Below are a few sample questions designed to give you a starting off point in thinking about what sort of questions you want to ask, but the actual questions you ask should be largely determined by your book and the sort of feedback on the story that you’re looking for, thus each set of questions asked by authors will vary greatly. While you are free to use or not use these questions as written, you are encouraged to at least modify them to be more specific (or general) regarding your particular story.

1. What was your overall impression of the book?
2. What were the things you liked most about the book?
3. What were the things the author needs to work on?
4. Did you care about the characters and want to see what happened to them?
5. If you could change one thing about this book what would it be?
6. Did the story hold your interest from the very beginning? Why or why not?
7. Was there an emotional connection between the main characters? (i.e. Did you feel the love build? Was the friendship between x and y believable, etc)
8. Was there a point at which you felt the story started to lag or you became less than excited about finding out what was going to happen next? If so, where and why?
9. Were there any parts that confused, frustrated or annoyed you? Which parts and why?
10. Did you notice any discrepancies or inconsistencies in time sequences, places, character details, or anything else? If so, where and with what?
11. Did the dialogue keep your interest and sound natural to you? If not, whose dialogue did you think sounded artificial or not like that person would speak?
12. Were you able to easily visual the world created by this story?
13. Did you have a favorite character/moment and if so, who/what was it?
14. Was the ending satisfying and believable? If not, what did you feel was missing?
15. Did the story hit the target market (author should give details specific to target market/genre)?
16. Have you ever read other books similar to this one? If so, please list.
17. Did the writing make you interested in the author’s work, enough so that you would want to read more from them?
    • Yes
    • No
    • Maybe
    • Unsure
18. Please note anything else you feel you wish to comment on regarding the story.