Every author’s nightmare is waiting for those reviews to come in. It’s a terrible wait, not knowing whether it’s going to be good or bad. But if you want to be successful as an author then this is a process that is absolutely crucial for you. Book reviews are important for authors because this is how you collect feedback from your readers to improve your writing. Reviews can be incredibly useful, and this article will take you through the impact that book reviews have on you as an author. We’ll guide you through navigating feedback and building credibility. You will also have the opportunity to understand how to handle constructive criticism and discover the strategies you will need to encourage and manage reader reviews.

The Significance of Book Reviews

Book reviews are important for authors, your readers, and even your publishers. It might seem like something small, but understanding why book reviews are important will help you utilize them in an effective and efficient way.

As an author, you will need the feedback that your book review will contain. It will consist of all the information that will let you know what your readers liked or disliked about your book or writing. This gives you the opportunity to improve your content and tailor it to meet your readers needs better. It makes you a better writer. It can also give you a little confidence boost, especially when it’s all positive reviews. When your reviews are good, the book does well and reaches more people. There’s nothing like great word-of-mouth marketing. The positive reviews also give your book more authenticity, and people are more likely to purchase it when they know other people have read it and enjoyed it.

Informative reviews act as a marketing tool that invites people to try out a new author and genre, especially if they didn’t know about you before.

Building Author Credibility

For an author, credibility is an important tool. If your credibility is low, your audience will not trust you, and as a writer, you rely on that trust for book sales. So how can you build your credibility? You can utilize book reviews to establish authority. Book reviews are a fantastic tool when it comes to building credibility as an author, and this is one of the main ways that you will be able to establish authority.

Managing Book Reviews

If you want to make use of book reviews to its fullest potential, then you need to make sure that you are managing them correctly. This means that you need to ensure you are getting your reviews as organically as possible. Try to find out how reviews work on the various platforms that you plan to use for selling your book. On Amazon, for example, reviews are extremely important, especially for self-published and new authors. Besides the usual approval from readers that encourages others to purchase your book, Amazon reviews contribute to your ranking, which has a direct impact on your sales. There are other ways to gather reviews. Many Kindle authors find that book promotion sites can encourage readers to purchase a writer’s book.

The first step to managing book reviews is to make sure you’re getting the right ones. Let’s jump into how you can obtain reviews that will take your book’s credibility to the highest level it’s ever been!

Encouraging Reader Reviews

It might seem like a lot of work, but getting those book reviews is actually pretty easy. Here are a few tried-and-tested tips that are bound to get you the reviews you’ve been looking for:

• Find those bloggers: The world of the written word has too many book bloggers to even count. All you need to do is find the ones that are interested in your genre or niche. Most of the time, bloggers have an incredible number of subscribers or followers on their social media channels, which means that you can leverage this for book sales as well. It’s important to remember that when you are reaching out to these bloggers and book reviewers, you don’t send out generic mass emails. Take your time to be personal, do your research, and craft an email to ensure that they will be attracted to your niche. Keep your message short and simple. A great tip is to send over your book with the request to make things easier for them. This way, the reviewer wouldn’t have to take the time to purchase the book and then review it. Don’t forget that you should follow up after a while. Give them enough time, though; don’t send them a message two days after you’ve sent them your book. Lastly, remember to send them a few words of gratitude. It’s important to show them that you appreciate the time they took to review your book. You can also make use of book review websites to find the right fit for you.
• Ask your readers: This is also a great source for reviews. The easiest and best way to do this is to simply leave a short message for them right at the end of your book. Again, you want to keep it short and sweet. A simple message saying, “Thanks, and I hope you enjoyed this book. Don’t forget to leave a review so I can continue sharing my stories with you.” 
• Make sure it’s easy: It needs to be extremely easy to leave a review, especially when it comes to online books. Always ensure that you leave links that take the reader directly to a form or page where they can leave their review. The more cumbersome it becomes to actually reach the review page, the less likely they are to leave the review. Remember, you are asking them for a favor, so it needs to be as quick and easy as possible.
• Guided reviews: Have you ever read a mind-blowing book that just left you speechless? We’ve all been there. Well, your readers experienced this, too! Sometimes, it’s just too hard to put your feelings into words, and this is where guided reviews will help you immensely. On your review page, include questions that the reader can answer easily so they can put their thoughts into words. Some questions you can ask them are, “What was your favorite part of the book?” and “What was the worst part of the book?” These kinds of questions will allow you to formulate feedback to improve future books.
• Giveaways: This is probably one of the easiest and most common ways to get your audience to participate in something. You can have a book giveaway where people can leave positive reviews for a chance to win a book. This will increase your reach and can even help you with social media engagement.

Leveraging Positive Reviews

You’ve got all the reviews you worked so hard to acquire; now, what do you do with them? That’s pretty simple. You can use them anywhere and everywhere! There is an art to leveraging your positive reviews. Here’s how you can make the most of it:

1. On some occasions, you’ll find the perfect review that encompasses everything good about your book. All you need to do is take that statement and add it right to your front cover. It’s also helpful to add it to the back cover below your description. You can add three or four short reviews there. These can be the deciding factors between someone making the purchase or choosing another book.
2. You can fill those blank pages at the front and back of your book with reviews. Why waste the space?
3. Positive reviews come in handy on the sales pages that you have for your book. You can add it there, along with your book description and cover.
4. When you’re doing a press release, a positive review will be the proof that the media will use to showcase you as an up-and-coming author or as an already established author who just released a must-have novel.
5. You can splash your reviews all over your launch campaign, and they can be used on your social media sites, in your paid ads, in your email marketing, and on your blogs.
6. Don’t forget that positive reviews are all marketing collateral that can be used.

Constructive Criticism for Authors

As much as we want all our reviews to be positive, that’s simply not possible. But that doesn’t mean that negative reviews are not helpful. We need to look at them as constructive criticism. If negative reviews are honest, they can help you refine your writing and storytelling skills in a way that improves your book, especially if you are planning to release more editions or a series of books. 

Try not to take it too personally, and feel free to reach out to these reviewers and ask them to explain in greater detail so you can evaluate and improve.

After all, you want your readers to truly enjoy your book, so who better to give you feedback than them? 

In Summary

Book reviews play a significant role for authors. Through reviews, you will discover how well your book is doing, and you will also receive much-needed constructive criticism that will help you improve. Embrace the process, and you’ll have a best-seller in no time!