We have enjoyed working with Readers' Favorite these past years. They provide timely and honest reviews and go the extra mile by posting reviews on social media sites like Facebook and trade sites like Barnes & Noble and Google Books.
We review manuscripts, published and unpublished books, eBooks, audiobooks, poetry books, comic books, graphic novels and short stories. Your review will be posted on our site, KOBO, Books-A-Million, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. In addition, our reviewers often post reviews to their blogs and social media sites. Your review will also be indexed by search engines like Google, which recognizes our reviews and formats them with their starred rating, just like Amazon and Goodreads.
All 5-star reviews receive a FREE "Five Star" digital seal for your website and a high-resolution version for your book cover. Our seal can be seen on book covers from indie authors to iconic publishers like Simon & Schuster. All reviews come with a Readers' Favorite Review Page and a host of free features to help you promote your book and your new review.
As a result of my Readers' Favorite Review Page, a journalist invited me to do a radio interview, which led to many other radio shows! Now I am networking and selling more books than I ever imagined! Thanks so much!
We only post 4 and 5 star reviews. If an author receives a poor review, we provide private constructive criticism to the author instead. We were the first book review company to not post negative reviews because we are in the business of helping authors, not hurting them.
We are asked to review for such renowned authors as James Patterson, David Baldacci and Stephanie Meyer, and are trusted by prominent publishers such as Penguin Random House, Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster. However, our primary goal is to review for new indie and self-published authors to help them get recognition for their work.
We have enjoyed working with Readers' Favorite these past years. They provide timely and honest reviews and go the extra mile by posting reviews on social media sites like Facebook and trade sites like Barnes & Noble and Google Books.
Readers’ Favorite has been an industry leader for nearly a decade and is one of the most popular book review and book award sites on the Internet. They offer free, unbiased reviews from regular readers and offer a highly respected International Book Award Contest to help writers get the recognition they need to reach the widest audience possible.
As a bibliophile and an author, I must say I’m very impressed with Readers’ Favorite. There are so many interesting books to choose from with great personal information about the author and feedback from readers. I even submitted some of my own works for review and was blown away by the honest and insightful feedback I received. I will keep coming back to Readers’ Favorite for the knowledge and positivity that this wonderful team offers, and I encourage you to do the same.
Readers' Favorite has been awarded the Association of Independent Authors Honoring Excellence award, which recognizes businesses and organizations that offer exceptional products and services for independent authors.
Readers' Favorite has been awarded the Association of Independent Authors Honoring Excellence award, which recognizes businesses and organizations that offer exceptional products and services for independent authors.
Readers' Favorite is the fastest growing book review and award contest site on the Internet. We have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and are very proud to be fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies.
Readers’ Favorite's book reviews and book awards have been accepted into the CLCD, a world leader in the collection of professional reviews and awards data, providing our authors with free exposure to a huge variety of literary professionals, libraries, schools, publishers and book sellers. Some restrictions apply.
Readers' Favorite is a proud member of the National Book Critics Circle, Founded in April, 1974, which honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature.
On behalf of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and especially on behalf of the children and their families, we want to thank Readers' Favorite and its authors for your kindness and generosity.
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Our Featured Book rotator is on our home page and at the top left of every page on our site that is designated for readers (which means it will appear on 99% of the pages on our site) and rotates randomly through all our Featured Books. When a book cover is clicked, it will take the visitor to the book's Readers' Favorite review page.
It is positioned to attract the attention of our thousands of daily visitors, who are looking to find a good book to read. We are also frequented by agents, publishers, publicists, and journalists who want to view reviews we have done for their authors, to submit new review requests, or to see our newest award-winning authors.
We do not sell this advertising space, it is provided as a perk for purchasing our Express Review and Writing services to help authors promote their book. By not selling the space we keep the number of images down, which provides those in the rotator more screen time.
