22 Tips for Writing Reviews (& How to Avoid Build-up)

Remember my post about

22 Tips to Read More (& How to Avoid Slumps)

Well, here is its twin. 22 Tips for Reviewing Books. As someone who has over 1,000 reviews in the wild and a large following, people do ask me for tips, so here we go. Ready?

| Preliminaries: 

1. Remember it doesn’t have to be complicated.

This is not intended as a set-in-stone list of rules. It’s a collection of more-or-less helpful tips to make reviewing easier on you. There is no One Specific Way to write reviews, and it doesn’t have to be crazy or difficult. Take what works for you and leave the rest! Relax. You got this.

2. Decide who you’re reviewing for.

Yes, I promise this is necessary. Who are you reviewing for? Do you want to review books for yourself, to look over your thoughts later on? In that case, a reading journal can be a really lovely way of keeping track of what you read and what you think of it. Or your notes app, your Evernote, your computer documents… there are lots of possibilities. For ideas, here are a couple of posts about why to do it + ideas of how to make one:

• “The Art of Book-Journaling” by Abigayle Claire @ The Left-Handed Typist
• “My Reading Journal & Ideas to Start Your Own” by Emma @ Bookish Daughters of the King
• “All The Reasons I Love Book Journaling” by Kate Willis @ Once Upon an Ordinary
• “Seasonal Notebook Tutorial” by Kate Willis @ Once Upon an Ordinary

If your reason for reviewing isn’t your own personal pleasure, then are your reviews just for your family & intimate friends, or for people in general? Just for the author because they’re a friend? This is important for more than one reason! Having decided, we can move on to…

3. Pick your reviewing site.

A private blog? A public one? Instagram, Facebook, or Goodreads—public or private? Amazon? Bookbub? It all depends on who you’re reviewing for. Look around, ask around. Find out what works best for you.

4. Find your target audience.

This is NOT the same as #2, okay. This is deepening #2. The people you’re reviewing for—what do they want to know and what do they not care about? If your audience is okay with magic, you don’t need to put a content advisory, but if they don’t agree with drinking, better let them know when there’s alcohol involved. (It’s very embarrassing otherwise. Don’t ask how I know). Figure out the preferences of your audience so you know what to note and what to ignore in your reviews.

This may also help you brand your reviewing, or help you know what books to gravitate to. Lindsey @ Books for Christian Girls, for example, reads almost exclusively Christian fiction, hisfic and contemporary. Leona @ Great Books for God’s Girls writes reviews of Christian fiction & nonfiction targeted at very conservative young women. Emma @ Bookish Daughter of the King does Christian historical & contemporary Christian fiction + secular classics. Esther @ The Lost Review of Odd Books reviews mostly odd and unknown secular books.

If you want to be really simple, you can just go with a simple noting of what you liked and disliked, but I have found those type of reviews aren’t very popular, and sometimes you forget stuff you wanted to mention because you don’t have a mental reminder of “what will people want to know?” It’s useful to have a sort of mental list of the things you need to mention if you have people depending on your reviews for information.

5. Read other reviews & decide on a loose style.

This is what helps makes you stand out. Do you love 3-page-long reviews? Having the synopsis in the review? Excessive fangirling over characters? 1-sentence sarcastic and witty reviews? You do you, boo. Do what is natural/ interesting/fun to you, and what you prefer. It’ll give you a genuine voice and people will recognize your style.

6. Make an outline/system. 

I only just found this out and I wish I had years ago. It makes reviewing books SO MUCH MORE SIMPLE. Here is mine.

x stars & x/10 hearts. [intro]
[Characters]
[Setting]
[Genre]
[Writing style]
[Plot]
[Romance]
[Theme, message, topics]
[Contentwise]
[Overall]
[Content list]
[A Favourite Quote]
[A Favourite Beautiful Quote]
[A Favourite Humorous Quote]

Super basic, super flexible. I can even move topics around when it flows better. With this backbone, I fleshed out reviews as different as this:

• https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4226748379?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
• https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3450984388?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
• https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4145660356?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Without this backbone, I wrote haphazard reviews, forgetting key things I wanted to add, and having very different styles for different books. This really streamlines my reviews and makes them so much easier to write, so I dread them less. You can make your outline as simple or complex as you like. Here are some examples: Lindsey Z. | Faith Blum | Sarah Holman | Ryana Lynn Miller | Kristina Hall.

(Along the same lines, if you’re posting on a blog, create a blog post template like I do on my book-reviewing blog. Makes things so much easier. I’m actually currently working on streamlining it too and making all the posts similar, haha.)

7. Figure out your rating system.

For some people, the star rating is so: 1 star—I didn’t like it. 2 star—I liked it. 3 star—I enjoyed it. 4 star—It was very good. 5 star—A top favourite!

To others, 1 star—Terrible. 2 star—Meh. 3 star—I liked it. 4 star—I enjoyed it. 5 star—ranges from “it was very good” to “a top fav”!

Still others mark everything 5 stars unless they hated it. For others, everything is a 3 star unless it’s insanely good. Still others expand on the 1-5 star system and create a 1-10 system, as I do. Lots of people add .5 stars to emphasize when a book had issues but is good (for instance, I often give books 4.5 stars instead of 5 when I loved them but there was a lot of content).

You do you. Figure out which system makes the most sense to you and your reviews and follow it.

| How to Write the Review: 

8. Share your opinions.

It sounds basic, but really, reviews are to share YOUR opinions. Did you love a bratty character in spite of his brattiness because of x reason? Say it. Do you adore marriage of convenience tropes and were disappointed this wasn’t a marriage of convenience? Say it. Otherwise, when reviews are just a list of facts (“this book was good. It had five MCs and they did so and so. They were nice.”), they tend to get bland and boring and have no information of any use to other readers. (But pleeeease warn of spoilers!)

