Recently, I was speaking with an acquaintance, about being a newly published author.
They asked me, "What is the hardest thing about self-publishing?"
And I stated that, "The hardest thing about self publishing is having to do all of your own marketing. Because until you have an establish fan base, most people will over look your novel." I also stressed, "What I really need are reviews because if there are no reviews for your book then no one will want to take a chance reading it."
They asked, "Well, how do you write a review?"
"Even though each website has their own rules and regulations about publishing reviews, the review itself is the same.
For starters, there are different types of reviews.
The first type is the star review. People who generally don't like commenting about a book will just click on the amount of stars they gave it. One star if they didn't like the book to five stars if they loved it. If you are the type of person who fits into this category, that's fine. A star review is better than no review!
The second type is a combination of a star review and a written review. It's okay to simply say, "I loved it!" or "I hated it!" Again, this type of review is better than nothing.
The third type of review is the quality review. I like to think of this as a good old fashioned book report. This type of review highlights who wrote the book, the title of the book, and a few things the person liked or disliked about the book. An extended version of a quality review would include a positive or a negative about the person's writing style along with your personal recommendations.
Here is an example in the form of a 'Mad Libs' template of a quality review:
[Author Name] does it again! [Title of novel] was a [adjective] read! This story is about [ character name(s)] a [brief description of the main character(s)]. In their quest to [plot point] they must [character struggle]. What I [liked/disliked] most about the book was [detail]. Overall, I thought that [opinion]. I [recommend/ don't recommend] this novel for people who [love /hate] books about [detail].
Lastly, if you wrote your review in a word or Google document, all you need to do is to copy paste it into the review box on your favorite websites. It's okay if you post the same review on several sites. Two of my favorite sites to post reviews on are goodreads.com and amazon.com
That's it. Just remember that in order to show your favorite authors that their work is appreciated, please take the time to let them know how much you like their work."
They asked me, "What is the hardest thing about self-publishing?"
And I stated that, "The hardest thing about self publishing is having to do all of your own marketing. Because until you have an establish fan base, most people will over look your novel." I also stressed, "What I really need are reviews because if there are no reviews for your book then no one will want to take a chance reading it."
They asked, "Well, how do you write a review?"
"Even though each website has their own rules and regulations about publishing reviews, the review itself is the same.
For starters, there are different types of reviews.
The first type is the star review. People who generally don't like commenting about a book will just click on the amount of stars they gave it. One star if they didn't like the book to five stars if they loved it. If you are the type of person who fits into this category, that's fine. A star review is better than no review!
The second type is a combination of a star review and a written review. It's okay to simply say, "I loved it!" or "I hated it!" Again, this type of review is better than nothing.
The third type of review is the quality review. I like to think of this as a good old fashioned book report. This type of review highlights who wrote the book, the title of the book, and a few things the person liked or disliked about the book. An extended version of a quality review would include a positive or a negative about the person's writing style along with your personal recommendations.
Here is an example in the form of a 'Mad Libs' template of a quality review:
[Author Name] does it again! [Title of novel] was a [adjective] read! This story is about [ character name(s)] a [brief description of the main character(s)]. In their quest to [plot point] they must [character struggle]. What I [liked/disliked] most about the book was [detail]. Overall, I thought that [opinion]. I [recommend/ don't recommend] this novel for people who [love /hate] books about [detail].
Lastly, if you wrote your review in a word or Google document, all you need to do is to copy paste it into the review box on your favorite websites. It's okay if you post the same review on several sites. Two of my favorite sites to post reviews on are goodreads.com and amazon.com
That's it. Just remember that in order to show your favorite authors that their work is appreciated, please take the time to let them know how much you like their work."