As someone who gets through a minimum of 5 books a month, I am ideally placed to describe how to write a book review. Not only am I a good reader but I am highly opinionated and I am not afraid to show it. That makes me an excellent candidate to review books.

These days the best place to review books is on Amazon. It is the number one place in the world for buying and selling books of all descriptions and it is the huge traffic that goes there which will give you a very visible online platform to air your views about one of their products.

Read the Book Before Drawing an Opinion

But before you go rushing in to start your first review, some ground rules apply. First it is absolutely essential that if you are going to review a book that you read the whole book first in its entirety. Don’t stop after ten pages then assume that makes you an expert on the work. Don’t read ten pages then start mocking the plot. For all you know, the plot might twist in an entirely different direction on page 11 and throw your entire review totally off track, making you look like a bit of an idiotic uninformed fool.

Hear that flushing sound? That’s your reputation going down the toilet – and don’t expect to get it back. So that’s rule number one – no matter how much you dislike the book, if you are going to review it afterwards, read it all so you can make an informed opinion about it.

Libel Laws DO Apply Online

Secondly, I have to clear up a misunderstanding here. A lot of people seem to think that if you write something false online, that libel laws don’t apply. That you can write whatever you want and they can’t track you down to take you to court. Well I am here to tell you that this is NOT the case.

There are recent multiple cases of Google complying with court orders to hand over the identities of bloggers on their Blogger network, who allegedly libelled and defamed other people. You CAN be held to account for whatever you write and the laws still apply whether you are online or off.

So when writing your book review, don’t be tempted to throw in a few outrageous accusations about the author (“hated his book and he is a gay liberal too who cheats on his wife”). Say something like that and the “gay liberal” might instruct his lawyer to give you a call and serve you a summons.

Be Honest With Your Readers

Thirdly, a lot of publishers are in the habit of sending copies of their new books to whom they view as influential. In return for a free copy, they are hoping for a positive review and a lot of reviewers may feel compelled to produce that positive review so they can stay friendly with people in the industry.

If you are one of those people, don’t feel pressured to write what other people want you to write. Write what YOU want to write and be honest to your readers. If the book sucks, say so and say why (just remember to read it all the way through first before coming up with such an opinion). Then let the chips fall where they may.

Do Not Reveal All of the Plot

And last of all, don’t spend your entire review revealing the plot of the book. If there are spoilers ahead, say so at the beginning and give the reader the opportunity to stop reading.

Don’t plough straight on and reveal that Dumbledore died at the end of the Harry Potter book. Ruining the book like that for millions of people will earn you a legion of enemies, not fans, as well as not endearing you to the book publisher. That’s not a situation you want to find yourself in.

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Mark O’Neill is a freelance writer of 20 years experience, and also the managing editor of MakeUseOf.com, since August 2007. You can see his personal website at markoneill.org Mark has 17 post(s) at Free Writing Center