We use a standard 5 star rating system and only post reviews we have awarded a 4 or 5-star rating. Our goal is to help authors with positive advertising for their books and to provide insightful reviews to help readers find the perfect book by a new or established author.
If you receive a poor review our reviewer will point out any issues with your story to help you make it better. Once you have revised it, we will be happy to review it again for free. We were the first review company to not post negative reviews and are proud to have been a part of making it an industry standard.
You may use as much or as little of our review as you wish. We write at least 250 words to provide you with plenty of material to pick quotes from. You will have a simple link to your Review Page featuring your book title like this one for actor/comedian and now award-winning author Jim Carrey, https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/how-roland-rolls. This link is not only user friendly, but it dramatically increases the searchability of your book title and review in search engines.
Your review will be posted on our site, KOBO, Books-A-Million, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Your review will be indexed by search engines like Google, which recognizes our reviews and formats them with their starred rating just like reviews from Amazon and Goodreads. You can see an example with David Baldacci's book, Hell's Corner.
Your Review Page will display your book cover and have an Amazon purchase link as well as optional links like to your Book Trailer on YouTube, your Website, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest pages. You can also add your biography and photo to your review. Our photo upload system will automatically resize your uploaded picture and maintain its aspect ratio so it looks as great as you do.
At the bottom of your Review Page, there is a section where visitors can post their own reviews/comments about your book using our comment system and/or Facebook's comment system. You can also use this section to post all your other reviews for your book so they are all on one central review page.
Your Review Page also includes a Social Networking bar so you and your visitors can post your review to Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as Tweet it or Pin it to Pinterest. These buttons are automatically populated with your book cover and review so when people use the links all your review information is there and ready to be advertised.
The CLCD (Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database) houses the world’s largest collection of professional reviews and awards data for Children’s and YA titles. They are the leading resource for independent information about Children’s and YA titles and are used by countless literary professionals and thousands of institutions ranging from universities and colleges to public and K-12 libraries.
Readers’ Favorite's book reviews and book awards have been accepted into this database, which provides our authors with exposure to thousands of library professionals, educators and students as well as a large number of publishers and book sellers. If you have a Children's or YA book and receive a Readers' Favorite 4 or 5 star review, and your book is available on Amazon (now or in the future), your book and review will be listed in the CLCD database. There is nothing you need to do.
If you win any Readers' Favorite award level in our Annual Book Award Contest, your listing in the CLCD will be automatically updated to display your award, setting your book apart to the countless literary professionals who use the database.
PLEASE NOTE: currently this feature is only available to Children's and YA titles. However, we are working to expand this opportunity to all our genres through other databases. When this happens, all qualifying reviews in our database will be submitted.
Our Review Exchange program allows authors to obtain more reviews and exposure by getting a review of their book in exchange for a review of another author’s book.
NEW - Our Free Book program allows authors to obtain more reviews and exposure by providing a regular reader with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review.
Your participation in both programs is enabled by default, but you can disable either of them at any time from your Author’s Area. When enabled, our Review Exchange and/or Free Book button will appear next to your book everywhere on our site, including on your Review Page. The Review Exchange button lets other authors know you will consider reading and providing an honest review of their book in exchange for them doing the same for your book, and the Free Book button will let readers know that you will consider providing them with a free copy of your book in exchange for an honest review.
There is a Contact link on your Review Page whereby authors and readers can send you a message about their interest in either of these programs. You can use this same method to contact other authors about exchanging reviews with them. The Contact link is also available to agents, publishers, publicists, journalists and other visitors who want to contact you. The system allows people to email you without revealing your email address to maintain your privacy.
The Readers' Favorite Book Donation program was created to help non-profit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, soldier donation programs, convalescent homes, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work.
Exposure is key to the success of your book. A great way to get more exposure is to provide free copies of your book to people in exchange for reviews, which also gets copies of your book circulating. Our Book Donation program helps you accomplish this by informing visitors that you are willing to give free copies of your book to schools, libraries and other non-profit organizations in exchange for some reviews (when possible).
