how many pages is a book review

Book Reviews

What this handout is about.

This handout will help you write a book review, a report or essay that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews.

What is a review?

A review is a critical evaluation of a text, event, object, or phenomenon. Reviews can consider books, articles, entire genres or fields of literature, architecture, art, fashion, restaurants, policies, exhibitions, performances, and many other forms. This handout will focus on book reviews. For a similar assignment, see our handout on literature reviews .

Above all, a review makes an argument. The most important element of a review is that it is a commentary, not merely a summary. It allows you to enter into dialogue and discussion with the work’s creator and with other audiences. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. You should clearly state your opinion of the work in question, and that statement will probably resemble other types of academic writing, with a thesis statement, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Typically, reviews are brief. In newspapers and academic journals, they rarely exceed 1000 words, although you may encounter lengthier assignments and extended commentaries. In either case, reviews need to be succinct. While they vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features:

• First, a review gives the reader a concise summary of the content. This includes a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument, or purpose.
• Second, and more importantly, a review offers a critical assessment of the content. This involves your reactions to the work under review: what strikes you as noteworthy, whether or not it was effective or persuasive, and how it enhanced your understanding of the issues at hand.
• Finally, in addition to analyzing the work, a review often suggests whether or not the audience would appreciate it.

Becoming an expert reviewer: three short examples

Reviewing can be a daunting task. Someone has asked for your opinion about something that you may feel unqualified to evaluate. Who are you to criticize Toni Morrison’s new book if you’ve never written a novel yourself, much less won a Nobel Prize? The point is that someone—a professor, a journal editor, peers in a study group—wants to know what you think about a particular work. You may not be (or feel like) an expert, but you need to pretend to be one for your particular audience. Nobody expects you to be the intellectual equal of the work’s creator, but your careful observations can provide you with the raw material to make reasoned judgments. Tactfully voicing agreement and disagreement, praise and criticism, is a valuable, challenging skill, and like many forms of writing, reviews require you to provide concrete evidence for your assertions.

Consider the following brief book review written for a history course on medieval Europe by a student who is fascinated with beer:

Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600, investigates how women used to brew and sell the majority of ale drunk in England. Historically, ale and beer (not milk, wine, or water) were important elements of the English diet. Ale brewing was low-skill and low status labor that was complimentary to women’s domestic responsibilities. In the early fifteenth century, brewers began to make ale with hops, and they called this new drink “beer.” This technique allowed brewers to produce their beverages at a lower cost and to sell it more easily, although women generally stopped brewing once the business became more profitable.

The student describes the subject of the book and provides an accurate summary of its contents. But the reader does not learn some key information expected from a review: the author’s argument, the student’s appraisal of the book and its argument, and whether or not the student would recommend the book. As a critical assessment, a book review should focus on opinions, not facts and details. Summary should be kept to a minimum, and specific details should serve to illustrate arguments.

Now consider a review of the same book written by a slightly more opinionated student:

Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 was a colossal disappointment. I wanted to know about the rituals surrounding drinking in medieval England: the songs, the games, the parties. Bennett provided none of that information. I liked how the book showed ale and beer brewing as an economic activity, but the reader gets lost in the details of prices and wages. I was more interested in the private lives of the women brewsters. The book was divided into eight long chapters, and I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to read it.

There’s no shortage of judgments in this review! But the student does not display a working knowledge of the book’s argument. The reader has a sense of what the student expected of the book, but no sense of what the author herself set out to prove. Although the student gives several reasons for the negative review, those examples do not clearly relate to each other as part of an overall evaluation—in other words, in support of a specific thesis. This review is indeed an assessment, but not a critical one.

Here is one final review of the same book:

One of feminism’s paradoxes—one that challenges many of its optimistic histories—is how patriarchy remains persistent over time. While Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 recognizes medieval women as historical actors through their ale brewing, it also shows that female agency had its limits with the advent of beer. I had assumed that those limits were religious and political, but Bennett shows how a “patriarchal equilibrium” shut women out of economic life as well. Her analysis of women’s wages in ale and beer production proves that a change in women’s work does not equate to a change in working women’s status. Contemporary feminists and historians alike should read Bennett’s book and think twice when they crack open their next brewsky.

This student’s review avoids the problems of the previous two examples. It combines balanced opinion and concrete example, a critical assessment based on an explicitly stated rationale, and a recommendation to a potential audience. The reader gets a sense of what the book’s author intended to demonstrate. Moreover, the student refers to an argument about feminist history in general that places the book in a specific genre and that reaches out to a general audience. The example of analyzing wages illustrates an argument, the analysis engages significant intellectual debates, and the reasons for the overall positive review are plainly visible. The review offers criteria, opinions, and support with which the reader can agree or disagree.

Developing an assessment: before you write

There is no definitive method to writing a review, although some critical thinking about the work at hand is necessary before you actually begin writing. Thus, writing a review is a two-step process: developing an argument about the work under consideration, and making that argument as you write an organized and well-supported draft. See our handout on argument .

What follows is a series of questions to focus your thinking as you dig into the work at hand. While the questions specifically consider book reviews, you can easily transpose them to an analysis of performances, exhibitions, and other review subjects. Don’t feel obligated to address each of the questions; some will be more relevant than others to the book in question.

• What is the thesis—or main argument—of the book? If the author wanted you to get one idea from the book, what would it be? How does it compare or contrast to the world you know? What has the book accomplished?
• What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Does the author cover the subject adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion? What is the approach to the subject (topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive)?
• How does the author support their argument? What evidence do they use to prove their point? Do you find that evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does any of the author’s information (or conclusions) conflict with other books you’ve read, courses you’ve taken or just previous assumptions you had of the subject?
• How does the author structure their argument? What are the parts that make up the whole? Does the argument make sense? Does it persuade you? Why or why not?
• How has this book helped you understand the subject? Would you recommend the book to your reader?

Beyond the internal workings of the book, you may also consider some information about the author and the circumstances of the text’s production:

• Who is the author? Nationality, political persuasion, training, intellectual interests, personal history, and historical context may provide crucial details about how a work takes shape. Does it matter, for example, that the biographer was the subject’s best friend? What difference would it make if the author participated in the events they write about?
• What is the book’s genre? Out of what field does it emerge? Does it conform to or depart from the conventions of its genre? These questions can provide a historical or literary standard on which to base your evaluations. If you are reviewing the first book ever written on the subject, it will be important for your readers to know. Keep in mind, though, that naming “firsts”—alongside naming “bests” and “onlys”—can be a risky business unless you’re absolutely certain.

Writing the review

Once you have made your observations and assessments of the work under review, carefully survey your notes and attempt to unify your impressions into a statement that will describe the purpose or thesis of your review. Check out our handout on thesis statements . Then, outline the arguments that support your thesis.

Your arguments should develop the thesis in a logical manner. That logic, unlike more standard academic writing, may initially emphasize the author’s argument while you develop your own in the course of the review. The relative emphasis depends on the nature of the review: if readers may be more interested in the work itself, you may want to make the work and the author more prominent; if you want the review to be about your perspective and opinions, then you may structure the review to privilege your observations over (but never separate from) those of the work under review. What follows is just one of many ways to organize a review.

Introduction

Since most reviews are brief, many writers begin with a catchy quip or anecdote that succinctly delivers their argument. But you can introduce your review differently depending on the argument and audience. The Writing Center’s handout on introductions can help you find an approach that works. In general, you should include:

• The name of the author and the book title and the main theme.
• Relevant details about who the author is and where they stand in the genre or field of inquiry. You could also link the title to the subject to show how the title explains the subject matter.
• The context of the book and/or your review. Placing your review in a framework that makes sense to your audience alerts readers to your “take” on the book. Perhaps you want to situate a book about the Cuban revolution in the context of Cold War rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union. Another reviewer might want to consider the book in the framework of Latin American social movements. Your choice of context informs your argument.
• The thesis of the book. If you are reviewing fiction, this may be difficult since novels, plays, and short stories rarely have explicit arguments. But identifying the book’s particular novelty, angle, or originality allows you to show what specific contribution the piece is trying to make.
• Your thesis about the book.

Summary of content

This should be brief, as analysis takes priority. In the course of making your assessment, you’ll hopefully be backing up your assertions with concrete evidence from the book, so some summary will be dispersed throughout other parts of the review.

The necessary amount of summary also depends on your audience. Graduate students, beware! If you are writing book reviews for colleagues—to prepare for comprehensive exams, for example—you may want to devote more attention to summarizing the book’s contents. If, on the other hand, your audience has already read the book—such as a class assignment on the same work—you may have more liberty to explore more subtle points and to emphasize your own argument. See our handout on summary for more tips.

Analysis and evaluation of the book

Your analysis and evaluation should be organized into paragraphs that deal with single aspects of your argument. This arrangement can be challenging when your purpose is to consider the book as a whole, but it can help you differentiate elements of your criticism and pair assertions with evidence more clearly. You do not necessarily need to work chronologically through the book as you discuss it. Given the argument you want to make, you can organize your paragraphs more usefully by themes, methods, or other elements of the book. If you find it useful to include comparisons to other books, keep them brief so that the book under review remains in the spotlight. Avoid excessive quotation and give a specific page reference in parentheses when you do quote. Remember that you can state many of the author’s points in your own words.

Sum up or restate your thesis or make the final judgment regarding the book. You should not introduce new evidence for your argument in the conclusion. You can, however, introduce new ideas that go beyond the book if they extend the logic of your own thesis. This paragraph needs to balance the book’s strengths and weaknesses in order to unify your evaluation. Did the body of your review have three negative paragraphs and one favorable one? What do they all add up to? The Writing Center’s handout on conclusions can help you make a final assessment.

Finally, a few general considerations:

• Review the book in front of you, not the book you wish the author had written. You can and should point out shortcomings or failures, but don’t criticize the book for not being something it was never intended to be.
• With any luck, the author of the book worked hard to find the right words to express her ideas. You should attempt to do the same. Precise language allows you to control the tone of your review.
• Never hesitate to challenge an assumption, approach, or argument. Be sure, however, to cite specific examples to back up your assertions carefully.
• Try to present a balanced argument about the value of the book for its audience. You’re entitled—and sometimes obligated—to voice strong agreement or disagreement. But keep in mind that a bad book takes as long to write as a good one, and every author deserves fair treatment. Harsh judgments are difficult to prove and can give readers the sense that you were unfair in your assessment.
• A great place to learn about book reviews is to look at examples. The New York Times Sunday Book Review and The New York Review of Books can show you how professional writers review books.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Drewry, John. 1974. Writing Book Reviews. Boston: Greenwood Press.

Hoge, James. 1987. Literary Reviewing. Charlottesville: University Virginia of Press.

Sova, Dawn, and Harry Teitelbaum. 2002. How to Write Book Reports , 4th ed. Lawrenceville, NY: Thomson/Arco.

Walford, A.J. 1986. Reviews and Reviewing: A Guide. Phoenix: Oryx Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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• Types of Structured Group Activities
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• Multiple Book Review Essay
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• Acknowledgments

A book review is a thorough description, critical analysis, and/or evaluation of the quality, meaning, and significance of a book, often written in relation to prior research on the topic. Reviews generally range from 500-2000 words, but may be longer or shorter depends on several factors: the length and complexity of the book being reviewed, the overall purpose of the review, and whether the review examines two or more books that focus on the same topic. Professors assign book reviews as practice in carefully analyzing complex scholarly texts and to assess your ability to effectively synthesize research so that you reach an informed perspective about the topic being covered.

There are two general approaches to reviewing a book:

• Descriptive review: Presents the content and structure of a book as objectively as possible, describing essential information about a book's purpose and authority. This is done by stating the perceived aims and purposes of the study, often incorporating passages quoted from the text that highlight key elements of the work. Additionally, there may be some indication of the reading level and anticipated audience.
• Critical review: Describes and evaluates the book in relation to accepted literary and historical standards and supports this evaluation with evidence from the text and, in most cases, in contrast to and in comparison with the research of others. It should include a statement about what the author has tried to do, evaluates how well you believe the author has succeeded in meeting the objectives of the study, and presents evidence to support this assessment. For most course assignments, your professor will want you to write this type of review.

Book Reviews. Writing Center. University of New Hampshire; Book Reviews: How to Write a Book Review. Writing and Style Guides. Libraries. Dalhousie University; Kindle, Peter A. "Teaching Students to Write Book Reviews." Contemporary Rural Social Work 7 (2015): 135-141; Erwin, R. W. “Reviewing Books for Scholarly Journals.” In Writing and Publishing for Academic Authors . Joseph M. Moxley and Todd Taylor. 2 nd edition. (Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield, 1997), pp. 83-90.

How to Approach Writing Your Review

NOTE:   Since most course assignments require that you write a critical rather than descriptive book review, the following information about preparing to write and developing the structure and style of reviews focuses on this approach.

I.  Common Features

While book reviews vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features. These include:

• A review gives the reader a concise summary of the content . This includes a description of the research topic and scope of analysis as well as an overview of the book's overall perspective, argument, and purpose.
• A review offers a critical assessment of the content in relation to other studies on the same topic . This involves documenting your reactions to the work under review--what strikes you as noteworthy or important, whether or not the arguments made by the author(s) were effective or persuasive, and how the work enhanced your understanding of the research problem under investigation.
• In addition to analyzing a book's strengths and weaknesses, a scholarly review often recommends whether or not readers would value the work for its authenticity and overall quality . This measure of quality includes both the author's ideas and arguments and covers practical issues, such as, readability and language, organization and layout, indexing, and, if needed, the use of non-textual elements .

To maintain your focus, always keep in mind that most assignments ask you to discuss a book's treatment of its topic, not the topic itself . Your key sentences should say, "This book shows...,” "The study demonstrates...," or “The author argues...," rather than "This happened...” or “This is the case....”

II.  Developing a Critical Assessment Strategy

There is no definitive methodological approach to writing a book review in the social sciences, although it is necessary that you think critically about the research problem under investigation before you begin to write. Therefore, writing a book review is a three-step process: 1) carefully taking notes as you read the text; 2) developing an argument about the value of the work under consideration; and, 3) clearly articulating that argument as you write an organized and well-supported assessment of the work.

A useful strategy in preparing to write a review is to list a set of questions that should be answered as you read the book [remember to note the page numbers so you can refer back to the text!]. The specific questions to ask yourself will depend upon the type of book you are reviewing. For example, a book that is presenting original research about a topic may require a different set of questions to ask yourself than a work where the author is offering a personal critique of an existing policy or issue.

Here are some sample questions that can help you think critically about the book:

• Thesis or Argument . What is the central thesis—or main argument—of the book? If the author wanted you to get one main idea from the book, what would it be? How does it compare or contrast to the world that you know or have experienced? What has the book accomplished? Is the argument clearly stated and does the research support this?
• Topic . What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Is it clearly articulated? Does the author cover the subject adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion? Can you detect any biases? What type of approach has the author adopted to explore the research problem [e.g., topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive]?
• Evidence . How does the author support their argument? What evidence does the author use to prove their point? Is the evidence based on an appropriate application of the method chosen to gather information? Do you find that evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does any of the author's information [or conclusions] conflict with other books you've read, courses you've taken, or just previous assumptions you had about the research problem?
• Structure . How does the author structure their argument? Does it follow a logical order of analysis? What are the parts that make up the whole? Does the argument make sense to you? Does it persuade you? Why or why not?
• Take-aways . How has this book helped you understand the research problem? Would you recommend the book to others? Why or why not?

Beyond the content of the book, you may also consider some information about the author and the general presentation of information. Question to ask may include:

• The Author: Who is the author? The nationality, political persuasion, education, intellectual interests, personal history, and historical context may provide crucial details about how a work takes shape. Does it matter, for example, that the author is affiliated with a particular organization? What difference would it make if the author participated in the events they wrote about? What other topics has the author written about? Does this work build on prior research or does it represent a new or unique area of research?
• The Presentation: What is the book's genre? Out of what discipline does it emerge? Does it conform to or depart from the conventions of its genre? These questions can provide a historical or other contextual standard upon which to base your evaluations. If you are reviewing the first book ever written on the subject, it will be important for your readers to know this. Keep in mind, though, that declarative statements about being the “first,” the "best," or the "only" book of its kind can be a risky unless you're absolutely certain because your professor [presumably] has a much better understanding of the overall research literature.

NOTE: Most critical book reviews examine a topic in relation to prior research. A good strategy for identifying this prior research is to examine sources the author(s) cited in the chapters introducing the research problem and, of course, any review of the literature. However, you should not assume that the author's references to prior research is authoritative or complete. If any works related to the topic have been excluded, your assessment of the book should note this . Be sure to consult with a librarian to ensure that any additional studies are located beyond what has been cited by the author(s).

