August 2016 is Write An Amazon Review Month! By
@TerryTyler4 #AugustReviews
On Monday 25th July, book blogger Rosie Amber wrote this
post
encouraging readers and writers alike to post a short review on Amazon for any
book they've read and enjoyed ~ following this up, Terry Tyler is starting this initiative along with other writer-bloggers
including Rosie, Cathy from Between The Lines, Barb Taub, Shelley
Wilson
and Alison Williams.
The idea is that, from August 1st,
everyone who reads this uses their Amazon account to post just one review on
one book that they've read (but feel free to carry on if you get in the
swing!). You don't even have to
have read it recently, it can be any book you've read, any time. The book does not have to have been
purchased from Amazon, though if it is you get the 'Verified Purchase' tag on
it; however, if you download all your books via Kindle Unlimited, as many do
these days, they don't show the VP tag, anyway.
Remember, this isn't the Times Literary Supplement,
it's Amazon, where ordinary people go to choose their next £1.99 Kindle book. No one expects you to write a thousand word, in-depth
critique; I don't know about you, but I'm more likely to read one short
paragraph or a couple of lines saying what an average reader thought of a book,
than a long-winded essay about the pros and cons of the various literary
techniques used. Yes, those are
welcome too (!), but no more so than a few words saying "I loved this
book, I was up reading it until 3am", or "I loved Jim and Vivien and
the dialogue was so realistic", or whatever!
Why should you write a review?
They
help book buyers make decisions.
Don't you read the reviews on Trip Advisor before deciding on a hotel,
or any site from which you might buy an item for practical use? Book reviews are no different.
If
the book is by a self-published author, or published by an independent press,
the writers have to do all their promotion and marketing themselves ~ reviews
from the reading public is their one free helping hand.
The
amount of reviews on Amazon helps a book's visibility (allegedly). If you love a writer's work and want
others to do so, too, this is the best possible way of making this happen.
It's
your good deed for the day, and will only take five minutes!
Off we go, then! A few more pointers:
If
you need any help with writing your review, do click on Rosie's post, above.
A
review can be as short as one word.
The shortest one I have is just two :)
You
don't have to put your name to the review, as your Amazon 'handle' can be
anything you like.
No
writer expects all their reviews to be 5* and say the book is the best thing
ever written; there is a star rating guide on Rosie's post.
Would
you like to tell the Twittersphere about your review? If so, tweet the link to it with the hashtag #AugustReviews
~ and thank you! I will do one
blog post a week featuring these links: The #AugustReviews Hall of Fame (thank
you, Barb!).
Blogged with permission from Rosie Amber and Terry Tyler, reviewers extraordinaire!