However, you are not guaranteeing everyone free copies of your book. You are just indicating that you are willing to take requests. What organizations you choose to donate to, if any, and how many books you decide to send are completely up to you. The Book Donation option is enabled by default, but you can disable it at any time from your Author’s Area.
When enabled, the Book Donation button will appear next to your book everywhere your book appears on our site, including your Review Page. The button on your Review Page will expand to provide a detailed explanation of how the program works for your visitors, which is simply to use the Contact link on your Review Page to send you a request for free copies of your book. The Contact link is also available to agents, publishers, publicists, journalists and other visitors who want to contact you. The system allows people to email you without revealing your email address to maintain your privacy.
As discussed in our Review Exchange and Book Donation sections, one of the best ways to get new readers and reviews is to give away some copies of your book. To that end, we have created the Readers' Favorite Monthly Book Giveaway. If your book is on Kindle you can create a Kindle Gift for your book. When you do, it will generate a Gift Claim Code that you will enter in your Readers' Favorite Author Area. Your book will then show up on our Monthly Book Giveaway page; it's that easy!
Our giveaway receives premium advertising placement on the left side of every page of our site used by visitors and readers. This ensures that it will be seen by the countless readers, authors, agents, publishers and journalists who visit our site, driving quality readers to the Monthly Book Giveaway page and providing you with great advertising for your book!
If they are interested in your book, they will select it as one they would like to win. They can choose as many as they like. At the end of the month we will pick one winner who will get all the books they selected. We will email them your Kindle Gift Claim Code so they can get their free copy of your book, then we will email you so you can submit another Gift Claim Code if you would like to keep your book on the giveaway page.
If your book was not chosen, it will remain on the giveaway page until someone wins it. If readers who were interested in your book do not win, they may still be interested enough to purchase a copy! If someone does win your book, it will count as an Amazon verified purchase and a verified review if they post a review on your Amazon page, which is what we ask them to do.
In addition, you will get a special link that will take people to the Giveaway page and display your book right at the top so they can easily find and select it. This is a great marketing tool to introduce readers to your book while giving them a chance to win a copy.
Although this is a free Readers' Favorite feature, you will still need to purchase a copy of your book from Amazon to give it as a gift. We hope that the advertising you receive from being on the giveaway page, which includes new readers discovering your book, winning a copy, reading it and hopefully reviewing it on Amazon, will be enough compensation to consider this a good way to help promote your book.
You will be able to activate this free feature from your Author Area as soon as your review is complete. And if you see books you like in the Giveaway you can enter to win as well.
Our Author Forum is a community of authors providing support for one another. It is a positive environment where you will find plenty of marketing strategies and advice, as well as tips on honing your craft. It is custom made to be easy to use and features your picture, book cover, and a personal signature with all your posts.
Just as Readers' Favorite does not post negative reviews to maintain a positive atmosphere for authors and readers, we do not allow negative posts about people, services or companies in our Forum. Instead, authors are encouraged to focus on the positive and offer advice on where to go instead of where not to go and what services to use, instead of what not use.
To thank our authors for posting helpful information, we choose 1 author each month who has contributed to the Forum and award them with a prize. Winners can choose a 5 Express Review package ($199 value) or a free entry into our Annual Book Award Contest with up to 4 categories ($284 value). The Author Forum is completely free, like all our Review Features, and you will have access to it as soon as you submit your book for review or enter our Annual Book Award Contest.
Although we do offer a fee based, discounted Press Release service to all our authors who receive a 4 or 5-star review or whom place in our annual contest, we also provide a complete press release for you to use free of charge. It is properly formatted to industry standards and contains all pertinent and required information, including your review or contest placement. You can simply copy the press release and paste it to all your social media sites, website, blog, etc. or you can use it at another press release service of your choice. It is completely free and will be available in your Author Area as soon as your review is complete.