Book Reviews. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Book Reviews. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Hartley, James. "Reading and Writing Book Reviews Across the Disciplines." Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 57 (July 2006): 1194–1207;   Motta-Roth, D. “Discourse Analysis and Academic Book Reviews: A Study of Text and Disciplinary Cultures.”  In Genre Studies in English for Academic Purposes . Fortanet Gómez, Inmaculada  et  al., editors. (Castellò de la Plana: Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I, 1998), pp. 29-45. Writing a Book Review. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing Book Reviews. Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University; Suárez, Lorena and Ana I. Moreno. “The Rhetorical Structure of Academic Journal Book Reviews: A Cross-linguistic and Cross-disciplinary Approach .” In Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos, María del Carmen Pérez Llantada Auría, Ramón Plo Alastrué, and Claus Peter Neumann. Actas del V Congreso Internacional AELFE/Proceedings of the 5th International AELFE Conference . Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza, 2006.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Bibliographic Information

Bibliographic information refers to the essential elements of a work if you were to cite it in a paper [i.e., author, title, date of publication, etc.]. Provide the essential information about the book using the writing style [e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago] preferred by your professor or used by the discipline of your major . Depending on how your professor wants you to organize your review, the bibliographic information represents the heading of your review. In general, it would look like this:

[Complete title of book. Author or authors. Place of publication. Publisher. Date of publication. Number of pages before first chapter, often in Roman numerals. Total number of pages]. The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History . By Jill Lepore. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010. xii, 207 pp.)

Reviewed by [your full name].

II.  Scope/Purpose/Content

Begin your review by telling the reader not only the overarching concern of the book in its entirety [the subject area] but also what the author's particular point of view is on that subject [the thesis statement]. If you cannot find an adequate statement in the author's own words or if you find that the thesis statement is not well-developed, then you will have to compose your own introductory thesis statement that does cover all the material. This statement should be no more than one paragraph and must be succinctly stated, accurate, and unbiased.

If you find it difficult to discern the overall aims and objectives of the book [and, be sure to point this out in your review if you determine that this is a deficiency], you may arrive at an understanding of the book's overall purpose by assessing the following:

• Scan the table of contents because it can help you understand how the book was organized and will aid in determining the author's main ideas and how they were developed [e.g., chronologically, topically, historically, etc.].
• Why did the author write on this subject rather than on some other subject?
• From what point of view is the work written?
• Was the author trying to give information, to explain something technical, or to convince the reader of a belief’s validity by dramatizing it in action?
• What is the general field or genre, and how does the book fit into it? If necessary, review related literature from other books and journal articles to familiarize yourself with the field.
• Who is the intended audience?
• What is the author's style? Is it formal or informal? You can evaluate the quality of the writing style by noting some of the following standards: coherence, clarity, originality, forcefulness, accurate use of technical words, conciseness, fullness of development, and fluidity [i.e., quality of the narrative flow].
• How did the book affect you? Were there any prior assumptions you had about the subject that were changed, abandoned, or reinforced after reading the book? How is the book related to your own personal beliefs or assumptions? What personal experiences have you had related to the subject that affirm or challenge underlying assumptions?
• How well has the book achieved the goal(s) set forth in the preface, introduction, and/or foreword?
• Would you recommend this book to others? Why or why not?

III.  Note the Method

Support your remarks with specific references to text and quotations that help to illustrate the literary method used to state the research problem, describe the research design, and analyze the findings. In general, authors tend to use the following literary methods, exclusively or in combination.

• Description : The author depicts scenes and events by giving specific details that appeal to the five senses, or to the reader’s imagination. The description presents background and setting. Its primary purpose is to help the reader realize, through as many details as possible, the way persons, places, and things are situated within the phenomenon being described.
• Narration : The author tells the story of a series of events, usually thematically or in chronological order. In general, the emphasis in scholarly books is on narration of the events. Narration tells what has happened and, in some cases, using this method to forecast what could happen in the future. Its primary purpose is to draw the reader into a story and create a contextual framework for understanding the research problem.
• Exposition : The author uses explanation and analysis to present a subject or to clarify an idea. Exposition presents the facts about a subject or an issue clearly and as impartially as possible. Its primary purpose is to describe and explain, to document for the historical record an event or phenomenon.
• Argument : The author uses techniques of persuasion to establish understanding of a particular truth, often in the form of addressing a research question, or to convince the reader of its falsity. The overall aim is to persuade the reader to believe something and perhaps to act on that belief. Argument takes sides on an issue and aims to convince the reader that the author's position is valid, logical, and/or reasonable.

IV.  Critically Evaluate the Contents

Critical comments should form the bulk of your book review . State whether or not you feel the author's treatment of the subject matter is appropriate for the intended audience. Ask yourself:

• Has the purpose of the book been achieved?
• What contributions does the book make to the field?
• Is the treatment of the subject matter objective or at least balanced in describing all sides of a debate?
• Are there facts and evidence that have been omitted?
• What kinds of data, if any, are used to support the author's thesis statement?
• Can the same data be interpreted to explain alternate outcomes?
• Is the writing style clear and effective?
• Does the book raise important or provocative issues or topics for discussion?
• Does the book bring attention to the need for further research?
• What has been left out?

Support your evaluation with evidence from the text and, when possible, state the book's quality in relation to other scholarly sources. If relevant, note of the book's format, such as, layout, binding, typography, etc. Are there tables, charts, maps, illustrations, text boxes, photographs, or other non-textual elements? Do they aid in understanding the text? Describing this is particularly important in books that contain a lot of non-textual elements.

NOTE:   It is important to carefully distinguish your views from those of the author so as not to confuse your reader. Be clear when you are describing an author's point of view versus expressing your own.

V.  Examine the Front Matter and Back Matter

Front matter refers to any content before the first chapter of the book. Back matter refers to any information included after the final chapter of the book . Front matter is most often numbered separately from the rest of the text in lower case Roman numerals [i.e. i - xi ]. Critical commentary about front or back matter is generally only necessary if you believe there is something that diminishes the overall quality of the work [e.g., the indexing is poor] or there is something that is particularly helpful in understanding the book's contents [e.g., foreword places the book in an important context].

Front matter that may be considered for evaluation when reviewing its overall quality:

• Table of contents -- is it clear? Is it detailed or general? Does it reflect the true contents of the book? Does it help in understanding a logical sequence of content?
• Author biography -- also found as back matter, the biography of author(s) can be useful in determining the authority of the writer and whether the book builds on prior research or represents new research. In scholarly reviews, noting the author's affiliation and prior publications can be a factor in helping the reader determine the overall validity of the work [i.e., are they associated with a research center devoted to studying the problem under investigation].
• Foreword -- the purpose of a foreword is to introduce the reader to the author and the content of the book, and to help establish credibility for both. A foreword may not contribute any additional information about the book's subject matter, but rather, serves as a means of validating the book's existence. In these cases, the foreword is often written by a leading scholar or expert who endorses the book's contributions to advancing research about the topic. Later editions of a book sometimes have a new foreword prepended [appearing before an older foreword, if there was one], which may be included to explain how the latest edition differs from previous editions. These are most often written by the author.
• Acknowledgements -- scholarly studies in the social sciences often take many years to write, so authors frequently acknowledge the help and support of others in getting their research published. This can be as innocuous as acknowledging the author's family or the publisher. However, an author may acknowledge prominent scholars or subject experts, staff at key research centers, people who curate important archival collections, or organizations that funded the research. In these particular cases, it may be worth noting these sources of support in your review, particularly if the funding organization is biased or its mission is to promote a particular agenda.
• Preface -- generally describes the genesis, purpose, limitations, and scope of the book and may include acknowledgments of indebtedness to people who have helped the author complete the study. Is the preface helpful in understanding the study? Does it provide an effective framework for understanding what's to follow?
• Chronology -- also may be found as back matter, a chronology is generally included to highlight key events related to the subject of the book. Do the entries contribute to the overall work? Is it detailed or very general?
• List of non-textual elements -- a book that contains numerous charts, photographs, maps, tables, etc. will often list these items after the table of contents in the order that they appear in the text. Is this useful?

Back matter that may be considered for evaluation when reviewing its overall quality:

• Afterword -- this is a short, reflective piece written by the author that takes the form of a concluding section, final commentary, or closing statement. It is worth mentioning in a review if it contributes information about the purpose of the book, gives a call to action, summarizes key recommendations or next steps, or asks the reader to consider key points made in the book.
• Appendix -- is the supplementary material in the appendix or appendices well organized? Do they relate to the contents or appear superfluous? Does it contain any essential information that would have been more appropriately integrated into the text?
• Index -- are there separate indexes for names and subjects or one integrated index. Is the indexing thorough and accurate? Are elements used, such as, bold or italic fonts to help identify specific places in the book? Does the index include "see also" references to direct you to related topics?
• Glossary of Terms -- are the definitions clearly written? Is the glossary comprehensive or are there key terms missing? Are any terms or concepts mentioned in the text not included that should have been?
• Endnotes -- examine any endnotes as you read from chapter to chapter. Do they provide important additional information? Do they clarify or extend points made in the body of the text? Should any notes have been better integrated into the text rather than separated? Do the same if the author uses footnotes.
• Bibliography/References/Further Readings -- review any bibliography, list of references to sources, and/or further readings the author may have included. What kinds of sources appear [e.g., primary or secondary, recent or old, scholarly or popular, etc.]? How does the author make use of them? Be sure to note important omissions of sources that you believe should have been utilized, including important digital resources or archival collections.

VI.  Summarize and Comment

State your general conclusions briefly and succinctly. Pay particular attention to the author's concluding chapter and/or afterword. Is the summary convincing? List the principal topics, and briefly summarize the author’s ideas about these topics, main points, and conclusions. If appropriate and to help clarify your overall evaluation, use specific references to text and quotations to support your statements. If your thesis has been well argued, the conclusion should follow naturally. It can include a final assessment or simply restate your thesis. Do not introduce new information in the conclusion. If you've compared the book to any other works or used other sources in writing the review, be sure to cite them at the end of your book review in the same writing style as your bibliographic heading of the book.

Book Reviews. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Book Reviews. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Gastel, Barbara. "Special Books Section: A Strategy for Reviewing Books for Journals." BioScience 41 (October 1991): 635-637; Hartley, James. "Reading and Writing Book Reviews Across the Disciplines." Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 57 (July 2006): 1194–1207; Lee, Alexander D., Bart N. Green, Claire D. Johnson, and Julie Nyquist. "How to Write a Scholarly Book Review for Publication in a Peer-reviewed Journal: A Review of the Literature." Journal of Chiropractic Education 24 (2010): 57-69; Nicolaisen, Jeppe. "The Scholarliness of Published Peer Reviews: A Bibliometric Study of Book Reviews in Selected Social Science Fields." Research Evaluation 11 (2002): 129-140;.Procter, Margaret. The Book Review or Article Critique. The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Reading a Book to Review It. The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Scarnecchia, David L. "Writing Book Reviews for the Journal Of Range Management and Rangelands." Rangeland Ecology and Management 57 (2004): 418-421; Simon, Linda. "The Pleasures of Book Reviewing." Journal of Scholarly Publishing 27 (1996): 240-241; Writing a Book Review. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing Book Reviews. Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University.

Writing Tip

Always Read the Foreword and/or the Preface

If they are included in the front matter, a good place for understanding a book's overall purpose, organization, contributions to further understanding of the research problem, and relationship to other studies is to read the preface and the foreword. The foreword may be written by someone other than the author or editor and can be a person who is famous or who has name recognition within the discipline. A foreword is often included to add credibility to the work.

The preface is usually an introductory essay written by the author or editor. It is intended to describe the book's overall purpose, arrangement, scope, and overall contributions to the literature. When reviewing the book, it can be useful to critically evaluate whether the goals set forth in the foreword and/or preface were actually achieved. At the very least, they can establish a foundation for understanding a study's scope and purpose as well as its significance in contributing new knowledge.

Distinguishing between a Foreword, a Preface, and an Introduction . Book Creation Learning Center. Greenleaf Book Group, 2019.

Locating Book Reviews

There are several databases the USC Libraries subscribes to that include the full-text or citations to book reviews. Short, descriptive reviews can also be found at book-related online sites such as Amazon , although it's not always obvious who has written them and may actually be created by the publisher. The following databases provide comprehensive access to scholarly, full-text book reviews:

• ProQuest [1983-present]
• Book Review Digest Retrospective [1905-1982]

Some Language for Evaluating Texts

It can be challenging to find the proper vocabulary from which to discuss and evaluate a book. Here is a list of some active verbs for referring to texts and ideas that you might find useful:

• account for
• demonstrate
• distinguish
• investigate

Examples of usage

• "The evidence indicates that..."
• "This work assesses the effect of..."
• "The author identifies three key reasons for..."
• "This book questions the view that..."
• "This work challenges assumptions about...."

Paquot, Magali. Academic Keyword List. Centre for English Corpus Linguistics. Université Catholique de Louvain.

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Writing a Book Review

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Book reviews typically evaluate recently-written works. They offer a brief description of the text’s key points and often provide a short appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the work.

Readers sometimes confuse book reviews with book reports, but the two are not identical. Book reports commonly describe what happens in a work; their focus is primarily on giving an account of the major plot, characters, and/or main idea of the work. Most often, book reports are a K-12 assignment and range from 250 to 500 words. If you are looking to write a book report, please see the OWL resource, Writing a Book Report.

By contrast, book reviews are most often a college assignment, but they also appear in many professional works: magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. They typically range from 500-750 words, but may be longer or shorter. A book review gives readers a sneak peek at what a book is like, whether or not the reviewer enjoyed it, and details on purchasing the book.

Before You Read

Before you begin to read, consider the elements you will need to included in your review. The following items may help:

• Author: Who is the author? What else has s/he written? Has this author won any awards? What is the author’s typical style?
• Genre: What type of book is this: fiction, nonfiction, romance, poetry, youth fiction, etc.? Who is the intended audience for this work? What is the purpose of the work?
• Title: Where does the title fit in? How is it applied in the work? Does it adequately encapsulate the message of the text? Is it interesting? Uninteresting?
• Preface/Introduction/Table of Contents: Does the author provide any revealing information about the text in the preface/introduction? Does a “guest author” provide the introduction? What judgments or preconceptions do the author and/or “guest author” provide? How is the book arranged: sections, chapters?
• Book Jacket/Cover/Printing: Book jackets are like mini-reviews. Does the book jacket provide any interesting details or spark your interest in some way? Are there pictures, maps, or graphs? Do the binding, page cut, or typescript contribute or take away from the work?

As You Read

As you read, determine how you will structure the summary portion or background structure of your review. Be ready to take notes on the book’s key points, characters, and/or themes.

• Characters: Are there characters in the work? Who are the principal characters? How do they affect the story? Do you empathize with them?
• Themes/Motifs/Style: What themes or motifs stand out? How do they contribute to the work? Are they effective or not? How would you describe this author’s particular style? Is it accessible to all readers or just some?
• Argument: How is the work’s argument set up? What support does the author give for her/findings? Does the work fulfill its purpose/support its argument?
• Key Ideas: What is the main idea of the work? What makes it good, different, or groundbreaking?
• Quotes: What quotes stand out? How can you demonstrate the author’s talent or the feel of the book through a quote?

When You Are Ready to Write

Begin with a short summary or background of the work, but do not give too much away. Many reviews limit themselves only to the first couple of chapters or lead the reader up to the rising action of the work. Reviewers of nonfiction texts will provide the basic idea of the book’s argument without too much detailed.

The final portion of your review will detail your opinion of the work. When you are ready to begin your review, consider the following:

• Establish a Background, Remember your Audience: Remember that your audience has not read the work; with this in mind, be sure to introduce characters and principles carefully and deliberately. What kind of summary can you provide of the main points or main characters that will help your readers gauge their interest? Does the author’s text adequately reach the intended audience? Will some readers be lost or find the text too easy?
• Minor principles/characters: Deal only with the most pressing issues in the book. You will not be able to cover every character or idea. What principles/characters did you agree or disagree with? What other things might the author have researched or considered?
• Organize: The purpose of the review is to critically evaluate the text, not just inform the readers about it. Leave plenty room for your evaluation by ensuring that your summary is brief. Determine what kind of balance to strike between your summary information and your evaluation. If you are writing your review for a class, ask your instructor. Often the ratio is half and half.
• Your Evaluation: Choose one or a few points to discuss about the book. What worked well for you? How does this work compare with others by the same author or other books in the same genre? What major themes, motifs, or terms does the book introduce, and how effective are they? Did the book appeal to you on an emotional or logical way?
• Publisher/Price: Most book reviews include the publisher and price of the book at the end of the article. Some reviews also include the year published and ISBN.

