Reviews? How not to annoy your readers

Love them and hate them…but we all need them. And how often have you been told, ‘Yes, of course I’ll leave a review’ only to find it doesn’t happen.

I have a theory; for some people, a request for a book review might seem a bit like school days. It was a standard task to write a book review after finishing any book in reading time. It was as popular as ‘What I did on my holidays.’ I know education has changed, but there are still a lot of people who don’t share our love of writing, perhaps put off by similar experiences. But it doesn’t have to be like that. As writers, we’re probably used to giving and receiving feedback so here’s a few suggestions to help and not scare off our potential reviewers.

1.     If in doubt, just leave a star rating

2.     Leave a star rating and a one phrase comment

Examples might be:

Perfect summer reading

For lovers of romance

Scary stuff!

Plenty of blood and gore

Kept me guessing to the end

Full of action

Great characters

3.     Leave a star rating and two comments; what you liked and what didn’t grab you so much

Examples might be:

Loved the romance, but he was too perfect

Kept me guessing till the end but there was too much gore

Loved the setting and the action but too many characters

4.     And for those who are feeling a little more confident, try this format;

Star rating and complete the following sentences;

What I liked best was……there could have been more/ less of….because what I enjoyed most was ….

This is an amended format of the feedback sandwich in which no-one ever remembers the good parts, only the criticism in the middle. This puts the constructive criticism in a more positive light.

Seriously, I have used this format in appraisal and performance management scenarios for years and it works.

So next time, you ask for a review, you can let people know you don’t expect a full-length critical essay. Of course, some people are brilliant at this. Goodreads is particularly interesting and full of fabulous reviewers who do an amazing job. Not all of us are so talented.

Oh, by the way, you do review all the books you read, don’t you?