In our last post we discussed the importance of honest reviews for indie books. I presented my thoughts for why honest reviews are important and finished by prompting you all to go forth and review indie content with honesty and confidence. Well that, I know, is easier said than done.
So today let’s talk about how to write honest reviews for indie books.
Catching Inflated Reactions: Write Your Initial Thoughts, Then Take a Break
In our previous post I mentioned how damaging inflated reviews can be. I have first hand experience with writing those reviews. It isn’t always easy to realize you’re overselling a book by singing praises you don’t mean.
In my early years as a reviewer, I would sometimes talk myself into thinking I loved a book regardless of if I actively disliked it or if it just didn’t click with me. I also think the satisfaction of finishing a book helped me carry enthusiasm into my reviews, and so I would ride that satisfaction and convince myself that it was for the story rather than the physical book.
And though I personally lean more on the positive side of things, I have worried that some of my reviews might come off as overly negative or harsh.
Now, in order to be sure I’m not giving an inflated review in either direction, I don’t post my reviews right away. I write my initial thoughts soon after finishing the book and then I walk away from it. After a day or so I reread my reactions and adjust them accordingly, then I will work them into a review. After making the necessary edits and reading through my review, I can then post it.
I highly recommend that reviewers of indie work do this. Take time to let your thoughts and emotions sit so that you can take a more honest look at your experience with the book in question.
Drafting Your Review: Balance the Pros and Cons
Remember to include both pros and cons in your review. This will help keep your review balanced and honest. I also recommend putting some kind of limit on these (for instance, three pros and three cons), as needing to decide which items to include will cause you to think more carefully about your experience with the story.
A limit also helps prevent overly gushing on the pros or being needlessly harsh on the cons, but still giving you an honest amount of both things to work with. Additionally this will keep your reviews concise, which is advantageous as people are more likely to read everything you have to say if you keep it short.
You could also do a con for every (or every other) pro, which gives you similar benefits while also letting you cover as many or as few things as you’d like.
And if you really want to rant about the book in one direction or the other, you could start off with the above structure and then in the second half of your review include a rant.
Avoiding Misperception: Don’t Disclaim Your Relationship With the Author
I strongly advise against mentioning that the author of a book is a friend or family member of yours.
I am specifically referring to those reviewers who gush about how proud they are of their author friend. Or worse, those who disclaim that they know the author and then hurriedly add that their review is unbiased. Both of these are very unprofessional looks, making your review seem biased, unreliable, and perhaps even immature before it’s even begun.
Disclaiming your relationship with the author of a book is wholly unnecessary. If your review is indeed an honest representation of your experience with the book, then there is no reason to disclaim anything, and to do so regardless may damage the perception of your perfectly honest and accurate review.
The only disclaimer you ever need to supply regarding your reviews is a disclaimer stating you’ve received a free copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review, if that did happen to you.
Taking One More Look: Have a Friend Look Your Review Over Prior to Posting This is seldom necessary in my experience, but on occasion I have read a book that I had many issues with and I would send my review of it to a friend to see if they think I’m being overly hard on a book.
These friends are also book reviewers, and so I know they know what to look for and generally can help me find out if the review is helpfully honest or needlessly harsh.
I have never sent a review to one such friend to see if I’m over-selling a book as I tend to catch that on my own well enough these days, but you can of course do that if you think it may be necessary for your own review.
Conclusion
These above steps may not work in every instance, so please don’t take this as a list of how one should always go about reviewing a book. Rather this is just a list of suggestions based on my experience.
If you have any thoughts on these suggestions, or any suggestions and methods of your own, please do comment them below.
Finally, as I said in our last post, at the end of the day the most helpful thing you can do for an indie author is write an honest review of their book. Whether your review is positive, indifferent, negative, long, short, structured, rambly, etc., it will help the author in the long run.
So regardless of what kind of review you write, remember that your review will be appreciated by indie authors and readers alike.