When making the final touches to your review, carefully verify the following:

• Double-check the spelling of the author name(s), character names, special terms, and publisher.
• Try to read from the vantage point of your audience. Is there too much/enough summary? Does your argument about the text make sense?
• Should you include direct quotes from the reading? Do they help support your arguments? Double-check your quotes for accuracy.

This is Writing

How to Write a Book Review

By Kara Hutchings

A great book review is one that helps a reader decide whether they will pick up the book and read it. This article will provide guidance on how to write a book review. It will answer the question ‘what is a book review’, help you choose which book to review and explore the key elements that form a successful review.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional, student, or brand new to book reviewing, here’s our strategies and suggestions for writing an effective book review.

What you’ll learn in this article

The purpose of this article is to teach you how to write a book review. By reading this article you will learn the following: 

What is a book review?

• How to choose a book to review
• How to critically analyse a book
• The key elements of a book review
• Rating a book
• FAQs about book reviewing

Before you even pick up the book, it’s important to understand exactly what a book review is. 

A book review describes, analyzes and evaluates a book based on elements including writing style, plot, characters, significance, impact and fitness for purpose. The criteria for evaluating a book are explored in more detail below.

The most important part of a book review is the analysis and evaluation. A book review requires a critical evaluation meaning you must form an opinion about the book and support your opinion with evidence. Evidence from the book can include direct quotes, writing techniques, themes and character dialogue.

To ensure you are critically evaluating a book, it’s important to avoid falling into the trap of simply describing the plot and characters. Your opinion must be clearly stated, whether it’s positive or negative. The following is an example of a simple description, without any analysis or evaluation:

“The unnamed narrator, a woman writer, lives in Vienna with a man named Malina who works at a military museum, and she is conducting an affair with a Hungarian man named Ivan, who lives nearby and has two young children.” [1]

Book reviews can vary in tone and style, depending on the author of the review (i.e. whether you’re an academic writing a scholarly review, a journalist, or an amateur reviewer, etc) and the book you are reviewing. 

However, there are key elements that should always be addressed in order to create an effective book review. These include:

• a summary of the book,
• a critical assessment, and;
• a conclusion, including whether or not you would recommend the book to your audience.

You can read more about the key elements of a book review below. 

Choosing a book to review

The first and probably most important step of writing a book review is choosing the book you would like to review.

If you’re considering writing a book review then you most likely already have a book in mind. But if not, a good place to start is by thinking about your favourite author, or genre, and finding books in this area.

Don’t be afraid to choose a book from an author you love. Some people can feel intimidated by well-respected or famous authors and hence avoid being overly critical of them. But it’s important to choose a book that you’re actually interested in. 

Reviewing a book you don’t really want to read will feel too much like a school project.

If you’re truly interested in the book before you, you’ll find the time to properly research, carefully read, and form ideas about the book – all elements of a good book review.

If you’re hoping to get your review published online, it’s also best to select a recently published book. A newer book is less likely to have already been reviewed by another book reviewer and therefore more likely to get published.

Writing the book review

Now the fun part begins. Getting your opinion out there for the world to see. But there’s much more to a book review than simply writing. A sound structure, supported by thorough research, will ensure your book review gets the credibility it deserves.

Here’s how to get started:

Before you start writing

Before you jump into writing, it’s important that you do your research. It’s easy to know whether you do or don’t like a book. But why you have that opinion needs to be supported by research and evidence (i.e. the elements that inform your critical evaluation ).

• Download sample book reviews

A great place to start, particularly if this is your very first book review, is to read other reviews. Most of the reviews you read will follow a similar structure and touch on similar points, so use others as a guide for how you should be setting out your work. If you come across a book review that you find really engaging, ask yourself why it was so impactful and try to reproduce those elements in your own work. Because if the review was persuasive enough to encourage (or dissuade) you to read the book, it’s a successful book review.

You can browse professional book reviews from writers all around the world on websites including:

• The Telegraph (UK) website
• The New York Times Sunday Book Review
• The New York Review of Books
• National Library of Australia website
• The Australian newspaper website
• Kirkus Book Reviews
• This Is Writing

As you’re reading through the book reviews make sure to take notes on factors that will form the basis of your review

• What are the common elements of the book reviews you have read? 
• What do you like about the reviews? 
• Do you prefer reviews with controversial opinions? 
• Do you like when a serious tone is used, or do you prefer a more casual review? 
• What could you do better? 

2. Do your research

A good book review is one supported by thorough research.

Understanding the context in which a novel was written will help you form an opinion later when you start writing.

It’s difficult to form an argument about the author’s choice of language, for example, if you don’t understand the time period in which the novel was composed. If you’re reading a vampire mystery book, how can you evaluate the structure of the storyline if you don’t understand the elements of that genre?

There are a number of complex and competing elements that will influence the choices an author has made, so it’s crucial to understand the reasons behind their choices in order to form an opinion about things like style, tone, character development, plot and language. Here is a great example of a book review which considers the historical context in which the novel was composed.

To help you with your contextual research, use the below template as a starting point: 

In addition to the above criteria, you should also be reading actively and critically. As you’re reading, ask yourself questions like;

• how did the author structure their argument and how did they support it?
• has the book helped you understand the topic?
• And most importantly, would you recommend this book to others? 

We will explore how to form an opinion and making recommendations more in-depth below.

How long should a book review be?

The length of your book review depends on why you are writing the review and who it is for. Is it simply to provide your opinion to your social media followers, or are you trying to get published online? Is it for an academic purpose? Perhaps it is a university assignment.

Generally, book reviews are around 500 words. However, professional and academic book reviews can be thousands of words in length. If you’re interested in writing a professional book review, check out example book reviews on The Guardian online to get an idea of length. Ultimately, the more words you use, the more thorough your analysis can be. But always be conscious of keeping your writing concise and to the point.

If you are opting for a longer review (around the 1,000 word mark), you can break up long paragraphs of text by using headings and sub-headings. This helps make the content more digestible for the reader.

The elements of a book review

Now that you’ve finished reading the book, made extensive notes, and completed your research, it’s time to begin writing.

Any writer would know that a high-quality piece of writing is well structured. Your arguments should be developed in a logical manner, beginning with the context of the novel and a general overview of the plot, followed by an exploration of the author’s argument, your own opinions about the book, and ending with a conclusion – what rating do you give the book and would you recommend it to others.

The three key elements that you should include in your book review are:

• A summary of the content – including the plot, context, author’s argument, etc. (i.e. all the information you gathered in your initial research).
• A critical assessment of the book – your reaction to the book and whether or not it was effective in meeting its purpose.
• A recommendation – whether or not the audience you are writing for would appreciate the book.

Here’s a breakdown of each point:

1. Introduction

Your book review should begin with a captivating introduction to draw your reader in and make them want to continue reading. Generally, it’ll be around one sentence in length and give a quick overview of the main theme of the book. Here are two examples of short and snappy introductions that hook the reader in:

 “For every child kidnapped, another must be taken. Otherwise The Chain will be broken.” [2]

“Throughout college, Evvie, Maggie, and Topher were the best of friends. But time and the mistakes that come with simply being human may strain their love to the breaking point.” [3]

While trying to keep your introduction short, it’s important to also be concise. A complicated introduction can turn your reader away before they’ve even gotten to your analysis.

By trying to contain the introduction to a single, lengthy sentence , the below opening line is complicated and overloaded with commas, making it difficult to read:

The English nature writer Robert Macfarlane’s new book, “Underland: A Deep Time Journey,” has a title that evokes a burrowing theme park ride or an IMAX movie, and indeed, like Alice in Wonderland or Orpheus in the underworld, down we go. [4]

2. Describe the plot

Your introduction should lead into a description of the plot. In a few sentences, Include a description of the book’s setting, the main characters, and a loose summary of the plot. An outline of the storyline will help your audience decide whether or not they’re interested in reading the book.

However, make sure your introduction doesn’t give everything away. There should be just enough details to make the reader want to pick up the book, without giving away the whole story.

Not only do you want to touch on the plot of the book in your introduction, but you will also need to set the context. What is the historical, political, and/or social context in which the novel was written? What is the author’s background? What genre is the book written in? These questions set the scene for your critical assessment. Whether the author was successful in meeting their intended purpose will be informed by the reasons behind writing the novel.

3. Avoid spoilers

It almost goes without saying. Don’t spoil the book!

While your readers will want to know what the book is about, don’t rob them of experiencing genuine emotional reactions to the shocks and plot twists of the book. For example, if the main character dies at the end of the book, keep those details to yourself. There’ll be no point in your audience reading the book if they already know what happens.

It can be really tempting to reveal spoilers in your book review, because more often than not, the big shocks of the book are those that you want to talk about. When forming an opinion of the book’s effectiveness, your emotional reaction to surprising details are likely to be the evidence you need to prove the book’s effectiveness.

But it is possible to review a book without completely revealing the details if you choose your words carefully. After all, the purpose of your book review is to encourage others (or discourage if you didn’t enjoy the book) to read the book, and no-one is going to want to read the book if you’ve already told them the ending.

For example, ‘I Let You Go’ by Clare Mackintosh is renowned for having two ‘absolute stunner’ plot twist , however, this review on The New York Times only alludes to the twist enough to entice the reader to want to pick up the book, without completely  giving it away:

“The big plot twist in Clare Mackintosh’s first novel, I LET YOU GO, is genuinely shocking. The jolts that follow, right up until the last page, are pretty good too. And if you’re the kind of genre geek who jumps back to the ­beginning of a book to work out how you’ve been hoodwinked, you’ll find that the author has played fair and square.”[5]

4. Form an opinion

By far the most important part of writing a book review is forming an opinion. As we touched on earlier, your critical evaluation is what takes your writing from a simple summary of a book, to a review.

Keep in mind your critique doesn’t have to be all negative or all praise. A well-balanced book review would explore both sides so that the reader of your review gets the whole picture. A one-sided book review can give your audience the impression that your critique is an unfair assessment. Remember, a bad book takes just as long to write as a good one and every author deserves fair treatment. Even if you hated the book, you’ll be able to find some positives. And ultimately, make sure you are reviewing the book you read, not the book you wished the author had written.

Think back to the list you wrote when you were first reading the book. Here’s where those considerations come into play – the author’s background, the genre, the purpose of the book and the main thesis of the work are all elements that inform your opinion. Whether you did or did not enjoy the book can be supported by opinions based on factors such as whether the author effectively subverted traditional elements of the genre, or whether the author’s thesis didn’t challenge your way of thinking.

This review of the novel ‘Malina’ provides an example of the reviewer evaluating how the author’s academic experience influences her language style and the overall readability of the novel:

“Taken in bites, Bachmann’s prose is often lucid and powerful, enlivened by her poetic gifts. At length, she can be tough chewing. She wrote a doctoral dissertation on Heidegger and was a devoted reader of Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,” though she’s nowhere near that tough. For every aphoristic dart she throws at the human condition (“the world is sick and doesn’t want a healthy force to prevail”), there is a sentence or meaning that remains tightly knotted, and a general lack of clear orientation prevails. Whatever verifiable facts about the plot and characters might exist beneath the novel’s psychological static, you can imagine Bachmann insisting, are none of your business.”[6]

Your book review will include multiple different arguments, so aim to break them down into separate paragraphs that each deal with individual aspects. And each paragraph should contain an evaluation with an example from the book to support it.

The following criteria can be used to help you form an evaluation: 

• objectivity
• thoroughness
• usefulness for intended purpose.

5. Include your favourite quotes

When making an argument you need examples to support your opinion. The easiest way to do this is by directly quoting the book.

For example, one of the key themes of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird , is prejudice and the following quote directly illustrates this theme:

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” [7]

The main thing to consider when quoting the book is to keep the quotes short. A lengthy quote will take up too many words and potentially overpower your review. A short quote will help to get your point across while still letting your work shine through. The purpose of including quotes is to simply bring your argument to light.

6. Provide recommendations to your audience

Would you recommend the book to your audience?

In order to recommend the book, you need to determine who your audience is. Who are you writing the book review for? Not every book is suited to every reader. For example, a book written under the magical realism genre, wouldn’t be recommended to an audience that enjoy non-fiction.

This goes back to the point above, it’s important to remember that your individual tastes don’t necessarily reflect those of your readers. Even if you didn’t enjoy the book, there may be readers out there who it would appeal to so make sure you consider diverse tastes when making a book recommendation.

If you’re reviewing children, teenage or young adult books, it’s a good idea to give an ‘age-appropriateness’ recommendation. It can be tricky for parents when buying books for their children to know whether the book would be appropriate or not, so do the hard work for them. Check out Common Sense Media for ideas on how to give an age-appropriateness rating – this site rates books by age and learning value.

A captivating way to make a recommendation is to also compare the book to other similar ones. If the book you are reviewing has similar themes, characters, writing style, or is even composed by the same author, you will be able to make a recommendation based on how it compares to other work. You might write something along the lines of ‘If loved XXX book, you will love this one’. If your audience has already read the other book, they will be able to get a good idea of whether they will also like your book based on this comparison.

7. Rate the book

You might wonder if you’ve already expressed your opinion about the book throughout your review, why give it a rating as well?

Attaching a rating to your book review is a great way to give your audience an immediate sense of how you felt about the book. Before they even begin reading your review, they already know whether you’re recommending it or not.

The simplest way to rate a book is using a star rating. Goodreads uses a 5-star book rating system.

You can see the most popular books published in 2018 here based on the star rating. If you intend for your book review to be published on a website such as this, you will need to use the rating system provided by the site.

But if you’re self-publishing the review, you can choose whatever rating system that works best for you. You could break your rating system down into categories – maybe the book deserves four stars out of five for writing style, but only two stars for the plot development. It’s up to you.

8. Write a conclusion

The conclusion to your book review is the last thing your audience will read so you want to make sure it leaves them with a lasting impression. A reader has most likely come to your review to decide whether they will or won’t read the book, so if you want them to read the book, make it clear.

Your conclusion should follow general conclusion writing guidelines. The University of Melbourne suggests a conclusion should :

• Summaries the key points made in reaching your position; and
• Make a final comment on the topic.

While summarising the key points you should aim to balance the strengths and weakness of the book. What did the author do well? What could be improved upon? And remember, no new information should be included in the conclusion. Any interesting points you want to make about the book should be included in the body of your text.

This review of Laura Lippman’s ‘Lady in the Lake’ wraps up the book in the following short and sweet sentence:

The racism, classism, and sexism of 50 years ago wrapped up in a stylish, sexy, suspenseful period drama about a newsroom and the city it covers. [8]

9. Bibliographical details

A professional book review will also include a bibliographic citation of the book. Check out some examples on Kirkus Reviews to get an idea on how you can format your citation.

Here are the bibliographic details you should include in your review:

• Title: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices)
• Author: Cassandra Clare
• Place of Publication: USA
• Date of Publication: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Date of publication edition: August 31, 2010
• Number of pages: 496
• ISBN number*: 978-1416975861

*ISBN or ‘International Standard Book Number’ is a unique identifier for books . It is used by publishers, booksellers, libraries, internet retailers and other suppliers for ordering, listing, sales records and stock control purposes. It identifies the registrant as well as the title, edition and format of the book.

10. Editing

After you’ve completed the first draft of your book review, it’s time to start the editing process. Step away from your work for at least an hour to give your brain a rest. When you come back to review your work with fresh eyes, look out for the following:

• Is the paper well-organised?
• Are the transitions between paragraphs smooth?
• Have you backed up each point with evidence?
• Is there an introduction and a conclusion?
• Have you cited all your references?

Take the time to rewrite your work and make any changes necessary to improve it.

There are also some great tools that can assist in editing such as the Hemingway App . Copy and paste your work into the app and it will give you a readability score as well as highlight sentences that are too long and complicated.

Another useful tool is Grammarly . Grammarly is a handy application that detects spelling, punctuation, grammar, word choice, plagiarism and style, and suggests corrections. It’s also available as an app for both iOS and Android.

11. Proofread

The best way to undermine your credibility as a book reviewer is with spelling mistakes. To critique the work of another writer with a piece of writing that is littered with typos and incorrect punctuation tells your audience you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Before publishing your work, read over it a few times to catch any spelling or grammar errors, as well as double-checking your facts – including double-checking that the quotes and character names you referenced from the book are accurate, as well as the facts you’ve included about the author’s background.

If you’re not feeling confident in your proofreading skills, test yourself by reading this article from The Writing Centre . It contains seven errors (two punctuation errors, two grammatical errors and three spelling errors). See if you can spot them, then refer to this handout with the errors marked in red .

It might even be worthwhile also having another person proofread your work. Once you’ve read over your own work a few times it can be easy to miss things, so a fresh set of eyes could be useful in picking up any errors you haven’t. 

