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Before writing and publishing a nonfiction book, it’s helpful to read the reviews of books similar to the one you’re working on. Knowing what readers liked and disliked about other books can help you improve the quality and success of your book.
I created a system I’ve used for my last three books. I go to Amazon and browse book categories to find books similar to mine. Then I look at the top 50 to 100 relevant books in that category. For each book, I click on reviews, sort by “top rated,” filter by “verified purchase only,” and select “all formats.” For starred reviews, I first click on “all positive” (which is 4- and 5-star reviews) and read through the reviews and look for common themes. Then I click on “all critical” (which is 1-, 2- and 3-star reviews) and look for common themes there, too.
From my research, I have noticed that some common themes recur as reasons for positive or negative reviews regardless of the topic or genre (i.e. Business, Self-Help, How-To, etc.). I compiled what I learned into a checklist and use it to improve the quality of my books.
Feel free to use the following checklist before you publish to ensure your nonfiction book is the best it can be.
Primary Reasons Given for POSITIVE Nonfiction Book Reviews:
- Clear, concise, and to the point
- Easy to understand
- Actionable, shows how to apply information
- Informative
- Complete, comprehensive, thorough
- Provides a system/process, detailed instructions
- Entertaining
- Motivational/inspirational
- Provides valuable resources and links
- Honest, genuine, shares successes and failures
- Provides new information, original/unique style or content
- Good organization and flow
- Great title
- Author doesn’t bore you with personal stories
- Beautifully written
- Includes bonuses
- Life-changing content
- No fluff
- Up to date
Primary Reasons Given for NEGATIVE Nonfiction Book Reviews:
- Outdated information and strategies
- Reads like a sales pitch, too much self-promotion
- Too general/vague/basic/simplistic, no substance
- More like an article or blog post, short and uninformative
- Boring
- Too long, could have been condensed, too much fluff
- Poorly formatted/organized/laid out, jumps around too much
- Typos, poor grammar/punctuation/spelling, needed editing
- Obvious points, nothing new
- Title is misleading/offensive/bland
- Repetitive
- Too many links, links disrupt flow of text, inoperable links
- Data dump, too many recommendations, feels like a phonebook
- Just one person’s experience, anecdotal
- No index
- Book didn’t live up to description/hype
- Confusing/unclear
- No actionable information, needed more “how-to”
- Poorly written
- Wrong information/missing important information
- Bad examples
- Cover is blah
- Offensive language
- Too political
- Unethical recommendations
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