How to submit for review - Reader Views and Reader Views Kids

Read Ten Criteria for Finding a Book Reviewer

Guidelines for submissions
Please read these guidelines completely before requesting a review.

Who are the reviewers?
Our reviewers are avid readers, who are volunteers, that give personal opinions of what they read. Please consider them as your reading audience. They will give their own honest and fair assessment of your work. Our reviewers are private, independent reviewers, and in no way affiliated with Reader Views other than providing reviews. The reviewers receive free books and are not paid to provide reviews. The reviewers accept your book for free and review it with no obligation to get renumerated. (Bios of team.)

Free reviews
We give free reviews but due to the overwhelming amount of submissions and high costs of processing we are limiting the number of free reviews we will give each week. There is no guarantee your book will be reviewed because the reviewers choose what books they want to read. For a guaranteed review we suggest one of our budget friendly Publicity Packages .

Books for a free review may be sent to: (Please include contact information - email address is a must. Also be sure to give us the BISAC/genre of the book. We do not require press releases, postcards, bookmarks, etc. If you don't include your email address and BISAC/genre the book will rejected and donated.)

Reader Views (or Reader Views Kids)
Review Request
3267 Bee Cave Rd., Suite 107-380
Austin, TX 78746-6700

What formats of publications do we accept?

  • We prefer publications be available on amazon.com along with cover image and description. We will accept items that are not on Amazon, however, we have a $10.00 fee for listing and linking to author website.
  • We do not accept pdf or other electronic versions of hard copy items unless the publication is an e-book only. We will only review electronic versions in a publicity package.
  • We will consider reviewing books, manuscripts, galleys, ARCs, eBooks, audio CDs and DVDs.
  • We review all genres but we do not accept graphic pornographic material, racist themes, or textbooks. We do review erotica and GLBT.
  • Due to the overwhelming submissions of adult publications we receive, title must have copyright date of 2011 or 2012, or have a future pub date in 2013 (for manuscripts and galleys.) If you are re-publishing with a current copyright date we will consider reviewing the title. Please indicate new publish date in the comments section of the submission form. We may consider earlier publications if a Publicity Package is purchased. For older books you may want to consider requesting a review on ReviewTheBook.com
  • We only review publications in the English language.

Reviews of manuscripts
If you have a manuscript you want reviewed and obtain an endorsement for the back of the book, we suggest you sign up for one of our Publicity Packages.

  • If your manuscript is accepted please be sure it is spiral bound or held together with fasteners. Please do not send a box of loose sheets to the reviewer.

Reviews of children's and teen's books
We are accepting children's and teen/young adults books (no eBooks) for free reviews and posting on Reader Views Kids. However, we do strongly suggest you consider a Publicity Package . We have a lot of books on our pending list to be reviewed and the kids are doing the best they can to review them. It may be quite some time before it gets picked out for review. The books will stay on the pending list for 90 days only. (For free reviews send to address above.)

  • We will consider all children's/teen's/young adult books, regardless of publication date. However, we do prefer to review more recent books. We make an effort to have kid's books reviewed by kids. Our kids website may be seen on Reader Views Kids.
  • We do not accept children's or teen's eBooks.

Reviews of eBooks

  • We will consider reviewing an eBook or other electronic version but as part of a Publicity Package only. If your eBook is accepted for review we will send you the e-mail address of the reviewer to which you will send in eBook format. (Sorry, our reviewers work on the computer all day and don't want to sit on a computer at night to read a book.)
  • We will only consider an eBook if there is no print copy in a Publicity Package. If there is a print copy, please refer to guidelines. Complete submission form.

Guarantee

  • There is no guarantee we will free review your title due to the overwhelming response and hight cost of producing a review.
  • We will guarantee a review if you purchase a Publicity Package . However, if you purchase a package, we will not guarantee a raving review. Our reviewers give their honest opinion of what they read and in no way is this to be considered a paid review. The fee covers the overhead to pay our staff in dealing with the review and this site.
  • If you submitted for a free or Publicity Package and we review the book, we have the option to post the review whether you agree with it or not.Asking for a review in itself gives us the permission to post the review. We ask our reviewers to give their honest opinion and we are obligated to value their opinion and pass it on to other readers.
  • The other option is to enter your book into our literary awards program. All books will receive a critique/review, however, we can't promise when this will happen. We will attempt to have the book reviewed/judged soon after we receive it. Keep in mind, the sooner you apply into the award program, the sooner we will be able to process it. Leaving it to the last minute (November/December) will delay your ciritque/review.