12. Have fun!

While it might seem like there are a lot of rules that go into writing a high-quality book review, the most important thing is that you enjoy what you’re doing! Your passion for the book you are reviewing will shine through in your writing.

If you have been book reviewing for some time and begin to feel burned out, take a break and remind yourself why you started writing book reviews in the first place – to share your love of reading with your fellow readers all over the world.

What is the objective of a book review?

The main purpose of a book review is to help a reader device whether to read the book themselves. For this reason, a book review should include a brief summary of the book’s content, characters and setting, as well as a critical evaluation on the success or effectiveness of the book.

Book reviews save other readers time and offer them a chance to connect with the book before they even pick it up. They help validate the worthiness of a book – if someone else enjoyed the book, I might enjoy it too .

Book reviews are also very important to authors . They give a book greater visibility and a higher chance of being found by readers whether it’s online, in bookstores, among book clubs or blogging communities. A book review is a great opportunity for an author to expand their reach, as well as a platform for other books written in a similar style or from the same genre to be found.

Can you use ‘I’ in a book review?

Whether or not you use first person to write your book review will ultimately come down to why you are writing the review.

An academic piece of writing, for example, would not use first person. So if you’re writing your review for a school, university/college assignment or to be published in an academic journal or magazine (for example, the Oxford Academic Journal of Communication ), avoid using first person.

If you’re writing the review for your personal blog or website, or writing customer reviews online, then it’s okay to be a little more casual. Depending on your writing style and the purpose of your website, first-person can make your review more personal and relatable for your audience. It’s easier to give an opinion about how you felt about a book when writing in the first person, for example – ‘I loved the way the author used XYZ to ABC’.

Where can I get my book review published?

If you’re looking to get your book review published, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to:

• Identify where you want your book review to be published

There are a number of journals devoted to book reviews if you’re interested in having your book review published in a scholarly journal like the Oxford Academic Journal of Communication , Cambridge University’s Historical Journal , or the Australian Book Review .

If you’re not interested in going down the academic route, there are a host of websites where you can publish your book review, including This is Writing. A quick Google search will help you find websites where you could potentially have your review published, or check out our list of ‘Book Blogs and Review Websites for Book Lovers ’.

Otherwise, you can self-publish your book review on your own website or blog.

• Reach out to the editor Once you’ve decided where you’d like your book review to be published, get in contact with the journal or website. Your email to the editor or website owner should include a brief introduction about yourself, the book you intend on reviewing and why you’d like to write a review for the publication.It’s important to do your homework before contacting the editor or website owner. If you have a book in mind, do a quick search of the journal or website to make sure the book hasn’t already been reviewed by someone else. It’s recommended to select a book that has been published in the last two years, as anything earlier has likely already been claimed by another reviewer.And above all else, be confident! Even if you’re brand new to book reviewing, it’s perfectly alright to reach out to editors to ask them to publish your work. Conta c t us at This is Writing to have your book review featured.
• Read the book and write the review Once the editor or website owner has accepted your proposal to write a review for their publication, it’s time to get started. Refer to our recommendations on how to structure your book review above. If you’re writing for a journal you might even be lucky enough to be sent a free copy of the book.
• Submit and wait After you’ve completed the final proofread of your work it’s time to submit it to the editor or website owner. Be sure to read the journal or website submission guidelines thoroughly. Each publisher will have unique submission guidelines relating to criteria such as spelling and grammar, and offensive content, etc. Most book review journals and websites will receive a large number of submissions, so if yours doesn’t meet the guidelines it’s not likely to be considered for publishing.If you haven’t heard back after a month, it’s worthwhile following up. Send a second email asking the editor or website owner if they’ve received your submission and tell them you’re looking forward to hearing from them. The most important thing is to keep it polite and respectful. And make sure to check the website’s submission guidelines first to see if there’s a general timeline for feedback before you start harassing them after only a few days!

Can I get paid to write book reviews?

Yes. There are a number of websites that will pay writers to create book reviews for their website.

If you’re just getting started and looking for a bit of unpaid book reviewing experience, a great place to start is by writing customer reviews on websites that sell books, such as Amazon . These websites allow customers to give a star rating for the product as well as leave a comment. On Amazon, others can then mark your review as ‘helpful’ so you’ll be able to get a good idea on how people feel about your reviewing. Interacting with other book lovers and reviewers can also help improve your own reviewing style and build an audience.

You can also share your book reviews via your social media platforms, or start your own website or blog to publish your book reviews. Check out these tips on how to create a website from the Queensland Government.

The book I have chosen to review is not the first book of the series, does it matter?

No. As mentioned earlier in this article , if you want your book review to be published, you should be aiming to review a recently released book. The newer the book, the less likely it has already been reviewed by another review. If the first book of a series was released five years ago, and the second book released this year, review the second book. Chances are, the first book has already been reviewed to death. Reviewing book two is a chance to create brand new content for your audience.

Despite this, it’s still worthwhile touching on the storyline of the novels that have come before your book in the series as this provides context on the effectiveness of the book. Was book two a good sequel to the first book? What was different? What was the same? If the reader of your review has already read the first book, a comparison between the two will help them decide if they want to read the next book of the series.

[1] John Williams. “ A Postwar Love Triangle in Which One Partner May Be Pure Fantasy ”. The New York Times . July 24, 2019. Viewed 25 July 2019.

[2] “ The Chain ”. Kirkus Review. Viewed 29 July 2019.

[3] “ The Friends We Keep ”. Kirkus Review . Viewed 29 July 2019.

[4] Dwight Garner. “ ‘Underland’ Offers Excellent Nature Writing From Deep, Dark Places ”. The New York Times . Viewed 29 July 2019,

[5] Clare Mackintosh. “ Clare Mackintosh’s ‘I Let You Go’, and More ”. The New York Times . Viewed 25 July 2019.

[6] John Williams. “ A Postwar Love Triangle in Which One Partner May Be Pure Fantasy ”. The New York Times . July 24, 2019. Viewed 25 July 2019.

[7] Harper Lee. “To Kill a Mockingbird”. J. B. Lippincott & Co . Chapter 3.

[8] “ Lady in the Lake ”. Kirkus Review . Viewed 27 July 2019.

Scott Mullins

Wendy Laura Belcher

How to write an academic book review.

This article “Writing the Academic Book Review” was originally written by Belcher to aid participants in a workshop sponsored by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center in February 2003 and to encourage book review submissions to  Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies . Book reviews in the field of Chicano studies can be sent to  the journal; for information, see the  new submissions page. The article was updated in 2015. Cite as Belcher, Wendy Laura. 2003. “Writing the Academic Book Review.” Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Last Modified 2015. Retrieved from https://www.wendybelcher.com/writing-advice/how-to-write-book-review/ on [month year]. See also the best-selling book of advice on writing, now in its second edition: Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success.

Why Write a Book Review?

Writing book reviews is not only the easiest and quickest route to publication, it is a good way to improve your writing skills, develop your analytical skills, learn how the journal publishing process works, and get to know editors. Since some libraries can’t buy books unless they have been reviewed and many individuals won’t buy books unless they have read a review, reviewing books can definitely advance your field. Indeed, scholars in smaller fields sometimes get together and assign books for review so that every book published in their field is reviewed somewhere. Just remember that book reviews do not “count” as much on a curriculum vitae as an academic essay. If you are doing more than two book reviews a year, you may be spending too much time on book reviews and not enough on your other writing.

Choosing a Book

Think about what kind of book would be most useful to you in writing your dissertation, finalizing a paper for publication, or passing your exams. Since book reviews do take time, like any writing, it is best to chose a book that will work for you twice, as a publication and as research. Alternatively, some recommend that graduate students focus on reviewing textbooks or anthologies, since such reviews take less background knowledge and editors can find it difficult to find people willing to do such reviews. Although the traditional book review is of one book, editors will often welcome book reviews that address two or more related books–called a review essay.

Choose a book that (1) is in your field, (2) is on a topic for which you have sound background knowledge, (3) has been published in the past two or three years, and (4) has been published by a reputable publisher (i.e., any press affiliated with a university or large commercial presses).

Books on hot topics are often of special interest to editors. It can also be rewarding to pick an obscure but useful book in order to bring attention to it. To avoid complications, it is best not to review books written by your advisor, spouse, or ex!

To identify a suitable book in your field:

• Look up the call number of the favorite book in your field and go to the stacks of your university library. Do a shelf search around the call number to see if anything similar or related has been published in the past couple of years.
• Go to any book database—your university library on-line, Worldcat , Amazon.com , the Library of Congress —and search using two or three keywords related to your field (e.g., Chicano fiction, Chicana politics, Latino demographics, Latina high school education) to find books in your area.
• Read magazines that review books before publication—such as Choice , Library Journal, or Kirkus Reviews —to get a sense for interesting books that will be coming out. You can get copies of books for review before they are published. Editors especially like reviews of just published books.
• Read those academic journals that list books recently received for review or recently published in their area. 
• Ask faculty members in your department for recommendations.

Once you have identified several books, locate copies and skim them. Pick the book that seems the strongest. Do not pick a book that has major problems or with which you disagree violently. As a graduate student, you do not have the protection of tenure and may one day be evaluated by the person whose book you put to the ax. If you really feel strongly that you must write a negative review of a certain book, go ahead and write the review. Academia is, after all, quite oedipal and young scholars do sometimes make their reputations by deflating those who came before them. Just realize that going on record in such a public way may have consequences.

Choosing a Journal

Identify several leading journals in your field that publish book reviews. One way to do this is to search an on-line article database or something like Book Review Digest , if your library has access. Using several key words from your field, limit your search to book reviews and note the journals where the results were published.

Before starting to write your review, contact the book review editor of one of the journals. This is important standard practice; in particular because most journals do not accept unsolicited reviews. You do not want to write an entire review of a book and send it to a journal, only to be told that they don’t accept unsolicited reviews or that a review of that very book is to appear in the next issue.

So, send a short e-mail to book review editors at prospective journals (most journals have websites with such information) identifying the book you would like to review and your qualifications for reviewing it. This e-mail need not be longer than two sentences: “I am writing to find out if you would welcome a review from me of [ Book Title ], edited by [editor] and published in 2012 by [pubisher]. I am currently writing my dissertation at Stanford on the history of the field of [name of a field related to book].”

Another reason why you want to contact the book review editor is that they often can get you the book for free. Publishers frequently send books for review straight to journals or, if the book editor directly contacts them, straight to you. Of course, you don’t need to wait for the book to start your review if you have access to a library copy. If you get a free book, make sure to write the review. A book review editor will never send you another book if you don’t deliver on the first.

If the book review editor says yes, they would like a review of the book from you, make sure to ask if the journal has any book review submission guidelines. In particular, you want to make sure you understand how long their book reviews tend to be.

If the book review editor says the book is already under review, move on to your next journal choice or ask the editor if they have any books on the topic that they would like reviewed. You are under no obligation to review a book they suggest, just make sure to get back to them with a decision. It is perfectly acceptable to say “Thanks for the suggestion, I’ve decided to focus on writing my prospectus/dissertation.”

Reading the Book

It is best, when writing a book review, to be an active reader of the book. Sit at a desk with pen and paper in hand. As you read, stop frequently to summarize the argument, to note particularly clear statements of the book’s argument or purpose, and to describe your own responses. If you have read in this active way, putting together the book review should be quick and straightforward. Some people prefer to read at the computer, but if you’re a good typist, you often start typing up long quotes from the book instead of analyzing it. Paper and pen provides a little friction to prevent such drifting.

Take particular note of the title (does the book deliver what the title suggests it is going to deliver?), the table of contents (does the book cover all the ground it says it will?), the preface (often the richest source of information about the book), and the index (is it accurate, broad, deep?).

Some questions to keep in mind as you are reading:

• What is the book’s argument?
• Does the book do what it says it is going to do?
• Is the book a contribution to the field or discipline?
• Does the book relate to a current debate or trend in the field and if so, how?
• What is the theoretical lineage or school of thought out of which the book rises?
• Is the book well-written?
• What are the books terms and are they defined?
• How accurate is the information (e.g., the footnotes, bibliography, dates)?
• Are the illustrations helpful? If there are no illustrations, should there have been?
• Who would benefit from reading this book?
• How does the book compare to other books in the field?
• If it is a textbook, what courses can it be used in and how clear is the book’s structure and examples?

It can be worthwhile to do an on-line search to get a sense for the author’s history, other books, university appointments, graduate advisor, and so on. This can provide you with useful context..

Making a Plan

Book reviews are usually 600 to 2,000 words in length. It is best to aim for about 1,000 words, as you can say a fair amount in 1,000 words without getting bogged down. There’s no point in making a book review into a 20-page masterpiece since the time would have been better spent on an academic essay that would count for more on your c.v.

Some say a review should be written in a month: two weeks reading the book, one week planning your review, and one week writing it.

Although many don’t write an outline for an essay, you should really try to outline your book review before you write it. This will keep you on task and stop you from straying into writing an academic essay.

Classic book review structure is as follows:

• Title including complete bibliographic citation for the work (i.e., title in full, author, place, publisher, date of publication, edition statement, pages, special features [maps, color plates, etc.], price, and ISBN.
• One paragraph identifying the thesis, and whether the author achieves the stated purpose of the book.
• One or two paragraphs summarizing the book.
• One paragraph on the book’s strengths.
• One paragraph on the book’s weaknesses.
• One paragraph on your assessment of the book’s strengths and weaknesses.

Writing the Review

Once you’ve read the book, try to spend no more than one or two weeks writing the review. Allowing a great deal of time to fall between reading the book and writing about it is unfair to you and the author. The point of writing something short like a book review is to do it quickly. Sending a publication to a journal is always scary, sitting on the review won’t make it less so.

Avoiding Five Common Pitfalls

• Evaluate the text, don’t just summarize it. While a succinct restatement of the text’s points is important, part of writing a book review is making a judgment. Is the book a contribution to the field? Does it add to our knowledge? Should this book be read and by whom? One needn’t be negative to evaluate; for instance, explaining how a text relates to current debates in the field is a form of evaluation.
• Do not cover everything in the book. In other words, don’t use the table of contents as a structuring principle for your review. Try to organize your review around the book’s argument or your argument about the book.
• Judge the book by its intentions not yours. Don’t criticize the author for failing to write the book you think that he or she should have written. As John Updike puts it, “Do not imagine yourself the caretaker of any tradition, an enforcer of any party standards, a warrior in any ideological battle, a corrections officer of any kind.”
• Likewise, don’t spend too much time focusing on gaps. Since a book is only 200 to 500 pages, it cannot possibly address the richness of any topic. For this reason, the most common criticism in any review is that the book doesn’t address some part of the topic. If the book purports to be about ethnicity and film and yet lacks a chapter on Latinos, by all means, mention it. Just don’t belabor the point. Another tic of reviewers is to focus too much on books the author did not cite. If you are using their bibliography just to display your own knowledge it will be obvious to the reader. Keep such criticisms brief.
• Don’t use too many quotes from the book. It is best to paraphrase or use short telling quotes within sentences.

For further advice about writing for publication, see Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success by Wendy Laura Belcher (University of Chicago Press, 2019).

Writing the Academic Book Review

I no longer teach this course , but you might want to think about teaching it, so I provide the information here.

This workshop aids students in actually writing and publishing a book review for a peer-reviewed journal. At the first session, students receive instruction on why graduate students should (or should not) write book reviews, how to choose a book for review, how to chose a journal for submission, how to read a book for review, how to plan and structure a book review, and five common pitfalls of reviewing. Students also form small groups to discuss the book each plans to review.At the second meeting, students bring a draft of their book review for exchange and feedback. At the third meeting, students arrive with a final version of their essay to submit to an editor for publication.

This workshop is sometimes offered by a particular journal with the editors serving on a panel the first night to provide students with specific advice for submitting reviews to their journal. I did such a workshop for Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies , with the editors Chon A. Noriega and Alicia Gaspar de Alba.

Session 1, Week 1

• Introduction to book reviewing
• Selecting an appropriate book to review
• Five essential elements of any book review
• Typical errors graduate student reviewers make

Session 2, Week 10

• Assignment: First draft due
• Discussion of the writing process and challenges
• Exchanging and critiquing first drafts
• Some instructions on revising

Session 3, Week 16

• Assignment: Final draft due
• Working with editors and the publication process
• Refreshments

How to Write a Book Review: Your Easy Book Review Format

Your easy-to-use book review format and why it works! Unsure how to structure your book review? Look no further. I’m sharing with you my tried-and-true template for crafting a substantive, helpful book review, no matter if it’s a nonfiction book or fiction book. I’ll also let you peek into my traffic to see why you should be publishing book discussion guides, not reviews, and then I’ll include the steps you need to write one.

