A How-To Guide for Writing Book Reviews
One of the first things I struggled with as a new bookish content creator back in May 2022 was the art of writing book reviews.
I was just getting into book reviewing as a hobby and it took me a long time to develop my craft in putting to words what I loved about a particular book I read.
Maybe you had (or currently have) this same problem.
Fortunately, over time, writing book reviews gets easier the more you do it, and I’ve developed a list of best practices I use when writing my book reviews. If you’ve been looking for a how-to guide on how you can write book reviews on your bookish platform, you’ve come to the right place.
How to Write Book Reviews
Read the Book Before You Write the Review
This goes without saying, but you need to actually read the book if you want to write a review about it.
Oftentimes, you need to go beyond the book blurb to tell your audience why they should or shouldn’t pick up the book you’re reviewing. Maybe you want to talk about the writing style and how its overall pacing made it easier or difficult to read the book. Maybe you want to critique the author’s character development in the book.
Whatever it is that you want to talk about in your book review, you need to actually read the book before you can write the book review.
Take Notes/Commentary as You Read
Of course, you may come to the issue of your mind going blank after you finish a book and you sit down to write your review. That has happened to me quite a bit when I first was starting out (and occasionally even now). Usually, I can try to come up with content for my book reviews by taking notes of what I’ve been reading. It’s a tip I learned from a NetGalley article I read that has been extremely helpful as I continue writing more book reviews.
Though, if you don’t know what exactly to take notes of while you read, I developed a pretty simple method that helps: Write a pros/cons list.
It may seem a bit odd, but I use this method for most of the books I read and review. To sum up, you basically write up everything you liked/disliked about a book and then divide it up into book pros and cons. It doesn’t have to be too wordy, but it has to have enough information for you to look back on when you’re writing your review.
Here’s an example of how you can create a pros/cons list for your book review:
Pros
Great character development
Author’s writing is able to take you right to the heart of the story
Cons
Inconsistent pacing for second half of book
Now, this method may not work for everybody and that’s okay. The point is that you should write notes/commentary while you read in order to succinctly discuss your key points in your book review. Whether that means you get yourself a notebook to write down your thoughts as you go through the book or you type some thoughts down on a Google Doc, these notes will help you organize your thoughts when it comes time to review a book and how you want to structure your review.
Write Just the Right Amount of Content in Your Book Review
Now that you finished the book and you have your notes in hand, it’s time to write the book review. However, I want to stress that your book review has to have the right amount of content for your followers/readers to keep reading your review.
Think of it as a Goldilocks concept:
Not too short where you don’t get a whole lot of information on the book.
Not too long that people are skimming your review or stop reading it after a couple of paragraphs.
Just the right amount of content that gets your point across in a concise manner but still has enough information for people to decide if they also want to read the book.
For most book reviews I’ve written as well as seen other creators, book reviews typically fall under a similar format structure:
Summarize what the book is about
Body paragraph (or paragraphs) on the book’s merit
Final thoughts and recommendations
It’s a good structure to follow when you’re first writing book reviews, but you have some wiggle room to explore with different review styles and structures.
For example, if the book you’re reviewing is the latest bestseller or very well-known, chances are your audience probably knows what the book is about. With this, it’s not necessary to spend time summarizing what the book is about and you can go straight to your thoughts on the book.
On the other hand, if you’re reviewing an advanced reader copy (ARC) or the book you’re reviewing is not as well-known to your audience, you could spend time briefly summarizing what the book is about before sharing your opinion on the book.
Ultimately, the amount of content you want to share in your review is on you, the reviewer. Yet, the best book reviews, in my opinion, are often the ones that clearly share their thoughts and opinions on a book in a concise manner.
Final Thoughts
While writing book reviews can be challenging if you’re first starting out, they get easier over time. By consistently writing reviews and following the best practices I listed in this post, you can get over the nerves that come with writing book reviews and let your unique voice and perspective shine in your writing.
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