If you’ve read a good book lately, share a link to the book with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. They might want to read a good book, too! But here’s a little secret… don’t forget to let the author know you enjoyed their book. Seriously.
The best way to share the love is by rating and reviewing the book on Amazon, and Goodreads. Or if you bought the book on Nook, Kobo, or iTunes, or somewhere else, go there and rate it.
Reviewing a book doesn’t have to be a book report. In fact, it’s not even supposed to be a book report. It’s just your opinion in a couple of sentences. That’s it. What did you think of the book? Whatever the answer, that’s your book review.
Star ratings, meaning the number of stars you give the book, determine whether the book seller will include the book in their search engine results. Five stars means you loved the book, and would recommend it to your friends. Four stars is a recommendation as well. Rating a book four or five stars tells the book seller, such as Amazon when you search their website, or Nook, or iTunes, or wherever, to show the book to their readers.
Three stars, with some book sellers, will sink the book. Three stars is not neutral as you’d expect, though it should be. So if you’re planning to give a star rating of three stars or less, you’re making the statement, “Don’t buy this book! It’s not that great.”
Two stars means, “You didn’t get the memo? Really, seriously, I mean it, don’t buy this book!”
One star, of course, is reserved for the worst of the worst. A one star book rating is as bad as it gets, sort of like flushing the author down the toilet, and that’s about how you’ll make them feel — like you took a dump, threw their book in, and flushed.
Don’t be one of those people who only rates a book when it sucks. Don’t be the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, or old Scrooge, bah humbug! Rate the good books, too. Spread some joy and goodwill, share the love, write some happy words.
If you enjoyed a book, and you’d like to make an author happy, and trust me, watching an author do a happy dance is a seriously cool thing indeed, then go give the book a star rating with a couple of sentences on what you thought of the book.
There’s no better gift you could give to an author, except for maybe blogging about their books, tweeting them to thousands of people, plastering them all over your Facebook page, putting an author interview on your blog — you get the idea 😀
— Sharon Delarose, author
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