I know the feeling. You've spent hours on a review. In fact, it's one of the best you've ever written, you've proof read it over and over and FINALLY you've hit publish.
So why has it only got fifty hits and your only comment is from your Mum?
Book reviews get book bloggers the least amount of pageviews and it's annoying. We put all that effort into them and it seems like hardly anyone pays them any attention. Let's change that.
There's one mistake that's stopping our reviews from becoming just as popular as any other post. They're not unique.
Think about it. Book reviews all look the same. There's millions of book bloggers out there and ALL of them are posting reviews. Discussions, tutorials, they all have something different to offer. Reviews? Once you've seen one you've seen them all.
As a community, we need to add variety to our reviews. We need to make ourselves stand out from that endless sea of voices. Nowadays, nobody wants to read a lump of text that's barely edited and that looks like hundreds of other reviews. Just plain writing alone isn't enough.
So today I thought I'd discuss how we can make our reviews stand out, and get just as much attention as any other post. Book reviews all look the same. Let's change that!
Format Your Reviews Differently.
Book reviews all look the same. Write down your thoughts. Paste in an image and synopsis. Done.
Booooring!
If you want to make your reviews more interesting, make them different. Once you've seen one review you've seen them all. Adding variety to your reviews, making then unique to your blog, will help them stand out.
Here are some great examples:
- Cait from Paper Fury recently published 42 Reactions Whilst Reading Winter. I love this idea. Basically, instead of just writing a review, as she was reading the book she wrote down her thoughts on the characters, plot e.t.c. Then, instead of writing them up, she just published them. You get to see how her opinions developed as the book progressed and I REALLY LIKED THIS POST. OK?
- Stephanie from These Paper Hearts writes awesome reviews. If you haven't seen them, you should definitely check them out. Instead of writing about a book, she ranks different aspects of a book on a bar chart. I love how visual her posts are... all you need to do is take a glance at it and you get a good idea of what she thought of a book.
Help your readers... read.
Nobody likes unreadable chunks of text. If I'm in the car or walking the dog I don't want to have to focus on your posts. I want to be able to scan your writing quickly and simply.
If you want people to read you book reviews, you need to make them easier to read. Don't just write a huge lump of text. Here are some tips to get you started!
If you want people to read you book reviews, you need to make them easier to read. Don't just write a huge lump of text. Here are some tips to get you started!
- Use images. Cait at Paper Fury (Yes, I'm mentioning Cait again. If you don't follow her already then you aren't an acceptable human being.) does this brilliantly. Using good quality images (of the book) are a great way to break up your writing, and give something different for your readers to look at than just plain text. Y'know. A picture tells a thousand words.
- Don't forget headings. Yes. That's right. Your readers probably won't have time to read all of your review. I've said it before, people don't read on the internet. They scan. Using large, bold headings are a great way to help your readers just scroll quickly and glean your points. Also, don't make your headings boring with generic titles such as plot or characters. Instead, tell your reader quickly what you thought about something. A header such as: Even though I hated the characters, I'm pretty sure the writing is the some of the best of this year tells a reader much more than just style or whatever.
- Spell check. For f***ks sake people. CAN YOU NOT READ??? Nothing winds me up more than a post that has so many grammatical errors I start to wonder if you've suddenly begun outsourcing your writing to a toddler. I'm fine with the odd mistake, but forgetting to start a sentence with a capital letter? Take a little pride, please.
- Use lists. There's nothing easier than reading a pro/con list. What did you like, what didn't you like? It might seem simple, but I actually prefer just skimming a simple list than a whole essay, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
Grab your reader's attention from the word go.
There is nothing more generic than the title: Review: Harry Potter et Philosophi Lapis or whatever. Your post title is the ONLY way you can convince people to click through to read your review.
You're gonna need something a little more creative than that, pal.
How can you sum up your feelings about your book in one short sentence? Any extra information you can give your readers in your title is a good thing. Here are some ideas:
- Why [title here] probably isn't the book for you.
- 5 things I loved about [title here]
- 20 reasons I HATED [title here]
- Why all the hype? 10 reasons I wanted to throw [title here] out of a window
- 6 Thoughts on [title here]
Better than just Review: Title Here or whatever, huh?
Tell your readers what to say.
Book reviews get the least amount of comments. Why? Because your readers probably don't know what to say. If they haven't read the book, they won't have an opinion on it. What are the chances that your readers have read the ARC you're reviewing two months in advance?
Pretty much zero.
At the bottom of each review, post a question - not to do with the actual book (but something that cropped up in your review). Basically, you need to find something relevant to the book that ANYBODY can have an opinion on, whether they've read it or not.
Then ask your readers their opinion on it.
Pretty much zero.
At the bottom of each review, post a question - not to do with the actual book (but something that cropped up in your review). Basically, you need to find something relevant to the book that ANYBODY can have an opinion on, whether they've read it or not.
Then ask your readers their opinion on it.
Whatever you do, do something different.
Right now book reviews all look the same. Some of them are pretty much impossible to read.
People want to follow blogs with original content, blogs that are unique and interesting.
Don't let your reviews blend in.
- Try and find ways to make your reviews unique.
- Increase the readability of your reviews.
- Create interesting titles to help attract readers.
- Prompt your readers to comment at the bottom of each post.
- Rock your reviews.