9. Be moderate.

Fangirling is fine, but don’t go overboard or it’s irritating. Too much silly makes you look dumb. Over-exaggerating causes us to dismiss you. Curse the author out and you’re pinned down as a nasty fanatic.

Be smart about your reviews. There’s no need to be A. Wooden Dummy, but you don’t want to be Miss Giggly Fluff either. Your reviews will be seen, shared, commented upon, and remembered. Here’s a good post on that topic!

10. Share your issues.

Reviews are for other readers to know whether or not they want to read a given book. Let them know what content it had. You don’t have to list everything, but give a heads-up. Especially if you’ve got an audience, a.k.a. a blog following or Goodreads following or something. They trust you.

And remember that it is okay to dislike a book and to say so. It’s dishonest not to. You have a right to your opinion and reviews are your opinion. This post explains in detail how reviews are for readers, not authors.

The Purpose of Reviews

12. Decide how you will mention negatives.

Remember #4? Yeah. Now you have to decide how much detail you’ll put into content warnings for your audience. I like to share all the information. Kate Willis & Chautona Havig have another POV here:

Positively Negative

13. Be as positive as you can.

I like to use the sandwich method, which I learned from Hailey Rose: What I loved. What I didn’t love. What else I loved. Content warning. Quote I loved.

On rare occasions, I begin with negative and end with solely positive. If I have nothing positive to say, I make it short review basically just listing or explaining my objections as neutrally as possible.

14. Do not attack the author.

Let me make myself very clear. It is not okay to bash authors. Stating politely and firmly why you disliked a book or disagreed with its statements is fine. Calling the author an idiot, a piece of garbage, a hag, or anything else like that is wrong. (Calling them dangerous may not be wrong, but use discretion, not emotions.) Being aggressive and nasty only damages your reputation and review, besides hurting the author and her friends. It doesn’t work, and it isn’t right. Don’t do it. Here is a great post and video about writing reviews well, which I highly recommend.

15. Get feedback before posting.

If this is a heated review, or a negative one, or one that might trigger some people, seek advice. Ask someone in a position to understand both POVs. Ask several people. Show the review to them. I cannot express how important and valuable this is. Take your time on a negative review. Pray over it. Let it sit while you calm down. That always helps.

(Actually, it’s always a good idea to look over your reviews before posting them. The number of times I’ve caught typos and mistakes in mine after posting them…)

16. Be honest.

If you are always an honest reviewer, people will trust you. If you say you love a book, they know you do. If you say you dislike it, they respect your opinion. If they want to know if a book is good, they’ll believe your words. Being wishy-washy or dishonest (a.k.a. only saying good things of a book because the author is a friend) makes people reluctant to trust your reviews. Give your audience the truth. Here’s a good post on this topic.

| How to Streamline the Process: 

17. Keep track of your reading.

I have a Books Read This Month list, a Currently Reading List, and a Waiting to be Reviewed list. I can’t explain how helpful this is! It always keeps me on track of what needs to be reviewed.

18. Decide when & where you’re going to review.

Once a month? Once a week? As soon as you finish a book? Three times a month? Pick a time and stick to it as much as possible. Also, will you review books only when sitting at your desk? Will you knock some out in a phone note while sitting in your car? Figure out what works for you and what maximizes your time. Some people do it on paper and type it after, editing as they do so. Others jot it down in a Notes app and then copy and paste into Goodreads. Others only write it in Goodreads and then copy it from there. Figure out what works for you. Try some different ways. Kate Willis shares her process here. I share mine down below.

19. Review ASAP!

Otherwise, you tend to forget a) the book’s content, storyline, characters, etc, or b) that you have to review the book at all.

If you fall behind, I recommend jumping in and reviewing a whole bunch at once ASAP. Say this review may have missing info because you may have forgotten stuff. Mark it as a review to be updated or rewritten, if you like. But just write something, even one sentence. Work through that pile. It feels so good. But do your best NOT to fall behind, because that is the best!

20. Keep atop the requirements.

Where is this being reviewed? Just Goodreads? Amazon and Goodreads? Goodreads, your blog, Amazon, and Instagram? Make sure you know and that as soon as the review is written, it’s posted or scheduled wherever it should be. You will forget otherwise, and it doesn’t take long!

21. Be organized.

One notebook. One app. One folder. Don’t allow your reviews to be scattered all over your computer and bookshelf. Stick to one place! Using tags is a great idea to keep track of when something was reviewed and how many stars it is, when you read it, what style it is, etc. I find tags super helpful for many, many things (where are my WWII recs? What was my favourite books of the month?? How many years ago did I read this novel???)

Also, have a backup. Accidental deletes, glitches, or a censor can always happen. Here’s a post on how I organize my reviews in Evernote, which is my backup place. It’s a little outdated, but still good ;P

How I Manage My Reviews & Reading

I actually went extremist and created an Evernote account strictly for my reviews. It’s great because now I can search for things and only reviews come up!

22. Remember this is for you.

This is YOUR reviews and YOUR system. It’s okay if it’s unusual. It’s okay if its lengthy. You do you. Be patient. It took me over 5 years to streamline my process and system and style, and I’m still learning. You’ve got this, and you’ll get there. Just keep experimenting and don’t give up!

And a final PSA: don’t be ashamed of your old stuff. If you wanna rewrite/revise it, fine. If not, it’s okay. It’s a kind of growth chart, and nobody else minds it as much as you do. 😉