by Beth K. Vogt, @bethvogt
Authors are busy people.
Okay, just about everyone I know is busy. It’s kind of a badge we wear nowadays: I’m busy and I’m proud of it.
That said, this is a blog for authors, so I’m going to stand by my original statement that authors are busy people. Published or pre-published, we’ve got a lot to do.
If we’re not brainstorming an idea, we’re working on a rough draft. If we’re done with a rough draft, we’re revising. If we’ve finished revising, we’re looking for feedback. If we don’t have an agent, we’re looking for an agent. Same goes with looking for a publisher. If we’re not on deadline, well, we will be soon enough. And I haven’t even mentioned marketing …
And sometimes we’re writing, editing, and marketing all at the same time.
In the midst of all our busyness, it’s still important that we help each other. After all, who knows the challenges of the writing life better than another author?
There are myriads of ways we can help one another, but today I’d like to suggest just one thing:
Write book reviews.
As authors we know how important book reviews are. Simply put, a review is a written recommendation for a book. But as award-winning author Cynthia Ruchti once told me, “Book reviews are gold to an author.” I’ll qualify that and say, “Good book reviews are like gold to an author.”
Read a writer-friend’s book. Write a review.
Simple, right?
And yet, I’ve had author-friends tell me that they haven’t written a review for one of my books (or any of my books) because they were too busy. Or because it was just too complicated. They didn’t know how.
And to be honest, I haven’t always made time to write reviews for my author-friends’ books, even though I know how valuable reviews are for authors. Why? Because like everyone else, I’m busy.
Here are 4 tips to help you write book reviews:
- Write the review as soon after reading the book as possible. If you can’t write the review right away, at least jot down a few things you liked about the book so you don’t forget. The characters. A surprising plot twist. The emotional layering.
- Be positive. My goal is to support my author-friends, so I only post a review if I genuinely enjoyed the book.
- Relax and remember you’re writing a review – not a book. You don’t have to write a lengthy review. A brief header and two to three sentences will suffice. BookBub even helps by providing a selection of words to choose from such as “action-packed,” “romantic,” or “funny.”
- Use your review more than once. It’s okay to post your review in several places: Goodreads, BookBub, Amazon, Barnes and Noble – wherever else you prefer to post reviews. You can tweak it just a bit or not.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a book review to write. Why don’t you join me?
Moments We Forget by Beth K. Vogt
Jillian Thatcher has spent most of her life playing the family peacemaker, caught in the middle between her driven, talented older sister and her younger, spotlight-stealing twin sisters. Then on the night of her engagement party, a cancer diagnosis threatens to once again steal her chance to shine.
Now, Jillian’s on the road to recovery after finally finishing chemo and radiation, but residual effects of the treatment keep her from reclaiming her life as she’d hoped. And just when her dreams might be falling into place, a life-altering revelation from her husband sends her reeling again.
Will Jillian ever achieve her own dreams, or will she always be “just Jillian,” the less-than Thatcher sister? Can she count on her sisters as she tries to step into a stronger place, or are they stuck in their childhood roles forever?
Beth K. Vogt is a non-fiction author and editor who said she’d never write fiction. She’s the wife of an Air Force family physician (now in solo practice) who said she’d never marry a doctor—or anyone in the military. She’s a mom of four who said she’d never have kids. Now Beth believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” The Best We’ve Been, the final book in Beth’s Thatcher Sisters Series with Tyndale House Publishers, releases May 2020. Other books in the series include Things I Never Told You, which one the 2019 AWSA Award for Contemporary Novel of the Year, and Moments We Forget.
Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA® finalist. Her 2014 novel, Somebody Like You, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2014. A November Bride was part of the Year of Wedding Series by Zondervan. Having authored nine contemporary romance novels or novellas, Beth believes there’s more to happily-ever-after than the fairy tales tell us.
An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Learn How to Write a Novel and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. She lives in Colorado with her husband Rob, who has adjusted to discussing the lives of imaginary people. Connect with Beth at bethvogt.com.