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Writer's pictureElizabeth Parker

How to Leave a Book Review

Updated: Jun 18


Ducks splashing in a lake
Life is too Short!

Help an Indie, Please Leave a Review.

It's Easy Peasy! And THANK YOU SO MUCH for those who have left book reviews.  I love hearing that you liked my book (and reviews help a great deal)!

Here is how to leave a book review.

Pick Your Book on Amazon.

Scroll Down to Customer Reviews.

picture of how to leave a book review
Book Reviews Help Independent Authors So much

Click [Write a customer Review]:



A picture of how to leave a book review
It's easy as pie to leave a book review

Choose the Amount of Stars You Wish To Give (5 is always good, but be honest)!

Type in Some comments, careful not to give away spoilers.  Put a short Headline for your review. 

Click Submit! That's all there is to it!

Thank you so much!!

Hope this helps explain how to leave a book review!

Now for my long explanation!


Book Reviews

I've been reading ever since I can remember.  The first book I read on my own was Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish.  I had just begun first grade when I ran up to my new teacher beaming with pride about how I read this book all on my own.  How I remember that I'll never know. I'll also never know how I remember what it was about.  I've read thousands of books and can probably only remember the plot of a handful of them. 


Since first grade, I don't think I've been without a book on my nightstand or now-a-days, on my Kindle. Before the days of Goodreads and Shelfari, I designed a book database so that I can keep track of and run reports on the books I've read so that I don't re-buy them.  Pathetic, I know.


When most kids were reading Judy Bloom, I sneaked into my sister's closet and pulled out the V.C. Andrews collection, "Flowers in the Attic."  Talk about another series that I do remember.  For the record, I don't think any nine year old girl should read these books!  They are disturbing and though I'm dying to read them again, I still feel the dark emotion that stemmed from reading them. But, yes, they are good!


In all of these years, I had never written a review.  Not on a product, not on a book.  Nothing.  But then again, I'm from the era where you walked into a book store, pulled a book off of the shelves and bought it right then and there.  There was no place to leave a review, unless I wanted to tape a post-it note to the store window or something as far-fetched as that!  (Don't people get arrested for stuff like that)?


So, now, two things have changed. One, the Internet exists and reviews are floating all over the place and two, I'm a self-published author and have seen the result of both good and bad reviews. 


In essence, they are a necessary evil in the world of a self-published author.  I assume for a traditionally published author they help(or perhaps hinder) as well, but then again, a traditionally published author has the preceding reputation to assist them, as well as a marketing team, advertising and other avenues for which to sell their books.  Self-published authors do not have that glamour.  Well, not yet anyway.


So, Why are Book Reviews Important?

I will never tell you that I like receiving a bad review.  However, in saying that.  Reviews not only tell readers that the consensus is on a book, but they also tell the writer what they are doing right and wrong.  I've begun writing reviews or at least have started rating them on the 1-5 star rating system.  If I don't like a book, like I said, I don't bash the author.  I simply state non-emotionally what I didn't like about the book.  Not every book can be a 4 or 5 star.


If the book is written by a self-published author, I try to find where to contact them to tell them any errors that I find if that was what was preventing me from liking the book.  Chances are, if it is a self-published author, they have edited the book themselves, which I can tell you is impossible.


 To demonstrate the impact of helping another author, I need to follow this with a little story.  When I wrote one of my first stories, another indie author picked it up and though we didn't know each other, she made a running list of errors.  She was hesitant to tell me, because since she didn't know me, she was taking a risk.  Some people might become vile when they get constructive criticism.  Carefully, she told me what was wrong and I spent two days reading my own book again and in my head, thanking her every five minutes.  We still have never actually met, but support each other till this day!  I learned from her that before I bash someone, perhaps kindly contacting that person would be the better choice.  If she's reading this, you know who you are and thank you for looking out for me and teaching me a valuable lesson!


A Bit of a Pitfall...and Not the Game

I'd like to say that most reviews are legitimate, but I've heard of one myth and one pitfall that I can't ignore.


Pitfall :

We live in a world where sometimes, people get competitive.  There are some people out there, whether they are other authors, potential publishers or even enemies of the author who find out about their book and write bad reviews. You can usually tell who these are if the review is so vile and venomous and it seems like a personal attack on the actual author.  I didn't believe this happened until someone bragged about doing it on Facebook.  The thought of that made me sick.  Again, I could never sabotage someone out of competitiveness or because I didn't like them. I could only hope this doesn't happen often.  I don't see the reasoning for authors to be competitive.   Almost everyone I know read books of the same genre from several different authors.  They don't only pick just one! 


On the flip side, there are just people who hate the book so much that they will write a bad review out of their hatred. On that note, all I can say is this, whether it is a self-published or traditionally published author, there is a person on the other side of that computer reading these reviews.  I don't see the need to humiliate anyone.  There's ways to say that you didn't like a book without making a spectacle...but that's just my opinion.  I've the mindset to be kind to others.


One weird scenario.  One day when I was flipping through reviews of dog books, I did notice one guy hit every dog book and wrote a one star review because he HATED dogs! This was before I even started writing, but it horrified me that someone would actually spend the money to buy dog books because they hated dogs and then spend their time to give a one-star review to show their hatred for dogs.  I hope that Amazon has since removed his account.


Pen Name

Whether you are writing a review Amazon, Shelfari or Goodreads, you can use a pen name if you prefer.  


dog leaving a book review
Dogs Love Book Reviews!

As you can see, it's not so hard to write a book review and you'll be helping an author along the way!



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