As part of the A to Z Challenge, I am participating in the Book Reviews, Tour, and Blog Hop!

One of the areas as an author that I feel like I have failed in is writing reviews. I know how important they are to new authors and experienced authors alike, and yet I hardly ever write them. When I do write them, I tend to post them on my blog and maybe Goodreads, but that’s it. I was delighted to have the opportunity to get an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review of J Lenni Dorner’s upcoming book, “Writing Book Reviews As An Author: Inspiration To Make It Easier” to be released March 26, 2019.

The first, and one of the most important things to me, is how easy to read the book is. I was happy to see that even though this was an ARC, it was well edited. It flowed seamlessly, was very informative, and explained things clearly. I would have read the whole thing in one sitting except it was after midnight, and I fell asleep. I was so close! I even read the author bio and the thank yous, which I often skip. (Bad author, bad. I know.) I read everything from cover to cover, starting with the excellent front cover image. It’s all books: a book floating in the center of more books. Awesome image!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who writes reviews, or who should be writing reviews, but isn’t – like me! I will absolutely be checking out more of his work now. As a typical romance and mystery reader, this was not the type of book I typically pick up, but anything that helps me hone my craft is welcome. It’s always awesome when an experienced writer shares expertise on writing reviews, as I know J Lenni Dorner writes a lot of them. It’s also great to support someone I’ve known digitally through the A to Z Challenge, but have never met. I feel like I got to know J a little more through this experience.

This book left me excited to start writing my first review and walked me through the process seamlessly. At the author’s request, I timed myself through each phase. I decided to work with an outline and then write the actual review. The outlines took me a total of 13 minutes. From there, it took me 15 minutes to write up the review, and I do think it will go faster now that I’ve done one. I have always felt like I needed questions to answer to gather my thoughts that wouldn’t contain spoilers when reviewing novels, and now I feel like that’s exactly what I have! And just in time, too, because I’ve started a book reviewing project…

5 stars for an excellent book on how to write reviews!

If you’re interested in pre-ordering the book, you can do so Amazon and Smashwords!

And now… an interview with the author:

Why did this you part in the A to Z Challenge the year that your book was “given life”?   

It’s the ten year anniversary. I’m very excited to be a co-host of the A to Z Challenge. This is an incredible community.

Why did you start blogging?   

This is answered in my very first blog post.

“You may wonder why I started a blog. I may wonder that too! Actually, this blog was started because I heard about the A to Z challenge from some nanowrimo friends.”

Any other books coming out soon?   

This is my current new publication. “WRITING BOOK REVIEWS AS AN AUTHOR: INSPIRATION TO MAKE IT EASIER” I have several stories in the works though

What other books do you have available?    

“Fractions of Existence” (https://www.amazon.com/Fractions-Existence-J-Lenni-Dorner-ebook/dp/B075SG1Q3K) An urban fantasy. Free on Kindle Unlimited.

Brief tip on writing:    

Where did the idea for this book come from, other than the alphabet and the challenge?   

The idea came from interviewing so many debut authors at Operation Awesome. I noticed that some authors reviewed a lot of books, and others had never written one. I set out to inspire those who didn’t write reviews. It turned out to be long enough for a month of blog posts (this coming April). Then I noticed I had enough to make a reference book.

What writing goal do you hope to accomplish this year?   

My biggest writing goal this year is to publish two books in 2019.

As a reader, what most motivates you to buy a new book to read?

A recommendation from a trusted source, reading something interesting about the book, or the book being by an author I like.

What is one question or discussion topic which you would like the readers of this post to answer or remark on in the blog comments?   

What motivates you to write book reviews? (Or, if you don’t write them, what deters you?)

Connect with J Lenni Dorner:

• blog link:    http://jlennidornerblog.what-are-they.com
• website link:    http://www.what-are-they.com/
• Twitter handle:    @JLenniDorner
• Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/WhatAreThey
• LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-lenni-dorner/
• Instagram:    https://www.instagram.com/jlennidorner/
• Pinterest:    https://www.pinterest.com/jlennidorner/
• YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obnXKRDFFSI&feature=youtu.be&t=1m2s
• Amazon author page:    https://www.amazon.com/J-Lenni-Dorner/e/B00RM7E0EQ
• Goodreads author profile:    https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13725994.J_Lenni_Dorner
• Bookbub author page:    https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner
• Smashwords author page: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/JLDorner
• NaNoWriMo participant page:    https://nanowrimo.org/participants/j-lenni-dorner
• Tumblr:    https://jlennidorner.tumblr.com/
• All Author page:    http://jlennidorner.allauthor.com/
• Other link:    https://operationawesome6.blogspot.com/p/j-lenni-dorner.html
• Another link:    http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2018/04/j-is-for-j-atozchallenge.html