Why should you write a book review?

Readers often ask me why they should leave a review, and wonder why reviews are so invaluable for writers.

So I thought I’d explain why, if you love a book, you should write a review.

Firstly, and most importantly, a good number of reviews encourage readers to find a new author. Even for readers who already know the writer, there’s nothing like a recommendation from a peer to encourage you to press ‘buy’ on their latest release.
 Reviews inform other readers about the style and readability of the book. Readers know how to describe a book often better than the author. You’d be amazed how long authors spend agonising over the short book descriptions (well, I do anyway). It’s something to do with not being able to see the wood for the trees, I suppose.
Many online advertisers, such as BookBub, rely on reviews to assess whether they will feature a book on their listings. Although these services are by no means free, a book has to be accepted to be listed. Acceptance depends almost solely on the number of reviews a book has.
Finally, there’s the dark art of the Amazon algorithms; the number, and the star rating, of the reviews on Amazon play an important part in how visible the book is in the store. Of course the same goes for other retailers such as iBooks, Nook and Kobo.

In short, book reviews determine whether the book is in the front window of the e-book shop, or lingering in the back of the store gathering dust.

A review can be as short or as long as you like. Just one sentence will make a huge difference to the success of a book. So please, if you have read and loved a book, make sure other readers find it, and write a review!

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