I’m picky when it comes to book reviews. I usually have to sneak reading them in 10-minute stints while my 1-year-old daughter entertains herself by pulling everything out of a drawer and spreading it over every square inch of the kitchen floor. Since I have to glance back every minute or so to make sure she hasn’t unearthed a plastic bag or an airplane bottle of liquor, some types of reviews get read by me and others not so much.

I know I’m not alone in this. A lot of us aren’t able to dutifully read every word of every blog we subscribe to. I try to keep this in mind when writing book reviews myself, and in the spirit of D.U.O.A.Y.W.H.T.D.U.Y., I’ve developed a list of guidelines I use to try to meet the needs of the wide range of reading needs.

  1. Rate it—I want a quick way to figure out whether you loved, liked, or hated the book. With limited reading time, I’m not going to read about books you didn’t love unless it’s something I’ve already read myself or something I was considering reading already. If your reviews don’t have a rating or an overall verdict no longer than one line, I’ll leave them unread in my RSS reader until I have more time to read. Which is typically once every 3 months when all the chores are done and the bills are paid and the baby is off on a weekend errand with her dad.

    Example: 1morechapter.com

  2. Summarize it—I’m just not into certain types of books, so I like to be able to tell that right off the bat before investing my time in a review. Also, if you’re a YA-nnabe like me, it’s good practice to try to sum up an entire book in a sentence or two, as you will have to do that for your own work when writing query letters and talking to editors at conferences.

    Example: Fyrefly’s Book Blog

  3. Keep it short—I struggle with this one, especially for the books at either end of the spectrum. I either want to gush on and on, or defend my assertion that a book wasn’t that good so people won’t call me a big ol’ meanie. I try to stick to 5 short paragraphs or less, not counting quotes. And if that’s not possible, I try to keep the paragraphs super short and break them up by using lists, links, and bold or italic formatting to highlight key phrases.

    Example: propernoun.net

But every reader is different. What do you look for in a good book review? What guidelines do you have for yourself when writing a book review?

Photo by tm_lv.

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