How to Write a Book Review: What to Include, Part 3

In part 2, talked about what to put in the body of a review.  Now I’m going to talk about the odds and ends of reviews that get scattered about.  I prefer to put most of it at the end, but you can also put some of these things at the beginning of your review:

1. Comps/Recs: The first thing that I don’t see in a lot of reviews is comp titles.  Comparative titles are books of a similar genre with similar stories and themes.  Another name for comp titles might be rec(ommendation)s.  You might notice if you buy on Amazon their “buyers who bought this book also bought” lists.  Those are recs based on their similarity to the book you’re looking at.  There are two valuable things about comp titles/recs, and it plays into why I’m using two names here.  Recs are books you suggest to a reader because they are similar to the book the reader is currently considering/has read.  Comp titles are books the reader might possibly have read already that are similar to the book they are considering.  The idea is, if you liked a comp title, you’ll like this title, and if you like this title, you’ll enjoy a rec.

2. Other books by: This is a category you can put at the beginning or the end.  Your telling the reader other books by this author they may have read or heard of, and how they are similar or different.  The goal here is to help them decide if they might want to read this book based on those other books this author wrote.  If they hated those other books, they might dislike this one, but if they loved them, they might love this.

Somewhat related is putting the author’s name in the title of your review.  If you want to snag a reader that might not have liked an author’s previous book, you might leave it out of the title.  That way, they’ve already gotten to your review before they can dismiss this book out of hand.  Conversely, if you’re after readers who liked the author’s previous work, then you definitely want to include the name in the title, so they know your review is about the right book.

3. Topic of Interest: Some books, especially YA books, have a topic related to the story, such as mental illness, or bullying.  It might in some cases be valuable to include information such as informative websites, hotlines such as the National Suicide Hotline, etc. Or a book about GMOs might link to Monsanto or anti-GMO pages.  A book about space might link to NASA.  A book review involving the Society for Creative Anachronism might benefit from links to the SCA’s website.

4. Other Reviews/Interviews: If you’ve read other reviews, or particularly interesting interviews with the author, you might want to link to those, as well.

5. Ratings: If you include star ratings or number ratings in your reviews, you can put them at the end of the beginning depending on your style.  Ratings can be useful, because they can encourage a reader to read a book, and you can give a higher rating than might be expected of a book you had issues with but still enjoyed.  However, ratings can also be misleading.  Is a three-star review positive?  Neutral?  Has the reader enjoyed books you’ve reviewed with that rating previously?  That’s something to keep in mind when considering whether ratings are a valuable tool for your review or not.

There are certainly other extras a review can have, such as give-away copies, but the above seem to me to be the major ones.  But if anyone reading this has suggestions as to additions I should make, I’d love to hear them.

 

Now that I’ve addressed the basics of why and how to do a book review, I want to look at how to put this together to create an actual review.  So next time, I’m going to take these posts, and use them to write a review of Nova Ren Suma’s 17 & Gone.  And the post after that, I’m going to dissect that review, and explain, again based on these six posts, why I chose to include what I did, and why I didn’t include other things.

 

How to Write a Book Review: What to Include, Part 2

This is post number two in my discussion on what to include in a book review.  Last time, I talked about the metadata for a review.  This time, I’m going to talk about the body of the review:

Body of Review

Initial Thoughts

After-Reading Review

Conclusion

Final Thoughts

Most reviewers like to start out with some general thoughts.  These initial thoughts might include a quick comment on an author’s previous book, if there was one.  They might include feelings the reviewer had while reading the book.  They might include a quick comment on the main character.

The review itself generally, though not always starts in the second paragraph.  There are many, many possible formats for a review, including just several linked paragraphs, titled sections, a quick statement of opinion on the awesomeness of the book.  Many people liked to address the plot, the characters, any special subject matter, and occasionally themes.  Rarely do actual reviewers comment on the quality of the prose, except to say it was incredible.  With Amazon or GoodReads reviews, the reviewer might comment on anything.  Finally, especially with special-interest reviewers, the reviewer might comment on particularly bad handling of certain subject matter, such as race, gender, or cultural depiction.

I differentiate between the conclusion and final thoughts, though they are often mixed together.  I define the conclusion as a summing up of the major points of the body of the review.  Was it a good story, well-written, clearly addressed themes.

The final thoughts generally include whether the reviewer would read this author again, are they glad they bought the book, and what they think the general audience of the book is.

Next time, I’ll discuss the miscellaneous post-review scraps.

 

How to Write a Book Review: What to Include, Part 1

Last time, I talked a bit about how knowing your platform can help you write a more informative book review.  That covers all three my questions to ask before writing a review.  So, now, I’m going to suggest what infomation should be provided in a review, and why each part of it is useful for writing reviews in general.  I’ll give the list, and then look at each piece of it below that.  I won’t add formatting right now.  I’ll save that for later.

Metadata

Title:

Author:

Genre:

Page Count:

Publisher/Publication Date:

Source:

Cover Photo

Summary

Body of Review

Initial Thoughts

After-Reading Review

Conclusion

Final Thoughts

Post-Review

Comp Titles/If You Liked this Recs

Didn’t Like This Recs

Author Bio

Authors Other Works

The order of these can bet switched up if you want, but this is generally the most common and most useful order.

The metadata kind of goes together, so let’s look at it all at once.

Almost always, for obvious reasons, the title of the book goes in the title of your post.  Often, and I personally advocate this, the author’s name goes there, too.  For example Review: The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.  Obviously, most pre-built blog software won’t let you use formatting in the title, but if you have your own website, or a pro-version that lets you create your own template, you can do something like the above.

Genre is useful, especially as a tag, for helping people find books they know they’re interested in.  Of course, if you have a genre review blog, you might be able to leave it out.  Unless you like naming sub-genres, or of you think the genre of the book is arguable.

As far as page count, it can be good to include, although it’s specific to certain editions.  But some people like short books, and others like long books, so it can’t really hurt.

Publisher and publication date are less relevant.  Date can tell you how old the book is, which can say something about writing style or subject, although only if the reader already knows the genre fairly well.  Publisher is more just a detail.  It might encourage a reader to look at similar books in a genre, but that’s about it.

The source is where you got the book from: publisher, author, agency, contest, store, library.  Books received as part of publisher/agency/author promotion require a disclosure.  Store, contest, library are just useful information.

Covers are also not necessarily relevant to a review.  However, especially in a store or library, knowing what the cover looks like makes it easier for the reader to find.  It can also suggest if they are the target audience for a book, as most covers are targeted at specific demographics.  Especially in YA/NA and many commercial genres.

The last part I’ll go over for today is the summary. You can write your own summary, use a Goodreads or Amazon summary, use the back-cover or cover-flap copy, or use what the provider of the copy suggests, if they suggest anything.  Summaries should not contain major spoilers, ie, major twists in the second half of the book, obvious answers to mysteries not noted on the cover copy, and they should obviously avoid specifics of the conclusion of the story.  A summary/blurb’s purpose is to entice a reader, or give them an idea of what the book is about, not to spoil it for them.

Many reviewers like to put their metadata in a little box or visually separate part of the review.  It makes it easier to locate on the page, and highlights it for the reader.  It might also be useful to include links to author/publisher/store websites to help readers learn more about the book or purchase it straight from your review.

That’s all for today.  Probably by tomorrow, I’ll publish the second half, going over what to actually write in the body of a review.