Introducing… the Random Review Generator
It’s been a topic of discussion for a while that many people don’t feel qualified to leave reviews on books they’ve read. When I ran the Lesbian and Bi women Fiction Questionnaire last year, I was surprised by the number of people who said they didn’t review. I was more surprised when I saw some of the reasons why. Many people didn’t feel they had the language skills or ability to review a book and even more people said they didn’t know how to write a review.
The Importance of a Review
I think it’s common knowledge that authors need reviews, it isn’t a nice to have or simply an ego boost, it’s an essential part of the author marketing toolkit. I blogged last year about how essential reviews are and how without them a book simply will get lost in the thousands of other books released every month.
Problem
This year’s questionnaire is showing the same issue; people still feel unable to review and the same reasons are being named:
lack of English skills
don’t know what a review should look like
not sure what to say
feel stupid in comparison to other reviews
Solution
This is where the Random Review Generator comes in.
This nifty little tool will produce a random and completely generic review. If you don’t like it, just refresh the webpage and another review will appear. You can use these reviews as they are and simply copy and paste them, or you can use them as guidance and rephrase in your own words. You can even string several together and create a longer review.
I sincerely hope that the Random Review Generator will help people who feel they are unable to write their own review to get started and build their confidence to become seasoned reviewers.
Other ways to help…
If you still don’t want to review, there are other ways you can help. Reviews on Amazon can be up-voted and down-voted by just clicking a button. At the bottom of all reviews, you will see “Was the review helpful to you?” and yes/no buttons.
If you like a book, but you don’t want to write a review, go and up-vote positive reviews that you agree with. This gives these reviews more presence and makes them “worth” more to the Amazon algorithm.
Likewise, if someone has left a bad review on a book you like, you can down-vote that review so it doesn’t have as much of an impact.
I hope this helps and that you will find use in the Random Review Generator!