Douglas Hoff Garners a Good Review Both From Professional and Reader’s Alike

As an author or writer receiving a good review is an ecstatic experience. That being said, book reviews are extremely beneficial to both readers and authors. Posting reviews enable readers to decide which books to read next. And that is precisely why book reviews benefit authors as well. A well-written review that contains the information readers can assist readers in discovering new books.

What Readers Look in a Book Review?

Book Star Rating

The average star rating of a book provides an excellent insight into what readers think. Not only should you provide your star rating in your review, but you should not stop there. Without an explanation, a rating is not a review and will not interest future readers.

A quick tip: Each review site (Amazon and Goodreads, for example, but also book blogs) has its own set of criteria for assigning stars and defining what each star signifies. A three-star rating on Goodreads does not always correspond to a three-star rating on Amazon. Which suggestion is the best? Determine what the star ratings mean to you and maintain consistency in your rating.

Book Synopsis

Readers want to know about the subject matter of a book. While Goodreads and Amazon give a summary on the page where your review will appear, it’s a good idea to say something in your review about what occurred in the book—without giving anything away.

Number of Book Reviews

The more reviews a book gets, the easier it is for readers to determine whether or not the book is a suitable fit for them. While having more reviews implies that more people have read the book (obviously), having more reviews typically results in a broader range of opinions regarding the book.

Comparisons to Another Author or Book

When considering a new author, readers are more willing to take a risk if the author is compared to another author or book they are familiar with. These analogies are typically used to contextualize the author’s work, assisting readers in determining whether the new author is someone they’d want to read.

Likes and Dislikes

What a reader enjoyed or despised about a book might reveal a lot about whether you will enjoy it as well. If you’re not a fan of explicit sequences in romance, for example, and a reviewer raves about the explicit love scenes, you’ll definitely want to skip the book.

Verified Purchases

Strictly speaking, verified purchases refer to the ability of Amazon to verify that the book was purchased via them. This indicates that the reviewer is more likely to have read the book before writing it and hence has more weight with Amazon’s algorithms (and people reading reviews.)

Themes that run across the reviews

What one person says may be unique to that individual. If a large number of individuals begin to express the same sentiments about a book, it’s worth noting. Typically, these themes relate to the reviewer’s preferences and dislikes, although they might also refer to general flaws in the work or simply to language or typos.