This book review format is intended for anyone looking to write a substantive book review for a blog, for school, or for review sites like Goodreads and Amazon.

First… dive deeper into book reviewing with my book

(or just skip to the review template).

If you want to learn much, much more about writing a book review, be sure to check out my bestselling book, How to Write a Book Review .

This essential book, which expands on book reviews and discussion guides, is available on Amazon.

And now for the book review template!

Each of these components in the book review template serve a purpose. I’ve learned over the years through SEO optimization and keyword research that these components of a book that readers look for the most. 

Here’s the book review format:

Part 1: introduce the book and the author: 1-2 paragraphs.

• Include any background you can find about the book. 
• Briefly summarize the author’s biography.

Introducing the book you’re reviewing provides necessary context. Don’t expect that readers have already heard about the book, much less the author. This is also a good time to add in details about any buzz the book has; for example, if it’s been picked for a national book club, is already a bestseller, or is a noteworthy review.

Part 2: Plot Summary : 3-5 paragraphs

• If you’re writing a review that must include all aspects of the plot, be sure to include a spoiler warning.
• Summarize the plot in no more than 3-5 paragraphs.
• Add 3-5 key takeaways (for nonfiction only).

One of the most important components of a book review is the plot summary. Readers in book clubs rushing to get the basic framework of what happens in the book are going to hunt for your plot summary first and foremost.

In no more than 3-5 paragraphs, summarize the book’s key events.

Not sure how much to add? Divide how many pages the book is and write one paragraph per each 100 pages.

If you’re reviewing nonfiction, be sure to write 3-5 takeaways that extract the core theses of the book.

For example, in Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers , here are 3 takeaways you could extract for a book review’s summary section:

• More often than not, we resort to believing people even when they are lying to our faces, a tendency Gladwell calls the “Default to truth.”
• “Coupling” is a phenomenon that finds links between two factors that can be unpaired, like a rise in suicides by gassing and changing the way ovens are made.
• Criminologists were able to beat back crime in inner cities by making more stops to check for weapons. However, other, more rural and car-dependent urban areas misapplied the findings, leading to an unnecessary increase in motor vehicle stops.

My tip: if you’re feeling overwhelmed by having to distill the key takeaways, reread the beginning and the final chapter and see what themes and ideas repeat between the two.

Interlude: A Quick Note on Writing Discussion Guides Instead of Book Reviews

My How to Write a Book Review guide actually sets you up to write book discussion guides, too.

Wait a second—you may be saying—isn’t that a book about how to write book reviews , not book discussion guides ?

The fact is, as I’ve mined my own traffic and data over the years, book discussion guides (also known alternatively as book group guides, book club guides, study guides, or reading group guides) bring in the most consistent traffic to my site vs. traditional book reviews.

Check out how much traffic two of my book guides brought in over a period of 30 days:

This traffic suggests there’s a market for these evergreen topics. People don’t want just reviews anymore. They want substantive content to help them take it to the next level and prep for book clubs, essays about books, and reading groups.

Now let’s do some SEO research to see what kind of book discussion topics are trending on Google.

Here’s a screenshot that shows you what are the top searches for content that go easily into a book discussion guide for Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls , the book I write a complete guide of in How to Write a Book Review . Take a look at the search traffic for City of Girls , the novel we will be using in this book as we work through the parts of a book review. Courtesy of the Chrome extension Keywords Everywhere, we can see what people look for when you search Google for: “city of girls”:

You see? The top results for City of Girls are, after the top spot goes to review, all components of a book discussion guide.

The main difference between book discussion guides and book reviews, as laid out in this blog post and in my book, are three components: Discussion Questions (Part 3 of this guide), Quotes (Part 4 of this Guide) and Similar Books (Part 7).

Now back to the guide!

Part 3: Discussion Questions (Optional )

• Include 5-10 discussion questions.

This part is optional. But if you’re writing book reviews that you hope will also work as book group guides, you’ll want to come up with 5-10 questions that stir up discussions.

Check out my discussion guide to Jenny Offill’s Weather . Here are four questions from that article, which was published here on the blog:

Here are four discussion questions from the Weather guide:

1. Why do you think Offill named her novel  Weather ? In what ways does weather show up as a theme in Offill’s novel?

2.  Weather  is written in micro-moments. Lizzie’s narrative is comprised of sentence and sometimes paragraph-long segments that build into a larger story. What was the experience like to read a narrative like that? How does this unique format serve the story and its contemporary, zeitgeisty setting?

3. How does Lizzie change over the course of the story? What specific examples did you see of her changing, or lack thereof?

4. How would you characterize Lizzie’s relationship with her brother, Henry? Compare and contrast it with other relationships Lizzie has a duty to uphold, such as with her husband, Ben, and son, Eli?

Pretty easy!

If you’re already writing a plot summary, consider taking your guide to the next level by including some discussion questions for a reading group guide.

And if you’re stumped for what questions are right, How to Write a Book Review has a list of 30 book discussion questions anyone can easily adapt to fit their book review.

Part 4: Quotes (Optional)

• Include 5-10 key quotes from the book with speaker and page numbers.

Adding quotes is another optional component of a book review or book discussion guide. All you have to do is list 5-10 quotes from the book that you felt warrant special attention. You might also want to go so far as to analyze each quote, but it’s not necessary. You’ll want to include the speaker of the quote and the page numbers.

You could also break this out into a separate post.

My quote post of the best quotes from Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch gets traffic every day from Google and Pinterest.

Readers really look for these types of posts, so you can naturally include them in your guide.

Part 5: Pros and Cons

• Include 2-4 positive qualities or “Pros” of the book as bullet points (or plus signs). 
• Include 2-4 negative qualities or “Cons” of the book as bullet points (or negative signs).
• Depending on whether your review is positive or negative, the balance between the pros and cons will be weighted differently.

There are many ways to structure the positives and negatives for the book you’re reviewing, but ultimately, the information should be clear and readable.

Keep in mind that each positive trait of a book or negative trait can be lost if they are buried in lengthy paragraphs. Your readers are mostly skimming this section or scrolling fast.

The way to fix that? Get to the point, clean and fast.

That’s why I endorse separating your Pros and Cons of the book in two separate bullet point lists.

Pro’s and Con’s lists are easily recognizable and intuitive to consumers. After all, one purpose for the book review is not just to enlighten, but to help a reader make a consumer purchase to buy the book.

Need an example? My book review of Pumpkins follows this format, albeit I switched in “strengths” and “weaknesses” for “pro’s” and “con’s”:

Book Review of PUMPKINHEADS by Rainbow Rowell

Here’s a “Strength” I wrote for Pumpkinheads :

Positive: Pumpkinheads  Captures That Fall Mood

If you’re coming to  Pumpkinheads  having never gone to a pumpkin patch, don’t worry—Faith Erin Hicks fully immerses you in the setting, crammed with tiny details, vivid colors, and a cohesive visual style that immerses you there. The sensory experience translate off the page. I felt like I could smell phantom whiffs of pumpkin spice, hay, and kettle corn just by reading the novel. This book totally nails the mood of fall. Whenever you’re feeling nostalgic for the fall ,  pick up  Pumpkinheads  and get magically swept back into PSL season.

And here’s a “Weakness” I wrote for Pumpkinheads :

Negative: Josie felt a little one dimensional

Of the two main characters, Josie felt less developed to me. Deja was a great sidekick, but without her there to keep the conversation rolling, Josie would have made even less of an impression on me. It was almost like, his main motivation in the story was to find Marcy, speak to her, and give her his number. But that felt like a desire line that Deja applied to him. And certainly that is a bit forced. She’s deliberately trying to push Josie to sort through how serious he is about Marcy and dating in general. However, the result was I didn’t really know what Josie himself wanted.

However you choose to customize the language in this section: Pro’s and Con’s, Strengths and Weaknesses, “What I Loved” and “What I hated,” organize the information cleanly in bullet point lists.

Part 6: Overall Assessment

• Synthesize the points you make in Part 3. Ultimately, does the book get a favorable review?

Now it’s time to synthesize your pro’s and con’s into an overall assessment. It can be as easy as adding up how many positive and negative qualities you’ve listed and go with the one that has more. Still, in this section, you’re going to want to weigh the good and the bad to make sure you’re giving people as objective a point of view as possible.

Remember that you’re reviewing a book , not your feelings Broke by Books

Ultimately, it’s up to you to make the judgment call and give an overall assessment. Don’t back down from whatever strong feelings you have about the book. Readers like a book review that feels passionate and earnest.

A quick note on star ratings…

If you’re an avid Goodreads reviewer, you are used to giving 1-5 stars for a book’s rating.

It’s up to you if you want to include a star rating for the book you’re reviewing. I usually do because it’s a factor that resonates with a lot of readers. If you’re using a star rating system, the Overall Assessment is the place to put that.

Part 7: Similar Books (Optional)

• Include 3-5 similar books.

 This is another section that often goes in book discussion guides. People who just finished reading a book often crave similar books to deal with their book hangover. Or the subject of the book might leave them curious to learn more.

This is your spot in the book review (or discussion guide) to include 3-5 similar books to the one you’re reviewing.

For example, check out my article with discussion questions for The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy.

Discussion Questions for THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE

After the plot summary, discussion questions, and quotes, I listed five books for people who loved The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse .

Including extra books for people to read if they enjoyed the one you’re reviewing make take more time. The effect is well worth it. People look to you as an authority and your review as more than just opinion, but a trusted and useful piece of information.

Part 8: Further Information

• Include the stats of the book: pub date, publisher
• Link to other resources: author interviews, reviews on authority sites

This final part in the book review template is one of my favorites. At the very end of your book review, add further information so readers can leave your review and launch into more info on the book. That starts with the pub date and publisher, along with basic facts like page count.

But it’s also fun to include further information about the author. In my review of Weather , for instance, I embedded a YouTube video of the author promoting her book. I also included links to interviews with the author. To my surprise, I’ve seen in my blog’s traffic that people actually routinely click on the extra links to learn more about the books.

And… that’s it!

This post has everything you need to write a comprehensive book review or book review discussion guide. If you want to take it further, be sure to check out my eBook How to Write a Book Review :

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Sarah S. Davis is the founder of Broke by Books, a blog about her journey as a schizoaffective disorder bipolar type writer and reader. Sarah's writing about books has appeared on Book Riot, Electric Literature, Kirkus Reviews, BookRags, PsychCentral, and more. She has a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Library and Information Science from Clarion University, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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How Long Should Your Book Be? A Word Count Guide to Getting Published

Author: Natalie Harris-Spencer Updated: July 25, 2023

How long should your book be? Does it even matter? Isn’t the art as long as the art needs to be for you to tell your story? Book length is a technical question a world away from the craft , but yes, having a word count guide absolutely matters—even at the earliest stages of drafting your novel. A draft becomes a manuscript, which quickly becomes something to send to literary agents and then editors , and then suddenly, voila! It becomes a book. And a book is a product, and every page is a dollar amount and a time value investment to publishers . If you’re coming in way under or over, publishers won’t want to invest in your product. See why it matters to consider word count at the early stages, and to move away from thinking about book length in terms of “art”?

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule (more below), but publishing has standards which you should meet if you expect to be taken seriously as a professional author. Otherwise, it just screams maverick, lazy, or obtuse. As mentioned several times on Aspiring Author , publishing is a business, with rules to follow. If you submit a 30,000 or 130,000-word manuscript to an agent or publisher when the sweet spot is 80,000 words, you’re giving them a very easy reason to simply pass on your work (perhaps without even reading it).

When should you start thinking about your word count?

Don’t worry too much about word count before you have a first draft, otherwise you might get tripped up or get writer’s block. However, once you have that draft in your hands, now is the time! There’s no exact science behind the word count, but there is a sweet spot, which can vary by genre .  If you’re a couple of thousand words over: no big deal. Any more than 5,000 over or under, then it’s time to do some work. And if you’re way under or over, then something’s gone seriously wrong (see below for how to address). Additionally, as readers we have certain expectations—you might balk at reading a 100,000-word picture book (unless perhaps it was an adult graphic novel). You certainly wouldn’t buy it. Check out our word count guide to getting published below.

The sweet spot

When drafting your adult fiction manuscript, aim for 80,000 words. My first drafts tend to be around the 60,000-word mark, and then grow longer with each edit. I also know of writers whose first drafts go way over, after which they have some serious cutting to do. Let the warning bells sound at 90,000. Do not go over 100,000. This is the sweet spot for standard adult novels for a very good reason. That’s around 250-350 double-spaced, typed pages (which equates to about the same when printed, depending on font choice, font size, and whether the book is published in paperback, hardcover, or digitally). Studies have shown readers are most comfortable with this number of pages for a standard fiction book. So keep that 80,000 words echoing in your head like a mantra.

Word count guide for debut authors

If you’re a debut author , you should follow the sweet spot recommendation above especially closely. Ever notice how the first Harry Potter was considerably slimmer than those that followed? That’s because even J.K. Rowling was a debut author once, and publishers are less likely to publish a longer book written by an unestablished author. However, even Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was much longer than a standard middle grade book, at 79,000 words. Again, there are always exceptions to every rule.

Word count guide for novellas

Novellas fall somewhere between a short story and a novel and can range from 10,000 to 40,000 words. However, novellas are notoriously difficult to sell, which is why publishers buy far fewer novellas than novels. Unless you’ve been published by The New Yorker or are very well known, it’s highly unlikely you’ll get a debut book deal with a novella.

Word count guide for longer fiction

Despite the sweet spot argument above, audiences are still buying and reading very long books. Look at George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series , for example. When there’s hype or buzz around a series, publishers are willing to gamble on a longer tome. However, you have to prove yourself first, and you probably can’t do that if you’re a debut author . For anything else in adult fiction (that isn’t fantasy), agents and publishers might be concerned about the effort involved in editing such a meaty manuscript, or they might find a problem with the pacing, or exposition, or they simply might prefer to push a shorter, more marketable book out on to the shelves. There’s an inherent risk in writing longer fiction—this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, just that you should be wary.

Word count guide for shorter fiction and children’s books

• Picture books: 100-600 words; no more than 1,000 words
• Chapter books: (five-to-nine-year-olds): 4,000-20,000 words, with word count scaling by age
• Middle grade books (for eight-to-twelve-year-olds): 30,000-50,000 words, with word count scaling by age
• Young adult, or YA novels: 40,000-80,000 words, with YA fantasy at the top of the scale
• Graphic novels: 20,000-75,000 words

Word counts by genre

Fantasy, sci-fi, and the historical fiction genres can get away with more words due to the extensive world building involved. It’s acceptable to go up to 125,000 words in these genres (with plenty of bestseller authors going way over). However, debut authors should exercise caution and still consider keeping things to the 100,000-word mark, just at least while you’re querying literary agents or while your book is out on submission . Always err on the side of caution. Check out the word count guidelines per genre below:

• Commercial fiction: 70,000-100,000 words, with the sweet spot at 80,000
• Historical fiction: 80,000-110,000 words; absolute maximum is 125,000 words
• Literary fiction: 55,0000-100,000 words; the lower end will be a trickier sell
• Memoir and narrative non-fiction: 70,000-90,000 words
• Non-fiction (how-tos, self-help, and business): 50,000-70,000
• Romance: 50,000-100,000 words, with category romance on the lower end
• Science fiction and fantasy: 90,000-110,000; absolute maximum is 125,000 words
• Thriller and psychological suspense : 70,000-90,000 words, with the sweet spot at 80,000
• Women’s and upmarket fiction: 80,000-100,000 words

How long should your book be: Final thoughts

These are just guidelines intended to increase your success rate of getting published. There are always exceptions to the rules. However, if your manuscript falls way under or way over these brackets, it might be worth going back to your story’s structure, world building, and pace. Yes, you’re trying to get a book deal , but you’re also writing something that connects with your audience and conforms to their expectations. This is where the art and the product coalesce.

Recommended reading

Here at Aspiring Author , we love recommending bestsellers and fawning over hot new releases. On this real time recommended reading list, you will find a list of top rated books on the publishing industry, craft, and other books to help you elevate your writing career.

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1 thought on “how long should your book be a word count guide to getting published”.

I wrote my biography in 22,000 words, it covers 83 years of my life. It is easy, fun and interesing to read. Is there a market for someting short and sweet to resd?

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How long typically are paper reviews? Is there such a thing as “too long”?

When you review papers submitted for publication, is there an “optimal” length for reviews? In my experience as an author and referee, I have seen a large range of review lengths (for reference, a paper in my field is typically between 3 and 8 printed pages):

• Zero length: for some of the papers I have authored, the reviewer just clicked the “accept as is” or “reject” checkmark on the review sheet, without adding any comment (at least, not any comment visible to me). It's not so common, but it has happened.
• Short length: a lot of time, I received reviews who consisted of a single paragraph.
• Medium: one full page, maybe two pages.