Other important stuff that's necessary to know

  • Do not contact the reviewers regarding referrals to publishers/agents or any other publishing or reviewing concerns. Doing so may void your review. If you have any questions please contact Reader Views.
  • We do not post the reviews on Amazon.com because we have been banned along with many other review sites, individual readers, and bloggers. We are in direct competition with their CreateSpace paid review service. More information here. Do not ask the reviewer to post the review under their personal account on Amazon.com. If they post the review they are also subject to be banned. Asking the reviewer to post the review will void it. You may post an excerpt under Editorial Reviews on Amazon.com. Instructions here.
  • All publications sent for review become the property of the reviewer from Reader Views. Your publication will not be returned. In most cases the reviewers keep the publication, especially if it is autographed to them, or donate it to a library or nonprofit organization.
  • Please do not contact us asking if we received your book. We highly recommend that you receive a tracking number from the service you use to send the book to us for a free review. This way you will know if and when your book is received. Also, you may check the pending list to see if your book was accepted. Please note it may take a week or two before it ends up on the list. If a reviewer picks your book to review, it will be moved to the coming soon list. If no one picks your book within 90 days it will be donated to a charity. To prevent this, we highly recommend to sign up for a Publicity Package.
  • If you requested a Publicity Package please do not ask us to contact your publisher or publicist to request the book for review. You are requesting a review from us and it is your responsibility to get the book to the reviewer in a timely manner. Your submission is subject to being cancelled if you ask us to request your book. We will also cancel the submission request if the book is not received by the reviewer (in the case of a Publicity Package) within two weeks of requesting it. Our reviewers are on a reviewing schedule and if your book misses the queue, it will not be reviewed.
  • If you requested a Publicity Package and sent in the submission form you will be contacted when your form is received. At that time we will respond to you with the name and address of the reviewer and you will be asked to send the publication directly to him or her.
  • If you requested a Publicity Package please send the book immediately upon receipt of name/address of the reviewer. Our reviewers on a timeline and a delay will cause them to lose the opportunity of other book to review.
  • Read tips on getting your title accepted for review and what to do after accepted. Listen to interview with Irene Watson about tips on getting reviews.

What do you get?

  • In the basic free package you will receive a review and a tear sheet will be provided in pdf format. You can use the review in whole or excerpts with credit given to the reviewer and Reader Views or Reader Views Kids. If you buy a Publicity Package you will receive the complete package as noted. For details see Review Services.

Items not listed on Amazon

  • There is a $10.00 advertising fee for each book, audio CD, or DVD that is not listed on Amazon. The fee covers linking to the author's storefront. You are not purchasing a review, nor does paying the fee guarantee a good review. If you have more than one book, or you have an eBook, please contact us for special provisions.
  • Payment must be made at the time the title is sent to the reviewer. Do not send it before. You only pay if your item will be reviewed. Payment may be made through PayPal or check/money order here.
  • Advertising fee will cover lifetime listing of the title on Reader Views or Reader Views Kids. The listing will only be removed when you ask to have it removed.
  • A link will be created from the review to storefront for the item.

How to submit for a review

Ready to ask for review? For a Publicity Package or an ebook review (if no print copy available) go to the submission form. Fill out the form and submit it. That starts the process.

If you are seeking a free review for an adult or kid's book/galley/manuscript, or ARC, please send your publication to:

Reader Views (or Reader Views Kids)
Review Request
3267 Bee Cave Rd., Suite 107-380
Austin, TX 78746-6700

Be sure to include your contact information, including an email address. The request must be in publication form (book, galley, ARC, CD, DVD.) If you just send us your publication and not include your contact information (including an email address,) it will automatically go into the "donate" pile.

Do not send us your sell sheets and/or press release suggesting we review your book. We will not respond. Do not send queries through email to obtain a review. We will not respond.

Also, please purchase a tracking number so you know we received your book. We do not have the staff or funds to search our records to see if we received your book for a free review.

What happens after you submit for a review

After we receive your submission form for a Publicity Package we will consider the title for review and let you know of our decision. If we accept your title for review and publicity you will be notified who to send your book to.  Be sure you sign up for review updates.  

If you are mailing your book for a free review, we will post it on the pending review page after we accept it. If it is chosen for review it will be moved to the coming soon. If it disappears from the pending page and isn't on the coming soon page, this will indicate that your book was not chosen for a review. After 90 days the books are removed from the list and donated to a local charity. For the kids reviews, see pending and coming soon lists.

What else do I need to know?

It's possible your book will qualify for the Annual Literary Awards. Check out the guidelines.

Interested but can't afford the publicity package right now? Please don't let budget challenges delay the publicity of your book. We are here to help you! We can easily come up with a payment plan. Contact us.

We get hundreds of books for review each month and we need to keep our system in place. These guidelines are to help us provide a service for you in an efficient manner. Please help us by following the guidelines.

You may want to consider posting your title on ReviewTheBook.com

Get started now

Thank you for getting to this point. We realize the guidelines are LONG and we apologize for that. We feel giving you the information upfront is of utmost importance.