Outside Reviews

Basic Info | MWSA Rules and Procedures | Tips & Guidance

An MWSA review posted in another location: Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, etc.

Provides Visibility & Exposure--for the author/book, for the reviewer, and for MWSA

Must be verbatim copy of posted review if preceded by "MWSA Review"
- If you'd like to make small changes to your review, that's OK as long as the review is substantially the same as the one you provided to MWSA and it fits with the MWSA award given
- Although outside reviews are normally done by #1 reviewer, #2 and/or #3 may also upload their own outside review as long as it meets the requirements of the bullet above (i.e., your review should match your MWSA scoring and comments)
Signature block
- Please mention MWSA
- Examples
  - Review done for the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA), by Betsy Smith, award-winning author of Cat Love Stories
  - John Jones, MWSA Reviewer

Do not post outside review that includes ANY STAR RATING before MWSA announcement of medal winners (not Awards Finalists)
- We do this to avoid "spilling the beans" about likely medal winners and/or creating expectations for our authors
- Medal announcement normally occurs at the awards banquet during our annual conference

In order to account for "Score Inflation," please use the above guidelines
- MWSA Gold or Silver = Amazon 4 or 5 stars
- MWSA Bronze = Amazon 3 or 4 stars
- No Medal Awarded = Not less than 3 stars

MWSA has its own page on Goodreads
Goodreads allows posting a review WITHOUT a score (star-rating)
- This is why we're copying all books and our reviews to this website as they're posted to our own website

Amazon doesn't allow a review without a star rating, which is why we're not yet copying our books & reviews here
To write your review:
- Find the book page
- Click on the link for the existing reviews
- Find the “Write a customer review” button (see image)
- Copy and paste your review

All MWSA books and reviews are automatically "syndicated" to this news feed--no action required by reviewers