Although I have never received any such long reviews, I have myself written on a few occasions reviews that exceed two pages, including once or twice a four or five-page review. These were cases where the paper was good, but could be (in my view) much improved and some of the aspects/consequences had escaped the authors' consideration.

I am wondering how useful reviews of various length are to editors . I often consider that “unmotivated” reviews are useless, as they do not give any real insight about the paper to the editor. For example, if the editor gets two conflicting non motivated reviews, how is she to decide?

On the other hand, although I write some from time to time, I have never received long reviews, so… is this something frowned upon?

• peer-review

• 8 I'm not an editor but as an author, I certainly prefer a long review full of detailed suggestions to a one-line "your paper does not meet quality standards, reject". Sometimes a reviewer ends up contributing more to a paper, than one of the "minor" co-authors. –  gerrit Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 10:38
• I know one of the journal reviews went on for a year and finally the author had to push the reviewers a lot to get the final results. This is the longest I have seen. –  user2915398 Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 12:24
• 2 @user2915398 I was thinking in term of length of the written review, not time-wise –  F'x Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 12:50
• 1 This is awesome! I have been wondering about that as well. And may I suggest the answerer to also mention if you are speaking as an editor or not ? I value all inputs and tips but would also love to know some norm from the people in the industry. –  Penguin_Knight Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 13:08

4 Answers 4

Reviews can be of quite varying length but obviously the extremes indicate some problems.

A review consisting of "Accept as is" would be highly suspicious in my mind (as an editor). It usually means the reviewer has not done any work, essentially no manuscript is that close to perfect (although it may of course happen). A review of "Reject" without additional comment is equally pointless (I am then assuming the journal has some form of quality check before accepting for review). An absence of comments is just a big warning sign since there is no perspective on why the MS is either perfect or perfectly worthless.

Considering the length of a review, it is governed by two factors: the quality of the manuscript and the personality of the reviewer. To some extent longer reviews indicate more questions to be resolved. At the same time some reviewers may be more nit-picking than others so that also influences the length. Based on my experience as an editor, I would say, as a rule of thumb, that at least a page of (single spaced) comments would be a basis for a descent review for a normal manuscript (15-20 pages double spaced excluding references, tables, figures) in the field experiment/observation based science where I work. A review of more than three or four pages of (single spaced) comments would be unusual and probably involve comments down to spelling issues. "A decent review" involves providing clear and constructive comments that will allow the editor to value the manuscript and the author to improve the manuscript.

So I would not say that a long review would necessarily be frowned upon, it clearly depends on how constructive it is. If someone spends a lot of effort improving language and grammar (which does not necessarily constitute the expectations from a review) that could be very useful. Normally such comments may be made as revisions in a file rather than a written report. So length is not a major issue, constructiveness is.

• 2 As an editor, how do you handle zero length reviews? If the review just says "accept" or "reject", do you grudgingly follow the reviewer's advice, or do you look for another reviewer? –  Nate Eldredge Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 13:36
• 7 Most likely add another reviewer. The least one can do as a reviewer is to justify why one makes the recommendation. It does not necessarily have to be a long justification, but should provide a perspective on the paper and why it should be accepted/rejected. –  Peter Jansson Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 13:45

Speaking from the point of view of an editor: One of the best reviews I ever got was longer than the paper. The author, a young researcher, had proved three theorems, one of which I recognized as a known result. So I asked the original discoverer of that known result to referee the paper. In my cover letter, I mentioned that I recognized one of the theorems as his, and asked whether the other two theorems had enough novelty for a publication. It turned out that the other two theorems weren't new either. The referee could easily have just given citations for those two theorems and recommended rejection. Instead, he gave me (or, really, gave the author) a long, clear explanation of the state of the art in that subject, and he suggested some open problems that the author could try working on.

• 6 I at least once wrote a review longer than the manuscript itself. The paper pushed some buttons of mine, and I couldn't stop writing. (Similarities with answers of mine here at Academia.SE are coincidental.) I think I recommended rejection and explained in considerable detail the non-trivial error the authors had fallen into. The editor appears to have appreciated this review; he still has me review regularly and introduces me as "the guy that writes reviews longer than the original paper." –  Stephan Kolassa Commented Dec 2, 2015 at 20:00

An "accept as is" option is useful after resubmissions; it signifies that no more work needs to be done. However, it is unusual to see that happen in an article on the first round of submissions. (I've had that happen precisely once in my career.)

Otherwise, I would say that the more detailed a review can be, and the more precise the suggestions for improving the paper are, the better it will be.

One to two pages is typically the norm; however, I have submitted a few three- to four-page reviews when I thought an article was already quite good, but could be better.

On the other hand, if a paper is already of relatively poor quality, I will explain the methodological or other significant flaws, but skip over an analysis of minute points; (it's simply not worth the time to rearrange the furniture when the roof is going to collapse any minute.)

As an author, reviewer, and key reader of a respected engineering journal, I can offer some perspective. The shortest review I received was one I solicited from a highly-respected professor at a prestigious university. His review was basically “This manuscript is not written well enough to be reviewed.”

The longest review I have received as an author was about five bulleted comments some of which were optional revisions and some minor but necessary clarifications; the shortest was one minor comment approving the manuscript.

As a reviewer I have on several occasions completely rewritten a non-English language author’s manuscript as a gratis professional service. To my surprise, I received thank you letters from the professional society publications chair and the editor thanking me for my ‘laudatory’ service. I took that to indicate my effort was unusual.

My shortest key reader review summary was to a VERY famous author who after a 22 page derivation, which he summarized as ‘simple’. With feigned seriousness, I ‘required him to remove the word ‘simple’ since he was on this uncustmary occasion communicating with mortals.

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Home » Planning & Creating » How Many Pages Should a Book Be?

Word count for novels

Let’s start with you writers out there. Instead of talking about page count, we can filter this through the concept of word count. There are exceptions to every rule, but a few common genres fall under the same guidelines for a book’s word count.

As a general rule, book genres like fiction , nonfiction , mystery, and romance will fall into the 80,000 to 90,000 word count range. Is there wiggle room? Sure! However, keep in mind that wiggle room on the short end, because books in the 70,000 to 80,000 word range might be viewed as too short. Although it could also mean you did a solid editing job and the book is finely tuned for delivery.

The same rules apply to the long end. If your book comes in with a higher than normal word count, something in the range of 90,000 to 100,000 words, it could be viewed as too long or poorly edited. Or it could mean that your one book might actually be better as two books. (Who doesn’t love a series?) And what about books with 110,000 or 120,000 words or more? In some cases, this means the book is simply too long and could actually cost too much to produce, although certain genres are given leeway in this regard (think fantasy books and epics). In theory, the best thing to do is to concentrate on however many words or pages your book needs. That’s it. However, erring too far on the low end or the high end is going to reduce the chances of your book being considered. So try to keep your book’s word count in mind without completely allowing it to impact or alter your narrative or story.

Word count for mystery and romance novels

The sweet spot for mystery, romance, suspense, and horror novels is 70,000 to 90,000 words (200+ pages), because these books typically need to be page-turners. You want to keep readers engaged without giving away too much along the way. That range should give you enough space to set up a premise, establish character motives, and develop a suspenseful plot with surprising twists and clues—all essential qualities of a great mystery, romance, or thriller.

For new and emerging authors, it’s best to stick to the average book length until you get more writing and publishing experience under your belt. Cut it too short and your readers may feel like they’re missing something. Draw the story out too long and you might lose them. The more you write, the better you’ll get at finding the right formula for your work and learning which rules to bend. Mystery writer Agatha Christie is one of the best-selling novelists of all time, as the author of 66 detective novels—and many of her books are just 40,000 to 60,000 words long. Bottom line: experienced authors know their genre well and learn how to make page counts work to their advantage.

Word count for science fiction and fantasy

If you’re writing a science fiction or fantasy novel, your book could fall anywhere between 50,000 to 150,000 words—though 90,000 to 100,000 words (300 pages) is a good target. Books in the science fiction and fantasy genre encompass a broad range of page lengths because there are so many variations in plot structure, series format, and audience. For example, Ray Bradbury’s sci-fi classic Fahrenheit 451 is a fairly compact gem at around 46,000 words, while Stephen King’s dark fantasy The Stand runs a whopping 500,000 words.

Age and reader experience is certainly a factor. The average young adult fantasy book clocks in under 90,000 words, which is 300 pages or less. Many popular titles are even closer to 70,000 words. This is an ideal book length to capture the imagination of school-age readers, without becoming too tedious or cumbersome.

On the flip side, books in an adult epic fantasy series often reach up to 200,000 words. This sub-genre includes stories with extremely long plots that revolve around detailed world building, a large cast of characters, and a complex quest or adventure—all the territory of expert storytellers, like George R. R. Martin (A Game of Thrones) and J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings).

Page count for illustrated books

Now let’s talk about the photographers, designers, illustrators, and artists out there—those who are interested in creating an illustrated book. Illustrated books, in many ways, are entirely different from “written” books, although many of them also contain written sections. Some of these passages are brief and the word count is much less than those of a novel. They tend to come in the form of an essay, forward, preface, or dedication, while others have full body passages used in combination with the illustrations, oftentimes broken into chapters.

Historically, illustrated books have been much more expensive to produce, so things like page count become critical in keeping a book under budget. So how long should your illustrated book be? The best answer is a reflection of that for written books which is “just long enough to tell your story.” Editing your illustrated book is a critical part of the process. Editing ensures that you are only showing the most essential illustrations—those required to guide the reader through the narrative adventure you want them to take.

The length or page count of your illustrated book also depends on a variety of other factors including the physical form of the book itself. Material choices are critical as many illustrated books are viewed as art objects as much as books. Choices like cover type, paper type, the number of books you are printing, and customizations all combine to form an equation of book success or failure.

For example, you might desire a hardcover book, but you only have forty pages of illustrations. If you create this book it might feel like too much cover and not enough book. Opting for a softcover instead might not only allow for balance in how the book looks and feels, but also help you stay under budget. Another way to balance out the parts is to choose a suitable paper type. High-end, archival, fine-art papers tend to be thicker than standard papers, so even with a lower page count, you might actually get a thicker book that balances well with your subsequent material choices, while keeping your project under budget.

Page count for children’s books

Then there’s the colorful world of children’s books . No, you’re not imagining it—a lot of kids’ books are exactly 32 pages. That’s because these illustrated stories are usually produced in page-count multiples of eight. So, you’ll also find plenty of books with 24, 40, or 48 pages, and the occasional picture book with as few as 8 or 16 pages.

Of course this genre is unique because the drawings and imagery are so central, there’s usually only one or two lines of text per page. The shorter the book, the more this writers’ maxim applies: every word counts. You want to create a simple storyline with one or two primary characters, so storyboarding and editing your text carefully is key.

Understanding the importance of book length, page count, and setting a page limit will not only help you structure your story, but it can also make your book more appealing to readers. Like other genres, there are industry standards for children’s books, so adhering to the guidelines will help your book be more competitive in the ever-growing market of kid lit. If you’re counting words, aim for 500 to 600 words in a 32-page book. Anything over 1,000 words and the book might be a tough sell.

Final thoughts

There are a few more things that need to be said. First, self-publishing doesn’t mean you have to do everything by yourself. If you are uncertain about something, get a second opinion. And if you aren’t skilled in a particular area like editing or design, then think about hiring someone for their professional services who does possess those skills.

Finally, enjoy the process. Writing, photographing, or creating books (or self-publishing books ) can be a complex process. But putting a book out into the world can be a life-changing experience. Books have been tied to human DNA since the invention of the printing press, and this reality shows no signs of slowing down. Happy bookmakers tend to be productive bookmakers, so don’t forget to have fun. It just might be the most important part.

Ready to make your own book? Layout your pages quickly and easily with our free desktop tool, BookWright . Start today!

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• Writing Tips

Is StoryWorth Worth It? Price, Comparison, and Review

7-minute read

• 17th February 2023

If you are looking to write your life story to share with your family and future generations, there are many options available. StoryWorth is a memoir service subscription you can buy for yourself, or a loved one, to make this dream come true. But is it all it promises to be? In this article, we break down what StoryWorth has to offer, its prices, and how it compares to similar services.

What is StoryWorth?

StoryWorth is a membership service you can purchase for yourself or a loved one. With the membership, you and your nominated recipients receive a weekly email with a question to respond to. Throughout the year-long subscription, you will see their responses each week. At the end of the year, StoryWorth compiles everything the recipients have written into a hardback book that you can keep for generations.

How Does StoryWorth Work?

StoryWorth wants its subscribers to think of their services as a conversation. Their process consists of three steps:

1. Once a week, you choose a question to inspire them (your loved ones) to write.

2. Your loved one replies to the question in an email, which is also shared with you.

3. At the end of a year, your loved one’s stories are bound into a beautiful keepsake book.

StoryWorth has around 300 questions for you to choose from to be your loved one’s weekly question. You can also choose to write your own, or your loved one can simply write whatever they like. In addition to answering the question prompts, your loved one can upload photos to go along with their story.

Example questions from StoryWorth include:

●  What matters most to you in life?

●  What’s one of your favorite trips?

●  What personal expectations do you hold yourself to?

●  What things do you think you cannot live without?

●  Do you have any regrets in life?

Formatting and Customizing Your Keepsake Book

At the end of your year-long subscription, you will receive an email with two options:

1. To renew your subscription ( online reviews suggest the renewal fee is $60) if you aren’t finished writing.

 2. Print your book.

If you choose to print your book, StoryWorth has professional book cover layouts to choose from where you can add a photo and title. However, color options are limited and not listed on their website.

In terms of formatting within the book, customers are limited. You cannot bold, underline, or italicize any text. And they only offer text in size 10 Merriweather font. Customers can add captions and descriptions to photos. The hardcover book is a standard 6×9, and you also receive a pdf version to download.

How Much Does StoryWorth Cost?

StoryWorth is an affordable subscription service at $99. With the subscription, you get:

●  Weekly story prompts sent via email to the recipient

●  1 hardcover book with a black and white interior (including black and white photos)

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

●  Access to customer service to help with any issues

For additional books, you can expect to pay:

●  $39 for each additional black and white interior copy

●  $79 for color books up to 300 pages

●  $99 for color books of 300 to 480 pages

What if There are Errors?

StoryWorth recommends that customers wait until they receive the first copy of their book before ordering more. While you can edit your book before having it printed, there will always be mistakes overlooked (as in almost any book publishing process). If you receive your first copy and notice any errors, you can correct them before ordering more copies.

However, you will have to pay for any further copies you order regardless of errors. Based on reviews, StoryWorth does not appear to offer free correction services.

How Does StoryWorth Compare?

At the cost of $99, it is difficult to find other companies offering a similar service as StoryWorth for an equal or lesser price. Traditionally, for those looking to write a memoir for themselves or family members, you have to write the memoir yourself, pay an editor (or edit it yourself), and then pay to have it printed. Self-publishing is a long, tedious process and can cost thousands of dollars depending on your editor and printer.

Alternatively, paying a ghostwriter to write your memoir for you (a very popular service) is going to cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.

Handwritten Legacies offers a similar service, except they do not offer you a hard copy of your book. You can create a customizable pdf book, including a dedication page, family tree page, and personalized writing prompts. It is approximately 200 pages long, which you print at home and have your loved one fill in. It costs $20, which is a much lower price than StoryWorth, but it’s not exactly the same service.

No Story Lost is similar to StoryWorth in that you get a beautiful keepsake at the end of your process: a coffee table book of your life story. However, their process is to interview you and then write, edit, and polish the story for you. And their costs are much higher than StoryWorth, ranging from $899 to $1,799.

Customer Reviews and Testimonials

StoryWorth reviews are mixed. Sarah Z. Wexler wrote a very positive article on The Strategist about her experience buying a StoryWorth subscription for her father. She wrote, “As a big reader and an author myself, I can honestly say I’ve never been more excited for the release of a book. It’s been a true joy for me to open my inbox and see my dad’s stories each week.”

Other positive reviews found online stated that they enjoyed StoryWorth’s questions and that they also liked the pdf version they got when the writing was completed. One reviewer used their pdf book in a very clever way, stating “I then printed out the book in pdf, made a few adjustments and then uploaded to a free e-book maker site where my book is available as a flip book also. It even has sound effects and music on several pages as applicable… siren for injuries, a few memorable songs from my youth, etc.”

However, there are some negative reviews, mostly commenting on how the technology StoryWorth uses is not user-friendly or up-to-date. Many complained that their stories were not saved after writing them, they could not format their photos correctly, and that customer service was below par and limited to emails.

