I encourage you all to review more. There is simply a dearth of good reviewers for anything less than a best seller. A common question then is where to review?
I assume you all know about Amazon and GoodReads. For a while, I thought they were going to merge so a person only had to review on one. Sadly I must have been misinformed. It’s kindest to the author to copy and paste a review to both places.
Of course, blogs are good places for reviews, both personal and collective blogs. There are also book sites somewhat along the lines of GoodReads, but you’ll pardon me if I personally immediately disqualify anything with a user fee. Still, I guess I’ll name a few: LibraryThing (a neat self-cataloging site), BookRabbit (connects people via books), BookBrowse (an online magazine about books). (Shelfari used to be a place for book discussion, but it “merged” with GoodReads, since both were owned by Amazon.). Still, reviews, as far as I know, aren’t their main thing.
Where else? As many places as possible. Facebook is fine, especially if people will share it. (Use the public setting.)
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes a brief summary is nice, but any rating helps. Authors see where they can improve, if necessary, and readers are better equipped for making their selection. Win win. (I’ve heard a goal for Amazon-searchable reasons is 50 reviews!)
I’ve about despaired about getting reviews on my non-fiction. I should just let it go—it’s just a smaller audience with even fewer reviewers. Presumably nothing personal.
Any other suggested places or advice? Surely where to review is easier to answer than how to find reviewers!
Silly me: REVIEW HERE TOO if a book pertains to Lutherans somehow. Or contact me and see if my schedule may be open to review something for you—by yourself or another Lutheran author. I’m going to practice what I preach and review what I can—that isn’t a best seller. Those are already plenty covered.
Happy reading and writing, folks.
