NetGalley members enjoy spreading their love of books far and wide, but it can sometimes be a challenge to adapt a book review to different platforms. We want to help you craft the best reviews you can, and avoid reinventing the wheel each time you want to share that review somewhere else. Here, we’re going to use a sample review for Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and show how the review might be edited for different platforms.
General Tips
When adapting a book review for different platforms, it’s important to think about who you are on that platform, who your audience is, and what information is important to convey based on the platform you’re using.
On NetGalley, members are book advocates. They’re receiving DRCs and audiobooks from publishers and authors with the intention of sending honest feedback. Your review helps publishers not only make potential edits to the book, it also can impact their marketing plans or future books they acquire. This is a platform where your expertise is important to showcase in your review.
Meanwhile on review platforms such as Goodreads or The StoryGraph or on social media platforms, you’re likely communicating with a different audience. It may be an audience of other book industry professionals (if you’re a librarian or bookseller) or readers (if you’re a reviewer). The way you talk about a book will likely shift based on this change in audience where your intention is likely to encourage others to pick it up or not. While on NetGalley your expertise as a book advocate will inform your review, on these platforms your personality also plays a large factor in helping you to connect with your audience.
This may sound intimidating, but don’t believe that you must entirely rewrite a review for each platform. With a few minor changes, you can take a review from NetGalley to any other platform and we’re here to show you how.
If you’re looking for tips on writing reviews, check out these articles!
Review and Retail Platforms
NetGalley
Review
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen follows Elizabeth Bennet, a country gentleman’s daughter who is being pressured by her mother to marry, as she crosses paths with Fitzwilliam Darcy, an aristocratic landowner. This was my first novel by Austen and won’t be my last! The writing was sharp and witty, and I found the characters to be captivatingly human, especially as Elizabeth and Darcy were made to face their flaws and missteps and learn to change.
As someone unaccustomed to reading books written in the 1800s, I did find some of the language and sentence construction to be challenging. However, I eventually grew comfortable and was able to better grasp the material once I slowed down.
Overall, this was an engaging read that I would recommend to readers who enjoy historical fiction, especially with some romance. Thank you (name of publishing company) for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Observations
This review follows the guidelines we set out in this article. It offers a brief summary of the book for anyone unfamiliar with it, notes the book’s ideal audience, shares both praise and critique, and ends with an acknowledgement of where the reviewer received the book from.
You’ll notice that in a NetGalley review hashtags and tags aren’t necessary. Mentioning the rating is up to the reviewer’s discretion, but since the rating is easily visible to the publisher once a review is submitted, reviewers do not need to include their rating within the review unless they’d like to explain the reasoning behind it.
Goodreads or The StoryGraph
In transferring your review to Goodreads or The StoryGraph, you won’t need to change the text of your review. However each platform offers different options when leaving a review. On Goodreads you can tag a book or leave yourself private notes. On The StoryGraph, you’ll be prompted to answer optional questions about the book’s tone, can rate using half stars, and can leave content warnings.
Even in cases where you don’t have to change your review to fit a different platform, you may want to edit or add to it. One reason for this is because on each platform you’re writing to a different audience. On NetGalley, you’re leaving a review directly to a book’s publisher or author. On platforms such as Goodreads and The StoryGraph, you’re communicating with a different community. If this member has a lot of friends who read romance on their Goodreads or The StoryGraph they may want to add a paragraph like this above the closing paragraph:
Review Supplement
As a romance reader, I was particularly curious about how the well-known love story between Elizabeth and Darcy would play out. The dialogue they exchanged was fantastic—funny, cutting, and (in the end) tender. I love the way that Austen used Darcy’s letter to give us added perspective in his character. Their individual growth and coming together as a couple was immensely satisfying.
Blogs
Similar to Goodreads and The StoryGraph, taking your review from NetGalley to your blog involves a shift in your audience and you may want to update your review to reflect that. If you’re expanding your review, you can add a paragraph like the example above to reflect your audience or theme of your blog. You can also use the space to dive deeper into individual characters, plot choices, tropes, or themes.
Here’s a look at 13 fresh review formats for your blog if you’re looking for more inspiration.
Amazon or Barnes & Noble
On both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, you’ll be asked to give your review a title. For this review, a title of “A Sharp and Witty Historical Novel” would be perfect. It pulls directly from the review’s praise of the book, as well as the audience the review indicated is best suited for the book. Pulling language directly from your review will mean less work for you!
