Angelica Urbas - 5 Essential Tips on Reviewing Books

After you finish reading a book, do you feel like penning down the thoughts that come in your mind? If yes, you must attempt writing book reviews. As many people love to read book reviews, your creations can gain immense popularity, if you write them efficiently. For authors too, reviews are the much-awaited feedback on the books they write. Reviews are also a confirmation that the book has been read by people. If you want to engage in writing book reviews, you must make them proficient by following certain guidelines.

In this write-up, I am going to discuss some of the tips on writing proficient book reviews.

# Dedicate a lot of time on reading a book - If you want to write an admirable book review, you should give a lot of time to the book. First you have to go through the book quickly and then read it again slowly, giving enough time to each episode, so that you can analyze them. You must take down notes that can help you later on in writing the review. Renowned book reviewer Angelica Urbas is of the opinion that reading a book for a multiple number of times can assist you in understanding the point of view of its author.

# Remember the length guidelines and deadlines - In case you want to send your book reviews to a publisher, you must follow the guidelines on length and the deadlines. Publishers and editors always prefer book reviews that are of a proper length and are written when the book is still new in the market. Following these can allow you to get your work published in newspapers, magazines and so on.

# Review includes the summary in brief - You must summarize the book in brief, when you are writing a book review. However, do not disclose everything, so that your readers can retain the interest of reading the books themselves.

# Create a relationship between an author, a reader and yourself - This must be one of your objectives, when you review a book. For this, it is important for you to write an interesting opening line and include questions, so that readers can feel connected to you. A good review should also be capable of making the readers understand the viewpoint of an author and thereby, create a liking for his or her notable works. In this way, your reviews can help in connecting readers and authors.

# Evaluate the book - You must do an honest evaluation of a book in a review and mention both its strong and weak points. You should also say in which parts the author is brilliant and where he is not up-to the mark. However, always remember to give adequate reasons for your judgments and opinions.

According to famous book reviewers, such as Angelica Urbas, anyone attempting a book review must cater to these guidelines. Thus, if you want to write successful reviews, follow these tips and watch how your reviews become very popular among readers in no time.

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Angelica Urbas - THE HUNGER GAMES by Susanne Collins

I started this novel for two reasons:

1) It has so many rave reviews and I enjoy the films.
2) I am currently writing a YA book and thought this would be a good case study on how to do it right.

First, I want to say I was right on the second one. It helped me a lot with some of the issues I’m having just by analyzing the way this book is written. It also helped me feel more confident about what I’ve written so far. As a case study for anyone writing YA Lit, I highly recommend reading it.

As for the first part, as is typical with books to film, there is so much content in this book that just doesn’t come across in the films. Katniss is far more practical and socially-oblivious than I first thought. I enjoyed reading her far more than watching her, and I connected with the novel version of her character far better. While the plot is pretty much the same, there are little nuances that don’t translate to the screen.

More at: http://www.metamorphoselit.com/2016/11/14/the-hunger-games/

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Angelica Urbas - 5 Questions for … Kathleen Rooney

Our 5 Questions for … series continues today with an echat with local author Kathleen Rooney, whose novel O, Democracy! was one of CBR’s Best Books of 2014. Her second novel, Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in January 2017. In addition to her work as a writer, Kathleen is the founding editor of local house Rose Metal Press. Founded in 2006, Rose Metal Press, Inc. is an independent, not-for-profit publisher of hybrid genres specializing in the publication of short short, flash, and micro-fiction; prose poetry; novels-in-verse or book-length linked narrative poems; and other literary works that move beyond the traditional genres of poetry, fiction, and essay to find new forms of expression. We asked Kathleen what she’s working on, what she’s been reading lately, and what’s coming up next for her.

More at: https://chicagoreviewofbooks.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/5-questions-for-kathleen-rooney/

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Angelica Urbas - 4 Useful Tips for Book Reviewers

Do you love to read and want to review the books your have read? If yes, you can follow your passion and write interesting book reviews. However, to write successful reviews, you must also follow certain guidelines.

Let us take a look at some of the tips that book reviewers must follow.

# Reading the book entirely- It is needless to say that you must read a book thoroughly, before you can review it. This obvious fact is included within the tips to point out that you should not read the book in parts, before you attempt a review.

# Not giving away too much - According to experienced book reviewer Angelica Urbas, the task of a reviewer is to give a stable overview of a book. He or she must hold back certain information, so that readers can retain the interest of going through the book themselves. A good review always increases a reader’s curiosity to read a book.

# Going deeper - A book reviewer must not only be concerned about the plot, character or scenes of a book, but also delve deeper to explore the theme and analyze what the author is saying. A reader should also have some understanding of the comments of a reviewer, even if he or she has not read the book.

# Being creative and constructive - The worth of a book review depends on the creativity and constructiveness of a reviewer. Hence, a reviewer should balance the positive and negative elements in a book and add his or her personal opinions, sense of humor, etc in the write-up.

These are the tips that every book reviewer must follow. If you want to be a book reviewer, you must use these tips to write reviews that will be loved by readers.

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Angelica Urbas - If You Want Your Book to Sell, Get it Reviewed

If you are an author and want your book to stand out from the hundreds and thousands of books available in the market, you need to amp up your marketing strategies. You may have a killer cover page and an awesome plot to go with it, but without the right marketing efforts, your book will simply not sell. One of the most lucrative marketing tools that can catapult your book to the top of the sales chart is reviews.

There are several benefits of book reviews and it helps authors as well as readers, such as:

• Reviews assist interested readers in making informed choices about their reading selections. It helps them save valuable time as they do not have to hunt good books to read, but the reviews give them a clear picture about whether the story is worth a read. 
• In the sprawling book market, good reviews help to enhance the visibility of the book and make it stand apart from the rest. 
• Reviews helps first-time or self-published authors establish their reputation as an accomplished and competent writer.
• The reviews from stalwart book reviewers, such as Angelica Urbas, increases the sales of a particular book as the credibility of the author is greatly augmented. 
• The feedback from reviewers also provides insight to the writer on how well he or she can improve his or her writing skills. 
• Good reviews excite authors and they are encouraged to come up with more interesting plots and stories for their readers. 

So, if you have recently published your book and want to encourage people to read it, getting your book reviewed is the perfect way to highlight its presence. As the review for your book will be printed on newspapers and magazines, and posted across social media platform, it will not be long until your book becomes viral. 

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