Each month we announce the reviews we completed that month to 115,000 libraries, 85,000 bookstores and 300,000 schools (elementary through high school) nationwide. We use a white-listed email company that professionally maintains these lists to ensure they are current and accurate. This powerful mailing can not only lead to sales and recognition, but schools and libraries can request donation copies from your Review Page for even more exposure and reviews.
One of the reasons we receive such a good response from this mailing is because we have a Book Donation program that allows these nonprofit organizations to request free books from our authors, which makes our monthly mailing a free resource for great new books! The smaller book stores on our list are always looking for fresh new books to liven up their shelves, and often contact authors about stocking their books. But this mailing doesn’t just help you for the one month you are in it, the email reminds the recipient that most of our authors participate in our Book Donation program and encourages them to look through our website for more books they may be interested in.
Although this service can normally cost hundreds of dollars, we are offering it free of charge with your review. It does not matter which of our review services you use (free or Express), you just need to receive a 4 or 5-star review. Once we have created a Review Page for you on our site you will be scheduled for the following month’s announcement email. There is nothing you need to do or pay, it is all automatic and free.
Due to the large volume of reviews we do each month, it is not possible to list each new book in the email, instead we list the genre your book can be found in. The recipient can use the link to view all the new books in the genres they are interested in. All our genre categories list the newest books first, to make it easier for regular visitors to our site looking for new books. To visit our genre lists, just click any of the genres under the search bar at the top of any page on our website.
We review manuscripts, published and unpublished books, eBooks, audiobooks, poetry books, comic books, graphic novels, and short stories. Your work must be complete, written in English, and fit into one of our 150+ genre categories. You can submit a book with AI-generated material, but you must let us know in the Book Description box on our form what portion of your book is AI-generated. Currently we do not accept erotica books that are mostly sex with no substantial plot.
If you receive a review of 4 stars or more and your work is currently available for purchase on Amazon (your book does not need to be on Amazon now to get your review, we just have to wait until it is before we can post your review publicly), we will post your review on our site, KOBO, Books-A-Million, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Your book must currently be on those sites for us to post your review.
When your review is complete we will send you an email with a link to your new review on our site, as well as login information for your Author Area where you can update your Review Page links and options. We are happy to review manuscripts and unpublished books, we only ask that they be complete and preferably proofread when possible. We will send you the completed review which you can use any way and anywhere you wish, but we cannot post the review for an unpublished book on our site until it is available for purchase on Amazon.
You can submit your book to us in the following formats in order of preference: PDF, Kindle (MOBI), Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX), RTF, and ePUB. If you have a different file format like Open Office or Word Perfect, or you have any trouble attaching your book to our Review Request form, just complete the form without attaching your book and your confirmation email will have instructions on how to easily send us your book file.
If you are entering a sequel that is not standalone, where you need the reader to have some information from the previous book(s), then please add a short synopsis of your previous book(s) to the beginning of the Book Description field of our Review Request form below. If there is not enough room, add the synopsis to the first page of your book file.
If you would like the same reviewer(s) to review your entire series, please submit the first book in the series and if you like the review and reviewer, then you can submit the next book and contact us (click the Contact menu at the top of our website) and let us know you would like the same reviewer. Although we do not assign books to reviewers, they always enjoy reading books by authors they have reviewed for before, especially a series.
We have over 1,500 reviewers who are as varied as the stories they read. They are not literary experts but regular readers with a passion for reading and helping new and established authors with honest reviews of their work. When you submit the Review Request form below, it is sent to all our reviewers for selection. We do not assign reviews, we provide our reviewers with detailed information about your book so they can choose stories they are interested in.
This process is designed to closely mimic the purchasing process at a bookstore, providing you with a quality, honest and genuine review from exactly the type of person who would have normally purchased your book.