One customer commented that “The idea is great. They respond to questions quickly. However, I would highly recommend going to another company which has better editing. StoryWorth has very few tools to help design and create the look you want.”

StoryWorth offers an opportunity for people to write their life stories by answering one question per week for a year at the price of $99. At the end of your year of writing, you get a keepsake book for yourself and your family. While many people love the idea, and StoryWorth has many happy customers, they are not ready to make professional memoir publishing services redundant.

At the end of the day, you are going to get what you pay for. While $99 is a very attractive price and the general idea seems straightforward, many people complain that editing is difficult and formatting and adjusting the layout of the text and photos is challenging. These are skills that professional editors, writers, and publishers have spent years mastering, and it’s hard to replace the quality and experience of a professional.

If you are writing a memoir to have your precious memories passed down for generations to come, have a professional editor help you in the process. At Proofed we offer a free trial of proofreading and editing for first-time customers. Try it out today !

What is StoryWorth and how does it work?

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Is my personal information and content shared on StoryWorth secure?

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Posted on Jan 31, 2023

How Many Pages is 1,000 Words? A Thorough Account

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Linnea Gradin

The editor-in-chief of the Reedsy Freelancer blog, Linnea is a writer and marketer with a degree from the University of Cambridge. Her focus is to provide aspiring editors and book designers with the resources to further their careers.

Whether you’re writing an essay or assignment with a set word count, or you’re simply wondering how many blank sheets of paper to prepare for when you press ‘print’ on your document, determining how many pages 1,000 words is can be a helpful first step. 

Usually, essays or manuscripts you’re preparing for submission should be double-spaced and written in a serif font like Times New Roman or Georgia, with a font size of 12 points. This means that 1,000 words is about 4 pages (A4) of typed text. Assuming the text is single-spaced, as it tends to be in other contexts, 1,000 words is usually just 2 pages (A4).

Of course, there are a few more factors that go into determining how many pages 1,000 words are, and the answer will change depending on how you format your text. In this article, we’ll break down standard formatting for different types of writing, and the things you should pay attention to when it comes to increasing or decreasing your page count — without affecting your final word count.

Many factors affect page count

Assuming that you’re just putting words together on paper without including other things that significantly increase the page count — like images, graphs, or tables — 1,000 words can still result in quite different page lengths, depending on how you format your text. 

Here are a few things that will affect how many pages it takes to write 1,000 words:

Typing vs writing by hand

Though most writing these days is done digitally, there will still be times when you’re asked to submit a handwritten piece of text. And while typed words always follow specific metrics, handwritten ones come in all shapes and sizes, depending on your individual handwriting style, the pen’s nib size, how tightly spaced the text is, and whether you’re writing on ruled, blank, or graph paper.

With that said, handwritten words are typically about two times as big as words typed in a 12 pt. font on a computer. If the paper is single-spaced (as it usually is), that means you end up with 4 pages (A4) of handwritten text per 1,000 words, or 8 pages double-spaced.

An additional factor if you’re writing by hand is, of course, your personal tendency to cross things out. If you stop and start over a lot, smudging out your previous attempt, you’ll inevitably have to adjust the numbers above. With this in mind, the best way to estimate your word count will be to rely on the assumption of 4 single- or 8 double-spaced pages, then add the approximate number of words you’ve deleted.

🧮 Curious to know how many words you delete as you type? If you do your writing on  Reedsy Studio , you’ll see a live update of your word count and the number of words you’ve removed as you type.

But enough about handwriting. After all, we’re living in a modern era, so, let’s take a closer look at what might affect your typed page count.

Count your words and pages with Reedsy Studio

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It goes without saying that font size affects how many words you can fit onto one page. Font size is measured in points (pt.) and a text written in small 8 point font versus a text written in humongous 42 point font will inevitably result in vastly different page counts.

Longer texts normally stay within the range of 10 to 14 points, according to most typography conventions, with 12 being the standard for most essays and manuscripts. This is a comfortable reading size for the general reader, with no squinting or excessive paper wastage necessary. If you aren’t sure what to use, 12 is your go-to — and then you’ll also know you just need 4 single-spaced pages to reach 1,000 words.

A second consideration when you’re adjusting your document settings is what type of font to use. Not all font types are made equal, and two different fonts can expand or shrink your text even when they’re set to the same font size. Here’s an example to illustrate different font widths:

These four lines were written in the same font size but with different fonts, taking up different amounts of space on the page. Rubik — a sans serif font — takes up the most space, while Garamond — a serif font — takes up the least.

Taking a brief detour into the world of typography , a serif font is a font which includes so called ‘serifs,’ which are decorative strokes that finish off the end of the letter stem. These are also known as ‘feet.’ Sans serif fonts are those fonts without ‘feet’ or ‘serifs.’ Normally, longer pieces of text should be typeset with a serif font that makes it easier to read, like Times New Roman, Georgia, Garamond, or Merriweather. Some common sans serif fonts are Arial, Verdana, Roboto, and Rubik. Each type of font will have a different width, so make sure you account for this.

And even if you write the same line in the same font, it can take up slightly different space when you apply regular, cursive, bold, or bold + cursive style. Take Times New Roman, for example:

This might not seem like that big of a difference at first glance, but if you write a whole paper in one of these fonts, the accumulated effect will add up and result in slightly different page lengths.

We know, we know. It’s quite unlikely for a longer piece of writing to be written in anything but regular font. Still, we don’t know everyone’s circumstances, and we’re trying to give a thorough account here, so bear with us.

Next, let’s take a look at the distribution of blank space in your text.

Line spacing

Authors and AP English teachers are all fond of asking readers to “read between the lines,” analyzing what is implied, but not explicitly written on the page. For typographers, the space between the lines on the page — line spacing — is equally important, and will have a marked effect on the final page count.

With most writing platforms , you can choose between single, 1.15, 1.5, and double spacing. What this does is shrink or expand the space above and beneath a line of text.

Essays and manuscripts are commonly written with double spacing to leave space for teachers or book editors to add their comments and corrections.

Character spacing

Line spacing is also known as “leading” in typography, but if you want to adjust the space between individual letters or characters, this is known as “kerning.” This is not really a concern when you’re writing an essay or submitting a manuscript, but rather something that comes at a later stage of typesetting, usually done by professional book designers .

If you’re using more refined typesetting programs like InDesign, you have more options to adjust and play around with the leading and kerning, which can help you condense or expand your text to avoid awkward-looking things like “ runts,” “widows,” and “orphans” before you go to print.

Of course, you can also opt for an easy-to-use typesetting program like  Reedsy Studio , which typesets your manuscript to industry standards, if you want to minimize the hassle. Or why not hire a professional typographer or typesetter ?

Indents and paragraph breaks

Much like line spacing, adding more space at the start of every paragraph with large indents or having a lot of paragraph breaks is also something that can make your text longer. The estimate of 4 pages per 1,000 words assumes that you’re putting one word after the other consistently, without line breaks or added spaces, so unless you’re planning on handing in a solid block of text, take it more as a guideline than as a hard fact.

First line indents are typically about half an inch, which is also the pre-setting of the tab-key on most writing software. 

Paragraph breaks (in other words, hitting the enter bar once to start a new paragraph on the next line, or twice to leave a blank row), should be set to follow the line spacing. So if you’re using double spacing for the bulk of your text, make sure to also apply that to paragraph breaks.

Using paragraph breaks is definitely a good thing since it makes your text easier to read and follow. If you’re writing an argumentative essay, you want to make sure that each paragraph contains one main argument, and that you start a new one when you’re moving on to the next. With that said, frequent paragraph breaks is bound to bring your page count beyond the 4-page mark, so make sure to account for that.

Understandably, increasing or decreasing the size of the margins (and thus increasing or decreasing the space in which your text can spread) also affects how many words you can fit on one page. 

Standard measurements for margins are 1 inch (or 2.5 cm) on each side of the paper. Unless you change them on your word processor, you can assume that the 4 single, 8 double-spaced rule still applies.

1,000 words in essays

If you’re writing an essay for your studies, chances are you’ll have to follow pretty strict formatting rules. These may vary from institution to institution and teacher to teacher, so it’s always a good idea to check the specified submission guidelines before you put all your eggs in one basket.

That said, Times New Roman in a pt. 12 font size with double spacing and 1-inch margins is recognized as standard formatting in most situations and is usually a safe bet. With these settings, here are a few checkpoints you can use to refer to when estimating how many pages you’ll end up with: 

1,000 words in books

So far, the page counts we have discussed have all referred to standard measurements for documents in the A4 paper size, but books are rarely published in this format. There’s a wide range of standard book sizes out on the market, depending on genre and whether you’re publishing a hardback or a paperback, for example, but how many pages is 1,000 words in books?

Manuscripts

For authors who are getting ready to submit their manuscripts to publishers or literary agents , the same measurements will usually apply to manuscripts as for an essay written on MS Word or any other word processor: 4 pages per every 1,000 words. 

📐Getting ready to send your manuscript out into the world? Check out this article for more insights on how to format your manuscript and a handy template.

The average word count of a novel is somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 words (though plenty of novels fall outside of this range, like most fantasy novels, for instance), so to find out how many pages your final manuscript will be, you can use the 1,000 word calculation and simply multiply.

Print books

Of course, print books are a different matter.

Print books will usually come in standard trim sizes , but beyond that, it’s up to each publisher, typesetter, or author to decide on the interior design of the book. Many things will affect this decision-making process, like what feeling you want to communicate through the layout , or the overall economy of the project. Spacious typesetting with fewer words per page can create a sense of luxury or encourage page-turning, whereas publishers may choose a tightly typeset text with small margins to save on paper and printing costs. 

According to some estimates, one page in a book contains roughly 300 words, but one page in Bridget Jones’s Diary will probably contain a lot fewer words than one page in an affordable Wordsworth Editions publication of Anna Karenina. Assuming that one page contains 300 words, however, 1,000 words would be roughly 3.5 pages. But then again, that won’t always be the case:

Remember that the 300 words per page estimate only applies to the actual body of the text, and does not include other parts of the book , like front and back matter. You also have to consider the first page of a chapter, which usually starts two thirds down the page and will thus fit less words, not to mention the last page of the previous chapter which may just be a few lines.

How long does it take to write 1,000 words?

Now, if you’re crunching numbers and are trying to figure out whether you can meet your impending deadline, you may be wondering how long it actually takes to write 1,000 words. For the people suffering from feeling unable to write out there, the answer may seem like “forever,” but the comforting truth is that, with a steady pace of typing on a topic you know a reasonable amount about and a clear plan of attack, you should be able to produce a high-quality 1,000 piece in 4 hours or so. 

Of course, what makes writing beautiful is that it is a creative process undertaken by humans, and humans need time to think and search for the right phrases, might occasionally get distracted by other things, or struggle to come up with what comes next. And then, every once in a while, inspiration strikes, and 1,000 words fly by. So take these numbers with a pinch of salt and remember to enjoy the process.

There you have it: a very long answer to a question that, at first glance, seems pretty straightforward. In the end, 1,000 words can look very different in a university essay versus in a book of poetry . Hopefully, this has given you a better understanding of why that is so you can apply this logic to your own writing.

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Words to Pages Calculator: How many pages in your book?

Wondering how many pages are in your book? Or how many words per page your book will be? Use our handy words to pages calculator below to figure out all the details about how long your book will be. 

Why Calculate Words vs Pages?

In the publishing industry, writers and editors measure a book by its word count  not by it's page count. That's because page length can vary widely based on the font size, page size, margins, and line height (as you can see using our advanced book page calculator below). If the font is a bit smaller or the margins are a bit wider or the page size is a bit larger, it will result in a completely different page count.

Word count though always stays consistent regardless of arbitrary formatting choices.

That being said, it's nice to know how many pages your book will be, and vice versa! 

That's where our word count to page count calculator comes in handy. Give it a try below! There's even a tool to copy/paste your whole manuscript and see how long it will be!

And if you're wondering how long  your book should be, check out our word count guide here .

Word Count to Page Count Calculator

Copy and paste your entire manuscript below, then click "Analyze" to get your estimated word count and book page numbers.

Your text will not be stored. This is for word count checking only.

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How Many Pages Is Considered A Book [Examining Your Options]

1. introduction.

2. What Is A Book?

A book is a physical or digital collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A book is a medium for recording information in the form of text, images, or both, and is usually organized into pages. The book is one of the oldest and most popular mediums for communication, and has been used for centuries to convey knowledge, stories, and ideas.

Books can be divided into two broad categories: non-fiction and fiction. Non-fiction books are typically written to provide information or instruction on a particular subject. They may be biographies, histories, or textbooks, and are often used as reference materials. Fiction books, on the other hand, are typically written to entertain and tell stories. These books can be novels, short stories, or plays, and often feature characters and settings that are imaginary or based on real life.

Books can also be classified by their physical format. Hardcover books are bound with a stiff cover, usually made of cardboard and cloth, and are often used for textbooks and reference books. Paperback books are bound with a soft cover, usually made of paper, and are usually used for novels and other works of fiction. Digital books, or e-books, are books that are available in an electronic format, such as a PDF or an ePub file.

Books are also divided into genres, which are categories that help readers easily find books that they may be interested in. Examples of genres include romance, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, and young adult.

In addition to the physical and digital formats, books can also be found in audio format, such as audiobooks. These are books that are read aloud by a narrator and are usually available on CD, cassette tape, or as a digital download.

Books are essential tools for learning, and are used by people of all ages, from children to adults. They are a great way to gain knowledge, explore new ideas, and get lost in a good story.

3. How Many Pages Is Considered A Book?

The answer to this question depends on a few factors, including the type of book, the format, and the publisher. Generally speaking, a book is considered to be between 48 and 1,000 pages long.

The most common type of book is a paperback, which is usually between 200 and 400 pages long. This type of book is typically used for novels, memoirs, and other fiction and non-fiction works. Hardcover books, on the other hand, can range from 48 to 1,000 pages in length. Hardcovers are often used for textbooks, reference books, and other more technical works.

The format of the book can also affect the page count. For example, a book printed in a larger font size or with larger margins will have fewer pages than a book printed in a smaller font size or with smaller margins. Similarly, a book printed in a larger page size will have more pages than a book printed in a smaller page size.

Finally, the publisher may also have an influence on the page count. Some publishers may require a certain number of pages for a book, while others may have no requirements. For example, a publisher may require a book to be at least 250 pages long, while another publisher may have no requirements at all.

In summary, a book is generally considered to be between 48 and 1,000 pages long. The type of book, format, and publisher can all affect the page count of a book. Therefore, it is important to consider all of these factors when determining the page count of a book.

4. Factors That Determine Page Count

The size and page count of a book is determined by several factors, including the type of book, the size of the text, and the number of illustrations or images included. Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

Type of Book

The type of book can have a large effect on the number of pages. For example, a novel or memoir may require more pages than a short story or a book of poetry. This is because novels and memoirs often have multiple characters, settings, and plot points that need to be developed, while shorter works can be more concise.

Size of Text

The size of the text is another factor that affects the number of pages. Books with larger font sizes may require more pages than those with smaller ones. This is because larger fonts take up more space on the page, so more words are needed to fill the page.

Number of Illustrations or Images

The number of illustrations or images included in a book can also affect the page count. If a book has a lot of illustrations or images, it may require more pages than a book without them. This is because illustrations and images take up additional space on the page, so more words are needed to fill the page.

The type of binding used for a book can also affect the number of pages. For example, a hardcover book with a dust jacket may require more pages than a paperback book. This is because the dust jacket adds additional pages to the book, which increases the total page count.

The format of the book can also affect the number of pages. For example, a book that is printed on large sheets of paper may require more pages than a book that is printed on smaller sheets. This is because larger sheets of paper can hold more words, so more words are needed to fill the page.

In conclusion, the size and page count of a book is determined by several factors, including the type of book, the size of the text, the number of illustrations or images included, the type of binding used, and the format of the book. By understanding these factors, authors and publishers can better determine the page count of their books.

5. How To Calculate Page Count

Calculating the page count of a book is an important part of the publishing process. There are a few different ways to go about it, and the method you choose will depend on the type of book you are producing.

The most common way to calculate page count is by using a standard formula: the number of words divided by 250. This formula is based on the standard size of a printed page, which is usually around 250 words. This method is best for books that are printed in a standard format, such as novels, textbooks, and other non-fiction works.

Another way to calculate page count is to count the number of characters in a manuscript. This method is best for books that are not printed in a standard format, such as children’s books, graphic novels, and other types of illustrated books. The number of characters per page can vary depending on the size of the font, illustrations, and other elements of the book.

The third way to calculate page count is to count the number of pages in a digital manuscript. This method is best for books that are published in digital formats, such as eBooks. Digital manuscripts are typically formatted differently than printed books, so the number of pages can vary depending on the format.

