Why I write book reviews

Writers read, so why is it so hard to get them to write reviews? Writers have opinions about what they read, so why are they so reluctant to share those opinions in a review? Writers write and the one thing that shows someone has read their work is a review. Often the best review to get is from another writer who has admired their work.

SpecFicNZ is all about authors. What most authors find out the hard way is that finishing their book is just the first step in writing a range of texts; there’s the author bio, the blurb, the 60 second elevator pitch, and the inquiry letter for publication. But the one text that shows there is an audience for their book is a review. We all know that when an author starts out they may not make any money but the best way to get their name out there, to get their work out there, are reviews. Reviews can lift your profile and good reviews can lift your sales.

A few years ago a friend and I were laughing over a review written about a romance between a dinosaur and a cavewoman. We shared this review with our friends and we all debated whether we should pay the .99 cents to read it; just for laughs. That book was only 5000 words long and sold over 100,000 copies so the reviews were important.

SpecFicNZ is here to support our members, who are all writers, to lift their profile and their sales. Once way we can help is by writing reviews. The review process is simple.

  • Let us know you have a book for review (you’ll need to supply a copy)
  • We will assign someone to read your book and write a review, which will be posted to our website, Amazon and any other place we have available for reviews (I always put mine on Goodreads).
  • By requesting a book review you are putting your hand up to read and write a review for another writer (pay it back). But even if you don’t currently have a book for review you can put your hand up to be a reviewer (pay it forward). Darian Smith has a great youtube video on how to write a review.
  • In any given year we would be happy to review up to two books and in return you will be happy to review at least two books.

I like to write reviews because I want to express my opinion about the books I read. I also enjoy reading reviews, I have my favourite reviewers who I follow and read everything they recommend. I am also a writer, and I have found that writing reviews makes me think about my own writing in a critical way to make me a better writer.

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