Reviewing books is an excellent way to share what you have read and enjoyed, but finding the right market takes time and effort. One good way to learn what each potential market expects in a book report is to search online the words, book reports. Google, or some other search engine, will have many different styles of book reports for you to read.

From these you will get the general idea of what is expected from each editor. Some will ask for the title, the author, the publisher and the price of the book at the top of the page. They also will have preferences as to content, how it should be presented and will advise as to presentation.

The purpose of the book review will vary. A book report for a newsletter for the local library will be quite different from that of a commercial publisher. The library review as opposed to a report for the New York Times, as an example, will be quite different.

The library will not require negative, or contrary comments. They will expect the review to be positive and uplifting. Their purpose being to get as many people as possible to read the book. Else why did they purchase it. (Or maybe they did not purchase it, it could have been a donation from the writer, yet still they will want it to be read.)

The New York Times will be looking for something unique, something different, and controversy will fill that bill nicely. They want the most provocative and the most highly rated books and, of course, their market is not an easy one to get book reviews accepted. To get on their ten best list is every author's dream. Only a few make it.

What is included in the report? Only enough to whet the appetite of future readers and that should be words that will give a general idea of some interesting person, thing, or idea, or condition. Whatever you do, you do not give away plots, but you give enough information to make the readers want to go right out and buy the book.

Personally, I have never pursued book reviewing and have had only one published. It was a local online publication and I was somewhat annoyed at how it had been edited. I never submitted another. The topic was John Adams and the author was David McCullough. I followed no general outline, but let my interest dictate.

Excerpts:
David McCullough has created a masterpiece in writing a 751 page biography of John Adams. He starts out taking readers on a trek to Philadelphia and then, as we travel through all kinds of weather, guides us unobtrusively,

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