Give A Book Review

From a book-buyer’s perspective, one of the best parts of leading online bookseller Amazon.com is the many customer reviews that accompany most book listings. An invaluable supplement to the authors’ own descriptions of their works, these third-party critiques add insights from others who have read the books, and often help buyers decide if the book will be of interest to them.

They also provide an opportunity for the reviewer to get a little bit of exposure. For example, at the time this Handbook was written, the following bio appeared as a book review for the book “Influence: The Science of Persuasion” by Dr. Robert Cialdini:

“Name: Michael Netzley
Reviewer Rank: 7906
About me: Michael is an independent communication consultant and management communication faculty member living in Asia and Europe. He currently serves as the President of GoldPoint Strategies, Inc. GoldPoint offers its clients an international perspective on communication strategy issues.
Michael also serves on the faculty of Singapore Management University, the Helsinki School of Economics (Finland) and the Bled School of Management (Slovenia). Michael specializes in communication strategy and persuasion …”.

You get the idea.

Book reviews build your credibility in two ways. First, your own words give you an opportunity to illustrate your critical thinking ability. Second, you gain credibility through your association with a good author or book.

Although any book review will get you some exposure, it makes the most sense to focus on reviewing books that are relevant to your field, and likely to be of interest to your target market. You can get started writing reviews today, and write as little or as much as you like in each review.