Ratings are given on a 5-star scale:
5 STARS – Excellent: I loved this book.
4 STARS – Good: I enjoyed this book.
If a book receives less than 4 stars no official review is given. Instead, the reviewer will write constructive criticism to let the author know what problems they had with the book and offer any suggestions they may have to improve it. This will be about the size of a regular review and will be sent to the author privately; it will not be posted publicly. We are here to help authors, not hurt them.
Although we as a company do not interfere with what rating a reviewer gives a book, as the rating must be what the reviewer feels is appropriate, we do monitor the average ratings of our reviewers to ensure they are being fair and honest about their ratings to maintain the integrity of our reviews.
When you receive a review from Readers' Favorite, the first line of the review indicates who your reviewer was so you can look them up on our About Us page. Knowing the type of person who provided your review can help you understand the potential demographics of readers who will enjoy your book. This also benefits the reviewer by giving them proper credit and recognition for their work and time.
Because it is critical that reviewers provide quality reviews, we invite you to Review your Reviewer. When your review is complete, you will be able to login to your Author's Area and rate your reviewer on a 5-star scale and provide a short review, just as they did for you. Your feedback is presented to the reviewer to help them improve their skills, the same way book reviews help authors improve theirs. The information is also passed to the Readers' Favorite staff to help us ensure the quality of our reviewers and reviews. If you would like to join the Readers' Favorite Team, please fill out our Reviewer Application.
By far, most of what we do is provide free book reviews to authors. In fact, we provide hundreds of free reviews each month to authors from all over the world from independent authors to best-sellers and celebrities. However, even with over 1,000 reviewers we are not able to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for free reviews.
Although we cannot guarantee that all books will receive a review, more than half of the books submitted for a free review will receive one within 3 months. Some books are reviewed in less than a week while others are never selected for review. As a company we play no part in the time it takes for a book to receive a review because we do not assign books to reviewers; they select them from a detailed list. Reviewers search through the genres they are interested in, read your description, look at your cover, and can even read a portion of your book to ensure it is something they are interested in reading. We designed this process to mimic that of a book store to ensure you get a reader who represents your core audience.
If you are interested in a guaranteed review, getting your review back more quickly or would like multiple reviews of your book, please look at our Express and Express Package options in the BOOK REVIEW OPTIONS section above.
When a book is submitted to us for review or our contest, all our reviewers/judges will be able to see the book details you provided to help them choose your book, but they must select your book for review/judging before they will have access to your book file. Once your book is selected it is removed from the list and the only people who have access to it from that point on are the reviewer/judge and select admin staff. Once the book file is no longer needed it is deleted from our system.
We have done hundreds of thousands of reviews since we launched in 2009 and are used by all the big publishers and have never had an issue with piracy. All our reviewers are vetted and provide a government-issued ID so we can verify their identity and so we can cooperate with law enforcement should there ever be an issue with an author's book. We also have a litany of systems in place to track and monitor our books to ensure their security.
Generally, authors have nothing to fear when submitting their books to reputable review companies because their books are not of interest to pirates yet. Pirates do not need to work for a review company to steal book files. They can buy the Kindle version of the bestselling book on Amazon and use common DRM cracking software to copy it in 10 minutes or they could simply buy the paperback version and use a standard OCR scanner to scan each page and have a PDF in about an hour.
Using these methods, they can steal and sell James Patterson's new book or all the Harry Potter books, the choices are unlimited. With review companies, almost all the books are unknown or not even publish-ready yet. And it's not about quality, they don’t care how good your book is, they just want something they can sell, which means books that are at the top of Amazon’s sales lists because those are books people are currently talking about and searching for.
However, if you would feel better securing your book file a bit, there are a couple of things you can do: you can add a watermark to your pages, just please be sure it is light enough not to interfere with the reader’s ability to clearly see the text. You can also password protect your PDF, just be sure to provide us with the password in our Book Description box when you submit it to us so the reader can access it.
