Step 1: Read a book!

Step 2: Decide to Write a Review.

How often do you pick up a book without a recommendation or perusing reviews online? I still occasionally judge books by their cover at the local library but mostly I rely on recommendations from friends or via reviews online, and I bet you do too.
All of us readers love reviews!
Love a book, want to support an author? The best way is to write an honest review. Reviews are hugely important to us (largely because, like I mentioned, nobody picks up books without looking at reviews).
Love a book and want to support an illustrator? Ditto!
So, if you love readers, authors, illustrators or anyone else in the book industry, support them all and write a review!

Step 3: Don’t Panic!

Maybe you’ve never written a review before, maybe you don’t know where to start.
It’s okay. Take a deep breath. We got you covered.

Step 4: Choose a Star Rating.

Pretty much every place that collects book reviews will give you up to five stars to award the book you are reading. If you are like me this puts you right back to Step 3.
It’s okay, take a deep breath and pick one. 
Still not helping?
Don’t worry, I feel your pain, five stars is a completely inadequate number. I wrote a whole blog post rant about it, you can read my thoughts and how I award stars here: https://behindthewillows.com/2015/08/10/a-rate-it-rant/ 

Step 5: Write Your Review.

Starting a review can be daunting. It’s okay, we are here to help. We have created some handy fill in the blank options to help you out with any book review you might be writing!

“I read it to my ___year old_____ and they ____ it!” 

 ” My ___year old _____ read it to me, so ____!”

  “This book is ___ because____.” 

 ” I gave this book to ___ it was a ____ gift.” 

” Reading this book made me _____.”

“This book is the ____’s ____’s.”

Use these as a starting point or go rouge and pour your heart out.
Tell people what you would like to know if you were the one thinking of buying the book.

Step 6: Share Your Review.

The go to book review place is Amazon.com (or amazon.co.uk or amazon.ca or amazon… you get the picture). Be aware that Amazon has RULES about book reviews as they do their best to keep the world honest. There will always be a delay before your review will post and in the end sometimes it won’t. If that happens don’t despair, there are more options!
Goodreads is a fantastic place to leave a review. Reviews can be shared on Facebook or Instagram any other book site you are a part of (LibraryThing anyone?) or even sent straight to the author. 
In fact, since you already wrote it, why not go wild and post it everywhere?

Step 7:  Breathe a sigh of relief, you’ve done it!

You made an author happy, helped out potential buyers and made it out the other side!

Step 8: Do it again!

If you just followed these steps to review What If Butterflies Loved Snow? you’ve brought joy to our lives. Thank you! Now, do it again for the next book you read, authors, illustrators and readers everywhere will thank you!

Book Bee wants everyone to write book reviews!

If you feel the same pop over here: https://behindthewillows.com/book-bees-step-by-step-guide-to-reviewing-books/ to save and share her handy infographic!

(All illustrations done by Tooks of course!)