You just stumbled onto the coolest indie book review site on the web<\/a>. You\u2019re looking to find awesome new books you\u2019ve never heard of to add to your TBR pile. Once you decide that Independent Book Review is who you should trust, you decide you\u2019ll buy your next book based on their recommendation.<\/p>\n First, good idea. <\/p>\n But second, IBR reviews sixty indie books a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n And honestly\u2026a lot of them\u00a0look\u00a0good. There\u2019s value in each of them.<\/p>\n But not all books (or book reviews) are created equal.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Some reviews might describe a book with a killer plot and premise within the first few paragraphs, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a perfect book. It just means you haven\u2019t gotten to the meat of the review yet.<\/p>\n Every book review company<\/a> has a recommended or strictly enforced structure that reviewers abide by. Independent Book Review is no different. We\u2019re flexible with it; if somebody writes a review that throws our structure out of the window and it\u2019s a stellar review, we\u2019re still publishing it; but it\u2019s true many of our reviewers follow it.<\/p>\n And since you\u2019re here, I\u2019m taking you\u00a0behind the scenes<\/strong> of how those book reviews work.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Our taglines are usually less than fifteen words and include a vital piece of what the book is about along with an adjective or two describing what the book did well in its execution.<\/p>\n The above picture shows two recent examples of\u00a0starred book review<\/a>\u00a0taglines. These books are among the best we\u2019ve reviewed on the site, so you\u2019d expect more glittering compliments than you might find elsewhere on IndependentBookReview.com.<\/p>\n One thing to note:\u00a0<\/strong>We do NOT include criticism in our taglines. If it\u2019s a mixed or panned review, the praise in the tagline is a little more tame than you might find in the glowing reviews. Either that, or we\u2019ll use the tagline to describe something intriguing in the plot rather than outright compliment it. Think, \u201cA book with a great premise\u2026\u201d or a tagline that\u2019s primarily summary.<\/p>\n Each review is different of course, so just because it has a tame tagline doesn\u2019t mean the rest of the review will be tame; it just means the catchy part at the top is geared to keep you reading. So just keep reading.<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019re not going to find much opinion in the first few paragraphs after the tagline. This space is designated for the reviewer to describe what happens in the book, who it happens to, and any structural aspects to be aware of going in. We have a company policy to stop the summary at about 50% in the book so we don\u2019t\u00a0spoil anything too important.<\/p>\n To me, summary is the #1 reason you should buy a book after reading a review.\u00a0<\/strong>You already\u00a0know\u00a0that everyone\u2019s opinion is different. You already know that everyone\u2019s reading experiences and histories are different. Sometimes awards and acclaim make it seem like literature transcends subjective opinion\u2013that the best books are the best books, period\u2013but after editing over 2,000 reviews,\u00a0I\u2019m going to let you in on a little secret.<\/p>\n They\u2019re not.<\/p>\n People love\u00a0Catcher in the Rye<\/em>; people hate\u00a0Catcher in the Rye<\/em>.<\/p>\n What matters most is that a reader reads the summary of a review of that book and thinks, \u201cOh, wait, that\u2019s exactly what I love about books like this!\u201d <\/strong>The quiet things perhaps. The introspective things. The fights between family. The experimentation in form or style or structure.\u00a0 These are all part of summary.<\/p>\n This is a big reason why many review platforms (like Kirkus and Publishers Weekly) lean so heavily on summary. It\u2019s a key reason why bookstore buyers and librarians make their buying decisions. They can tell if a book offers something new just from summary alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n But as a book review publisher, I still value opinion quite a bit. It matters. So we ask for a 60-40% split between summary and opinion, while Kirkus and PW might be closer to 80%-20%.<\/p>\n Most reviewers at IBR start their opinion section\u00a0with something the book did well. It\u2019s a common stylistic choice in writing groups and workshops\u2013to ease into the criticism. That\u2019s not saying the intended audience for our reviews is for the writers themselves\u2013it\u2019s not. It\u2019s you, dear reader.\u00a0<\/p>\n While they might start with something positive, they won\u2019t jump to a big statement if they\u2019re about to criticize it in the next paragraph. They\u2019ll say something positive and of value, like a certain character was likable or strong; they\u2019ll say the worldbuilding is imaginative and full. They\u2019ll say something they mean but not necessarily something that means the book is a standout superstar.<\/p>\n And that brings us to the biggest piece of advice in interpreting book reviews as a reader:<\/strong><\/p>\n If you want to find out if the book received criticism\u2013and whether or not you believe in what was said\u2013scroll to the bottom half of the review.\u00a0Our criticism is often in the second or third to last\u00a0paragraph of the review.<\/strong>\u00a0Sometimes there is only one critical paragraph; sometimes there are two or more; sometimes, there is none at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n Criticism is helpful for readers. Sometimes\u2013like if a book does a bad job with its female characters or is rushed or overly convoluted\u2013it can speak to precisely what you don\u2019t like about certain books. But other times, the criticism just doesn\u2019t align with how you feel about books at all. Remember, it is just opinion. It is not fact.<\/p>\n If a book received no criticism, there are three possible reasons:<\/strong><\/p>\n It is a starred review.\u00a0<\/strong>It is among the best books this reviewer has read for IBR, and it also passed our final round of judging for starred reviews. There will be no (or minimal) criticism for the best books. Only about 5% of books reviewed here receive a starred review.<\/p>\n It is not a starred review, but it\u2019s close.\u00a0<\/strong>Sometimes a book is awesome even though it didn\u2019t get a company star. Maybe it came up just short in the final judging process. Maybe this reviewer loved it even though our judges didn\u2019t. Or maybe it just didn\u2019t cross into that \u201cexceptional\u201d territory. This can sometimes mean it is chosen as\u00a0a\u00a0Staff Pick<\/a>.<\/p>\n The reviewer didn\u2019t find any issues but also didn\u2019t think it transcended others in the genre.\u00a0<\/strong>This doesn\u2019t mean you won\u2019t love it. It\u2019s up to you to decide in the end if the summary and praise matches your particular interests.<\/p>\n Want to see if you match the book\u2019s intended audience? Skip to the final paragraph! <\/p>\n We\u2019ll say it outright whether or not you\u2019re in it. Are you looking for a new book for your book club? Are you an action-oriented sci-fi reader or a technology-obsessed one? Do you like specific TV shows, movies, or other books in the genre? We\u2019ll tell you if this one\u2019s a good fit for you.<\/p>\n If you want to see a full run-down of how we recommend our reviews be written, check out this post on \u201cHow to Write a Great Book Review<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Book Reviews for Readers: How to Make Better Book Buying Decisions<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How can you interpret book reviews to find your next favorite book? You just stumbled onto the coolest indie book review site on the web. You\u2019re looking to find awesome new books you\u2019ve never heard of to add to your TBR pile. Once you decide that Independent Book Review is who you should trust, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6437"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Book reviews usually start with a bolded tagline.<\/h3>\n
Then comes the summary.<\/h3>\n
Reviewer opinion can be found in the second half of most published reviews.<\/h3>\n
The final paragraph recommends the book to its best audience.<\/h3>\n
Looking for more reading tips & indie book recommendations?<\/h2>\n