Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Hey guys, I've been reviewing books for a while and I had a few questions about the review formats. A friend of mine told me that it would be a good idea to stick to a formatt and show the main parts readers want to know about. Such as "plot", "characterization", "writing style" etc... Now on my reviews I usually summarize the novel in my own words without giving spoilers, then seperate my paragraphs and talk about what I liked about the book and then what I disliked followed be a "if I recommend it" and rate it at the end. Now I don't usually stick to the format I specified above and I'm wondering. As readers what do you enjooy in a review? Which formats would you be more compelled by? Thanks for the help.

Hi Nic,

I think the way you are doing reviews is better because it allows you flexibility to explore whatever comes up for you in the book. That's the way I do my reviews, anyhow. I think following a formula would begin to feel like, well, a formula.

Indeed, I'm afraid that if I would go with a designated format I would limit the things I could talk about that was important in a novel. Thanks for your comment Deb!

Each reviewer has is or her own procedures on how they prefer to write; it's not up to me as a reader to dictate that.

And do you beleive that the major proportion of readers apprciate a specific format that the ycan follow and read easily or the second format where you just review like normal?

Nic wrote: "And do you beleive that the major proportion of readers apprciate a specific format that the ycan follow and read easily or the second format where you just review like normal?"

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. It seems that you are implying readers cannot follow a review unless it is written to a template? I don't know what "like normal" means to you.

Perhaps it will help you to see what procedure I follow when reviewing: my blog post about how I review books.

Honestly, I tend to believe that people are pretty intelligent. Given my 83 percent helpful rating as an Amazon reviewer, despite my not using a template like what you suggest, I think that my method is fairly effective.

I was wondering if readers enjoy reviews that follow a certain template. For ex: you start off with Summary: ..... Then Setting: ..... Plot: ..... Characterization:.... Conclusion:....

(....=what you thought)

What I do as a review is I go with the flow and write what I liked and seperate the paragraphs, although I do not always talk about the setting the plot the characters on eac single review. AfterwardsI talk about what could have been improved. I was wonderinng if my review "template" was more appealing to readers in general rather the creating template #1

Nic wrote: "I was wondering if readers enjoy reviews that follow a certain template. For ex: you start off with Summary: ..... Then Setting: ..... Plot: ..... Characterization:.... Conclusion:....

(....=what..."

Honestly? I don't think it makes that much difference. If people are inclined to read reviews, they will (not everyone does). IMO, you should write the review the way it is most comfortable/natural for *you* to do it without worrying so much about what some unknown person might prefer.

Sharon wrote: Perhaps it will help you to see what procedure I follow when reviewing: my blog post about how I review books.

Nice post, Sharon!

Jade wrote: "Sharon wrote: Perhaps it will help you to see what procedure I follow when reviewing: my blog post about how I review books.

Nice post, Sharon!"

Thank you!

Sharon wrote: "Nic wrote: "I was wondering if readers enjoy reviews that follow a certain template. For ex: you start off with Summary: ..... Then Setting: ..... Plot: ..... Characterization:.... Conclusion:.... ..."

Thank you Sharon for your oppinions, I'm trying to make my blog as user friendly as possible.