Do you want to give your favorite authors a meaningful gift? One that express your appreciation for their work and encourages them to continue writing? If so, Write a Review!

This doesn’t have to be a lengthy discourse that sounds like a literary analysis. It can be a few words as to how you felt about their story, like you’d relate to a friend.

Nor does it have to be the most recent book. You can review any one of an author’s backlist titles, and this still helps us a great deal. Won a book in a contest? Leave a review. Bought a backlist title on sale? Write a review. Want your author to write more books in her series? Tell other readers why you liked the latest installment and also book one, since many readers will want to start at the beginning.

The Discovery Process for Readers

Think about how you discover new authors. Is it from personal recommendations? Your book club members? The bestseller list? Or perhaps you find something intriguing through social media or via a daily newsletter listing sales, freebies, and other book bargains.

When I’m checking out a book, I’ll go to the Amazon page. Chances are it’s the cover, the genre, and the price that appealed to me first. Then I’ll read the story blurb. If this sounds good, I’ll check out the reader reviews. Not the editorial ones, but the reviews from other consumers. If these are decent, I’ll do the “Look Inside” feature to see if the writing engages me. Basically, I want to see if the main character draws me in and if the story is written in past tense. If all these factors pass my scrutiny, then I will buy the book. Very often, I’ll go on to purchase the entire series.

And this is what I want for my potential readers. As soon as I finish reading a book, whether it’s a new release or an older title from my TBR pile, I’ll leave a review online. This gives back to the authors who work so hard to produce a story. Please think about this when you close the book you’re reading. How can you thank the author for a few hours of reading pleasure? Tell other readers why you liked it, via word of mouth and as a post online. We authors will be immensely grateful.

Where to leave a review? Amazon, BookBub and Goodreads are the prominent sites, but you can leave them on your personal blog, on the book’s page at any retail bookstore, on your social media, and anywhere readers acquire books.

Happy Holidays!