Writing Book Reviews As An Author: Inspiration To Make It Easier in The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club

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Writing Book Reviews As An Author: Inspiration To Make It Easier

J. Lenni Dorner

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Mar 21, 2019 Ronel Janse van Vuuren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, writing-craft, writing-career

鈥淭herefore, even a negative review might turn out to be not so bad. Just keep it respectful.鈥� That is an important line from the Introduction IMO. I regularly do negative reviews about books that others wouldn鈥檛 do for fear of insulting an author, but you know what: if something doesn鈥檛 resonate with you, say so. Respectfully. That flows nicely with:

鈥淣ot every author is going to be grateful for every review. Write the reviews anyway. Write your review knowing you meant each word. Be courteous an 鈥淭herefore, even a negative review might turn out to be not so bad. Just keep it respectful.鈥� That is an important line from the Introduction IMO. I regularly do negative reviews about books that others wouldn鈥檛 do for fear of insulting an author, but you know what: if something doesn鈥檛 resonate with you, say so. Respectfully. That flows nicely with:

鈥淣ot every author is going to be grateful for every review. Write the reviews anyway. Write your review knowing you meant each word. Be courteous and honest, because your integrity matters. Remember that a real human wrote what you read and had hoped it would impact you. Authors work hard and pour their souls onto the pages. No one knows that better than a fellow writer. Not everyone will share the opinions in your reviews, but if you mention how you arrived at your conclusion, and present it with respect, your reviews will hold more weight for others.鈥�

If nothing else, this made me feel good about the how鈥檚 and why鈥檚 of my own review process.

The different approaches to reviewing has helped me to clear up my own process: sometimes I do the simple approach, sometimes I do the more 鈥測es, this is great and you should read it for the following reasons鈥� and sometimes I go a little crazy and tell you exactly what bothered me about the book 鈥� and that you can read about the good stuff in raving 5 star reviews. Maybe I鈥檒l take a bit more time to get things in order in my head before putting it on page with this author鈥檚 easy techniques for writing each type of review.

I鈥檝e read fiction from this author on several occasions and loved it! (So go check that out, too, if you like speculative fiction that keeps you on the edge of your seat.)

This is a great resource to have and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to write reviews, has to write reviews and/or are curious about the basic framework of writing reviews.

Did I mention how much I like the cover? Well, now I have.

*Note, I got an ARC from the author and this is my honest opinion.
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Feb 05, 2019 Jemima Pett rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, atoz-challenge, writing

Writing Book Reviews as an Author is filled with useful information - and not just about writing reviews. Although it's geared towards author-reviewers, any reader who would like to craft better reviews will find a readable, informative text within.
Although a book written during or arising from the A to Z Challenge, J Lenni Dorner makes the letters into various mnemonics for writing different levels of review. How in depth do you want to go? There's something here for you to consider.
After I'd r ...more

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