Finally, you can also calculate page count by counting the number of pages in a hard copy of the book. This method is best for books that are printed in a standard format, such as novels, textbooks, and other non-fiction works.

No matter which method you choose to calculate page count, it is important to remember that the final page count of a book can vary based on the type of book, format, and other factors. Additionally, the page count can change throughout the publishing process, so it is important to keep track of the page count throughout the entire process.

6. Conclusion

Books come in many shapes and sizes, and the page count of a book can vary greatly depending on the format and purpose. Generally, a book is considered to be any printed work of at least 48 pages, but the actual page count can be determined by a variety of factors, including the size of the book, the type of paper used, and the desired length of the book.

In the end, the page count of a book is a personal decision, and authors and publishers must decide what page count best meets their needs. By understanding the factors that determine page count, authors and publishers can make informed decisions about the right page count for their book.

No matter the page count, books are a great way to share stories, ideas, and knowledge with the world. Whether it’s a 48-page picture book or a 1,000-page novel, books have the power to capture the imaginations of readers and bring them on exciting journeys.

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How Many Pages Is a Good Book?

Once upon a time, bigger was better. We’re referring to books, of course, and the fact that authors from centuries past typically got paid for quantity over quality . In today’s reading climate, “bigger” may actually hurt your chances of getting published and/or your success in sales. If you’re adding yet another chapter to your already 720-page manuscript, this one is for you. So, how many pages is a good book ?

Word to the Wise. Although word count is typically a better metric of book-length, (since the number of pages can vary depending on formatting, font size, and illustrations), for the purposes of answering the question “ How many pages is a good book? ” we’ll assume 25,000 words equals roughly 100 pages.

The Era of Non-Fiction

It’s never been a better time to be a non-fiction writer. Self-improvement book sales are at an all-time high and memoirs are on the rise . Introspection is trendier than ever, and with the world finally waking up to the importance of having diverse stories and perspectives, you no longer have to be famous to publish—you just need an interesting story or angle.

Here’s Why Size Matters For Non-Fiction Books

Having one big “megabook” is a thing of the past . When it comes to non-fiction, concision is key. Readers have developed an appreciation for specialists who dive deep into a topic rather than scratch the surface of multiple topics. Your goal as a non-fiction writer is to understand your target audience’s question or issue and then resolve that question or issue as succinctly and directly as possible. Here are some reasons why you’re better off keeping it short.

Short Sells

How many pages is a good book? Let’s look at sales trends. The average length of the New York Times’ bestseller decreased by 11.8% from 2011 to 2021. While in the first half of the 2010s, books with 400+ pages stayed 4.4 weeks longer on the bestsellers list than their counterparts, this trend reversed in the second half of the decade, as books with less than 400 pages stayed on the list for 1.9 weeks longer between 2016 and 2021.

Attention Spans Are Shorter Than Ever

Attention spans are shorter than ever. Non-fiction readers lose interest if they catch you repeating yourself. A shorter book means you’ve synthesized your thoughts in the most efficient way possible.

Keep your writing focused by having these four things at the forefront of your mind as you write.

Reader Engagement Is Essential

If you want your book to work for you, you need to be intentional about how you want the reader to engage with you beyond the book. A good book will have strong calls to action for reader engagement, which is a huge part of your marketing/business strategy.

Target Audience Is Key. We’re not here to tell you all books have to be short—it all depends on your readers’ needs and the topic at hand. Consider, for example, an 8.5×11, 300+ page workbook designed to be an ongoing resource for caregivers, versus a 5×8, 100-page book about chronic hoarding. The target audience plays a huge part in determining book shape and length.

How Many Pages Is a Good Book ?

Here are the brass tacks:

• Non-fiction books are best between 100 to 250 pages (20,000-60,000 words). They should rarely be more than 250 or 300 pages (of course there are always exceptions depending on your target audience)
• Memoirs can be longer, between 240-520 pages (60,000-130,000 words)

Word to the Wise: It will be difficult finding a publisher that will publish a manuscript of 180,000 words or more. If you are lucky enough to find one, expect the script to be severely truncated.

Why Size Matters For Writers

Keeping your writing succinct is great not only for readers. Having a curtailed manuscript is better for writers, too.

Save Time and Money on Editing

Having your manuscript edited by at least one professional editor is a crucial step to getting published. It can also be one of the most costly . The shorter your manuscript, the fewer hours your editor will need, and the more time and money you’ll save.

A Note On Censorship. While cutting and shifting content is normal for any editing process, it’s important to make sure your publisher isn’t censoring your work through their editing process. Here are four questions to ask potential publishers when choosing the right publisher for you and your book.

Cost-Effective Printing

Perhaps the most obvious point of all is actual publication costs. The less paper and ink you need, the lower the costs of mass production. It’s all about keeping cost-per-unit to a minimum (including storage fees for the books you sell at speaking events).

Here’s What To Do With That Extra Material

Now that you’re able to answer the question “ how many pages is a good book? ”, we have some good news about all that extra material. Remember, writing a book is all about strategy. Beyond just selling books, you’ll generate new clients, press, and media opportunities. You’ll get paid more at speaking gigs and can charge higher consulting rates.

Just because your content gets cut from your manuscript doesn’t mean it’s not worth using somewhere else. Here are some ways you can use content that you don’t have the space for in the book:

Supplemental Videos

Remember, your book is just one step to establishing your brand. Offering supplemental videos allows readers to continue their relationship with you after they’ve finished the last page.

Email Autoresponder Sequences

Autoresponders are automated email messages sent out after a reader subscribes to your email list. That way, readers can learn about who you are and what you have to offer without you having to keep up with social media platforms every day.

Free Courses and Programs

Offering a supplemental course or online program is a great way to keep the conversation going, as well as build goodwill with your readers so they are more likely to continue investing in your future publications.

Publish With PYP

As a professional hybrid publisher, Publish Your Purpose publishes high-quality books that meet (and exceed!) industry standards. We publish authors with diverse backgrounds, life experiences, and perspectives who are making an impact in the world. When you publish with us, your book will not only be respected worldwide, but it will also be eligible for reviews by traditional review outlets. Learn more or publish with us .

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Book Review: James by Percival Everett Book Review and Discussion Questions

James by Percival Everett is a modern day classic and should be required reading. I could have read many more pages on the life of Jim, but the concise nature of Everett’s writing is one of the reasons this story feels so strong.

This was my first read from Percival Everett, but it won’t be my last. His writing style is sharp, impactful, and to-the-point, while keeping the story easily flowing and the pages turning.

James was an instant New York Times Bestseller, long-listed for the Booker Prize, and a Kirkus Prize Finalist. It is also in development to become a film produced by Steven Spielberg.

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Percival Everett is author to many other novels, such as Erasure and The Trees , which have also earned accolades and praises.

Let’s Get into James!

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view.

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

In three parts and 303 pages, Everett tells the story of Jim, a slave, on the run after receiving word that he’s been sold. This is a beautiful reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from enslaved Jim’s point of view.

I went into this book thinking it would be rather parallel to Huck Finn (i.e. same setting, plot, etc.), but was pleasantly shocked to read a virtually entirely different story around Jim and how he and Huck come to cross paths. 

Jim experiences many dangerous encounters while on the run. The juxtaposition of Jim running for survival and Huck seeing this escape as an adventure paints a clear contrast between races in this time period. 

There were moments that I was heartbroken, furious, reflective, and shocked (!!!)

This would be a fantastic book of study in classrooms, either in addition to Huck Finn (or maybe even in place of). I absolutely loved it. 

My book club also loved it!! This book ignited one of the best discussions we’ve had all year! There is so much to discuss. 

I also found a new favorite audiobook narrator in Dominic Hoffman . His voice acting is absolutely top tier! Lucky for me, he’s narrated many other books like The Starless Sea , The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store , and Wayward . 

I cannot recommend this book enough – all the stars! Read it!! 

Other Books by Percival Everett

I Am Not Sidney Poitier

So Much Blue

Half an Inch of Water

Discussion Questions

James would make for a fantastic book club discussion! If your club is looking for a historical fiction or a spin on an American Classic that will prompt deep, thought-provoking discussions, you’ll love this book club pick. I’ve included a few discussion questions below. 

You can get everything you need to host an immersive themed book club by purchasing my  Book Club Kit ! It includes even more discussion questions, a themed food and drink list, themed activity list, themed souvenir ideas, and a themed playlist that you can listen to instantly!

• Have you read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? What was your experience reading it?
• Did this reimagining change your perspective of the original novel?
• While Twain is well-known for satirical writing, Everett’s writing took a different approach. How did Everett still incorporate humor and satire in social and culture conditions?
• Discuss Huck’s role in the story. How was it different from the original writing?
• How did Huck and Jim’s perspectives on travel differ? Discuss how the juxtaposition of their races, ages, and experiences led them to both running away.
• Jim “code-switches” depending on who he is speaking with throughout the book. Reflect on Jim’s need to do this and how it impacted your reading.
• Slavery and violent depictions are prevalent throughout the book. Were there any threats that surprised you? What did not surprise you?
• One prominent scene in the book was when Jim was “hired” to be a part of the minstrel group. What were your reflections on this scene as a whole?
• Discuss how performance in blackface was accepted, while black people were not only unable to be performers but were also without rights.
• How were the clashes of race put on display through the minstrel group?

Get even more discussion questions for James with my Book Club Kit !

Have you read James yet? Let me know what you think in a comment below or find me on Instagram! 

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Stress Relief: Coloring Book for Adults and Kids, Bold and Easy, Simple and Big Designs for Relaxation Featuring Animals, Landscape, Flowers, Patterns, Cute Things And Many More (Bold & Easy Coloring) Paperback – May 4, 2024

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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D3CSPMZG
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (May 4, 2024)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 110 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8324810801
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The Many Lives of James Lovelock

Science, Secrets and Gaia Theory

Watts, Jonathan (author)

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Based on over eighty hours of interviews with Lovelock and unprecedented access to his personal papers and scientific archive, Jonathan Watts has written a definitive and revelatory biography of a fascinating, sometimes contradictory man. James Lovelock is best known as the father of Gaia Theory, the idea that life on Earth is a self-sustaining system in which organisms interact with their environments to maintain a habitable ecosystem. Lovelock's life was a chronicle of twentieth-century science, and somehow he seemed to have a hand in much of it. During the Second World War he worked at the National Medical Research Institute, where his life-long interest in chemical tracing began. In the 1960s he worked at NASA. He worked for MI5 and MI6 during the Cold War. He was a science advisor to the oil giant Shell, who he warned as early as 1966 that fossil fuels were causing serious harm to the environment. He invented the technology that found the hole in the Ozone layer. And all of this shaped Gaia Theory - a theory that could not have been developed without the collaboration of two important women in his life. Drawing together the many influences which shaped his life and thinking, The Many Lives of James Lovelock is a unique biography of one of the most fascinating scientists of the modern age.

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In the courtyard where Hersh Goldberg-Polin danced on Oct. 6, grief and anger reign after his death

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Shira Ben-Sasson, a founder of the Hakhel synagogue in Jerusalem, lights a candle in memory of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Sept. 1, 2024. (Deborah Danan)

By Deborah Danan September 1, 2024

( JTA ) — JERUSALEM — Three hundred and thirty-two days after Hersh Goldberg-Polin danced in the courtyard next to his Jerusalem synagogue on the holiday of Simchat Torah, more than a thousand people gathered there in grief and prayer to mourn his murder by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

During the Sunday night vigil, the courtyard railings were lined with oversized yellow ribbons to symbolize advocacy for the hostages, Hapoel Jerusalem soccer flags — the 23-year-old’s favorite team — and posters that read, “We love you, stay strong, survive,” a mantra coined by his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin.

Just hours earlier, one of the posters had been hanging over the balcony of the home of Shira Ben-Sasson, a leader of Hakhel, the Goldberg-Polins’ egalitarian congregation in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem.

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“We were sure we would take it down when he came home,” Ben Sasson said.

The community wanted to unite while respecting the Goldberg-Polins’ desire for privacy, she said, prompting them to organize the prayer gathering.

“But it’s like a Band-Aid or giving first aid, it’s what you do in an emergency. I don’t know how we go on after this,” she said.

She added that the community, which has a large contingent of English-speaking immigrants, was not prepared for the High Holidays, which begin in about a month. She said, “Seeing his empty seat is hard.”

For Ben-Sasson, who wore a T-shirt bearing the Talmudic dictum “There is no greater mitzvah than the redeeming of captives,” the tragedy is especially painful because, she said, it could have been avoided with a ceasefire agreement that freed hostages.

“Hersh was alive 48 hours ago. We think a deal could have saved him. There is no military solution to this,” she said.

That feeling of bereavement, often mixed with betrayal, pervaded gatherings across Israel on Sunday, as the country struggled with the news that six hostages who may have been freed in an agreement were now dead as negotiations continue to stall. Speakers at protests in Tel Aviv blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who himself apologized for not getting the hostages out alive but blamed Hamas for obstructing a deal. The country’s labor union, the Histadrut, has called a national strike on Monday to demand a deal.

Some at the Jerusalem gathering, including the relative of another former hostage, said Netanyahu had chosen defeating Hamas over freeing the captives.

Josef Avi Yair Engel, whose grandson Ofir was released from Hamas captivity in November during that month’s ceasefire deal, expressed shock over Hersh’s murder but said he was not surprised, given the wartime policies of Netanyahu’s government.

“We knew months ago this was going to happen. Bibi’s formula, to dismantle Hamas and return the hostages, wasn’t logical. It’s an either/or situation,” Engel said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. “He’s tearing the country apart. I’m afraid that in the coming months there won’t be a state at all.”

Engel said he felt a close bond with Hersh’s father Jon Polin, not only because of their joint activism in the hostage families’ tent outside the Prime Minister’s Residence, but also because of their shared identity as Jerusalemites.

“There aren’t many of us in the hostage circle,” he said. “We’re like family.”

Sarah Mann, who did not know the family personally, said the weekend’s tragedy reminded her of Oct. 7.

“This day has sparks of the seventh, which created numbness and an inability to talk. Just complete shock,” she said.

Part of the reason for that, Mann said, was Rachel, who she described as a “force of faith.” Goldberg-Polin’s mother emerged as the most prominent advocate for the hostages globally and became a symbol in her own right as she crisscrossed the world calling for her son’s freedom.

“Millions of people around the world held onto her. Once that was cut, people’s ability to hold onto faith was knocked out today. But even though this has shattered us, we need to keep holding onto God,” Mann said.

For Susi Döring Preston, the day called to mind was not Oct. 7 but Yom Kippur, and its communal solemnity.

She said she usually steers clear of similar war-related events because they are too overwhelming for her.

“Before I avoided stuff like this because I guess I still had hope. But now is the time to just give in to needing to be around people because you can’t hold your own self up any more,” she said, tears rolling down her face. “You need to feel the humanity and hang onto that.”

Like so many others, Döring Preston paid tribute to the Goldberg-Polins’ tireless activism. “They needed everyone else’s strength but we drew so much strength from them and their efforts, “she said. “You felt it could change the outcome. But war is more evil than good. I think that’s the crushing thing. You can do everything right, but the outcome is still devastating.”

Guy Gordon, a member of Hakhel who moved to Israel from Dublin, Ireland, in the mid-1990s, said the efforts towards ensuring Hersh’s safe return have been an anchor for the community during the war.

“It gave us something to hope for, and pray for and to demonstrate for,” he said. “We had no choice but to be unreasonably optimistic. Tragically it transpired that he survived until the very end.”

Gordon, like many others in the crowd, wore a piece of duct tape marked with the number of days since Oct. 7 — a gesture initiated by Goldberg-Polin’s mother. Unlike on previous days, though, his tape also featured a broken red heart beside the number.

Nadia Levene, a family friend, also reflected on the improbability of Hersh’s survival.

“He did exactly what his parents begged him to do. He was strong. He did survive. And look what happened,” Levene said.

She hailed Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s “unwavering strength and belief in God,” adding, “There were times I lost faith. I suppose I was angry with God. But she just kept inspiring us all to pray, pray, pray.”

Jerusalem resident Leah Silver rejected politicizing the hostages’ deaths.

“Everything turns political so quickly. I came here because I felt that before all the protests, we need to just mourn for a moment and to pray. And show respect for each other,” she said. “We’ve become confused about who the enemy is. It’s very sad.”

But not everyone at the gathering joined in to sing Israel’s national anthem at the closing of the prayer gathering.

“I’m sorry, I can’t sing ‘Hatikvah,’” Reza Green, a Baka resident who did not know the Goldberg-Polins personally, said. “I’m too angry. We shouldn’t be here.”

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