before you decide whether to purchase the book?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have some idea of the importance of those reviews to readers. Now, let me tell you what those reviews do for the authors. (It’s not just because we like compliments on our work, although that’s nice, too!)

A review lets the author know what readers liked about their book. That way, they can continue writing what readers want to read. Even negative comments, if given without malice, can help an author when writing subsequent books.

If you’re deciding between a book that has eight 5-star reviews and another that has 63 reviews with an average of 4.7 stars, you’re probably going to buy the one that has more reviews. This is called social proof. The more reviews a book has, the greater the likelihood that more readers will buy it.

In addition, the more reviews a book has, the more likely Amazon will promote the book among similar titles. And the easier it is for the author to land other advertising promotions, which will hopefully result in more sales so more readers can enjoy the book and the author can afford to keep writing books that readers love.

Many of us would leave a review if only we knew what to say. A simple “I enjoyed this book” is fine. But if you’d like to say more,I’ve included some ideas below that might help. You don’t need to answer all of these. One per review is fine. The important thing is to leave a review.

 

What I like most about this book is…(the characters, plot, setting, action, themes, it challenges my thinking, kept my attention, pulled me in from the start, etc.)My favorite character is…My favorite scene is….I have (or hope to) read more books by this author.

OR

I didn’t much care for the book because…I didn’t find some of the scenes believable, such as….I couldn’t identify (or couldn’t sympathize) with the main character.The writing style didn’t appeal to me.

Of course, I can’t finish without asking if you’ve read any of my books, would you please leave a review? I will be eternally grateful!

 

Excerpted from my monthly newsletter. Sign up to get updates and news once a month directly to your inbox.

The post Why Does Everyone Want A Review? appeared first on Mary L. Hamilton.