As a reviewer, I tend to look at the books waiting for a free review the longest—those at the four-month mark. Because I target these books that have been passed over by other reviewers, I understand why they may not have been picked up. If you have submitted your book for review to any book review pool, such as those on Goodreads, and are wondering why no one has reviewed it, it is most likely because of one of these reasons.

The biggest reason is that there are never enough reviewers to handle all the submissions. Even at the four-month mark, I have found some pretty amazing books. I want to give each book time and consideration before writing my review. This means some great books will not get a free review because there will always be more writers looking for free book reviews than reviewers. 

However, there are many other reasons why your book might not have been chosen.

First, your book cover might not be compelling. I know not to judge a book by its cover. At the same time, if your book about cats has a green background and only words on the cover and it is next to a book with a beautiful, 600 dpi photo of a cat in a realistic background, readers and reviewers are naturally going to be drawn to the second one.

The next thing I see is a lot of extremely long books. Books that approach 400 pages or more are less likely to be chosen than books of 300 pages or less. Knowing your genre and what length of book is standard for it helps. Why? If I see a 480-page book next to two 230-page books, I know I can get two reviews finished at the same time I could review that one book.

Another big thing I see is that the author did not disclose sex scenes, graphic content, or offensive language. In this case, another reviewer probably picked up the book before the four-month mark, but that reviewer did not want to read a book with explicit content. Every time the wrong reviewer picks up your book because you did not disclose something graphic, there will be less time for the right reviewer to see it. 

You also may have written a book in a genre that has fewer reviewers watching it or you may be submitting a book in a genre that many authors prefer to write in. Your book may be amazing, but each reviewer has his/her preferences. This means there are some genres with fewer readers available to them. On the other hand, at this time, picture books, business books, and science fiction books are being submitted more regularly than other genres, but that can change. In either of these cases, there is nothing wrong with your book, it is just the luck of the draw. 

Finally, poor editing is another common thing I see. This could be something as simple as you forgot to proofread it or something more complex like the book needing a developmental edit or a reorganization of its chapters. In one case, a book I picked up but had to put back was missing pages 6-12 (I knew because the pages were numbered and the story skipped). In another case, the Amazon preview I read was an entirely different file than the one submitted for review--despite having the same title and author information on both. It is important to make sure your book is well-edited before submission and to make sure you are submitting the correct, complete files.