Speaking of doing less work, both sites also offer the option of adding a photograph to your review. If you’ve shared your review on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube you can use the photo or screenshot here.
Social Media
X
There are a few directions you can take with sharing a review on X. You can condense your review into the allotted 280 characters, you can create a thread, or you can include a snippet/teaser with a link out to your full review on a different platform. Here’s one example of a shortened review.
Review
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that I love #historicalfiction! Thanks to @NetGalley and @(publisher) I read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice—a sharp and witty historical novel with captivating characters who face their missteps and learn to change. Have you read it?
Observations
This review pulls directly from the original with a few changes that better fit X’s platform: a hook at the beginning that plays on the iconic opening line of the novel, a hashtag to connect with a specific community of readers, and a question at the end to prompt engagement.
You’ll notice the hallmarks of the original review are still present, such as the book’s full title and author (making it easy for anyone reading to look it up), acknowledgement of where you received the book, as well as what was most enjoyed about the book to entice readers into picking it up.
Some further tips: Make sure to check the Title Details page on NetGalley, where you’ll find the publisher’s suggested hashtag above the description. Also it’s best practice to only tag the author if your review isn’t critical—think 5 star rave review. Authors generally try to stay out of reviewer spaces and this helps both communities keep that boundary. For more information on tagging guidelines, read through this article.
Instagram offers a 2,200 character limit, which means that the original review fits nicely into this platform. Since Instagram is photo driven, you may want to add in a sentence or two if you have an interesting prop or background in your photo that ties into the book—like some excellent boiled potatoes, in this case.
Observations
You have room for more hashtags on Instagram than you do on some other social media platforms. We recommend looking over this article, which shares our tips on how to best utilize hashtags for Instagram, as well as other social outlets. This article on who to tag in book reviews may also be helpful.
If you’re looking for help with the photo element of Instagram—particularly for ebooks and audiobooks—check out our guide to using Canva as a book influencer.
If you’re using Threads refer to our X tips above on shortened text reviews. If you’re using Reels, refer to our TikTok tips below for ideas on short video reviews.
Video Platforms
TikTok
On TikTok you can record videos up to 10 minutes in length. This would offer you enough room to both read the review example above and even expand on it if you wish to. But it’s important to consider how to best adapt your review for a video platform. Your original review could easily work as a sample for a script you put together, or inspiration to read beforehand if you want to speak off the cuff. Here’s an example of what a script based off that review might look like.
Review
Hi, bookworms! It’s (username) back with another book review, this time for Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I know, I know—I’m very late to the party finally reading my first Austen.
I have to be honest, it took me a minute to get into this. I don’t typically read books from the 1800s. It seriously feels like reading another language at first, but once I got into the flow, I was loving it. Jane Austen was sassy, I really didn’t expect this book to be so funny but Elizabeth could tear Darcy down with a single sentence. She’s my new icon.
If you don’t know what it’s about: Elizabeth’s mom is trying to get her and her sisters married off. She meets the wealthy and handsome Mr. Darcy at a ball, but writes him off when he’s rude to her. Of course they eventually fall in love, but there’s a lot of misunderstandings first and moments when they both really need to look at their own flaws and mistakes and realize they need to grow.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and (publisher) for the review copy. If you’ve read this book, tell me what you thought in the comments!
Observations
As you’ll see, this format offers a lot of room to show off your personality and voice. You can be much more casual since the intention of a TikTok is to engage with the viewer, and this approach feels more like two friends talking to each other.
You’ll have space in the comments to tag NetGalley and the publisher, as well as include any hashtags that are relevant. You can also add in photos, like the book cover. We have more tips on how to review on TikTok here.
Youtube
Similar to TikTok, you have a few different length options when it comes to YouTube. If you opt for a YouTube short, you have 60 seconds. If you choose to do a normal video, you have 15 minutes (for unverified accounts) and up to 12 hours (for verified accounts). We recommend watching YouTube book review videos to see what length you most enjoy watching, and if there’s a format you prefer—such as someone talking about one book in a video, or talking about multiple books they read in a certain time period or connected by a theme.
The script used above for TikTok would work perfectly for YouTube, though depending on the format of your video you may want to add to it. To create more length, consider: focusing on each of the characters, describing important elements of the story (such as setting or time period), the writing style, how much you enjoyed the plot, books you’ve read that are similar, and more.
You’ll have space in the comments to tag NetGalley and the publisher, as well as include any hashtags that are relevant. We have more tips on how to review on YouTube here.
Check out more social media and book review tips!
NetGalley Tips
