General Questions
Questions About Registering on Novel Reviewers
Questions About Requesting Review Copies of Books
Questions About Downloading Book Files
Questions About Leaving Reviews
Questions About Managing Reviews for Review Blogs
Novel Reviewers is a matchmaking service for small press and indie authors to connect with reviewers who enjoy reading and reviewing books. It’s ALWAYS free for reviewers to join Novel Reviewers and request books.
As a reviewer on Novel Reviewers, we ask two things of you: you've got to love reading books, and you've got to love talking about books. Emphasis on the second part. In order to get the most out of Novel Reviewers, you’ve got to be a passionate member of the review community.
Once you become a reviewer with us, you'll be able to request any book in our collection at no cost to you. Authors get the final say over who they approve to receive copies of their books, but if you completely fill out your profile and you request books that are you’re genuinely interested in reading, then you shouldn’t have any problem getting approved for books.
The only "catch" is that we ask that you read AND review the book. Publishers and authors really love getting reviews, for a variety of reasons. And since you love reading books (remember?), it's a win-win.
So: request books, read them, review them, repeat. Easy, fun, and simple.
We work hard to try and help you find the books you really want to read. I mean, what's a "romance novel?" What's a "science fiction space opera?" These are broad labels to put on a book, but you'll find a deeper, richer classification system here than you're used to. Find the books you want to read not just by their genre, but by the types of characters they contain, the literary tropes in the work, and more.
You'll notice during registration that we'll ask you to give us some information about the things you like to read. We'll use this information along with information from the reviews you leave to suggest books that we think you'll love.
In addition to fine-tuning your book search, we make it easy to collect and track the books you've got available for review. Just log in to your Reviewer Dashboard and you'll have an easy-to-access list of all of your current books available for download, books awaiting your review, private messages from authors and other reviewers, and more.
TL;DR: We make it easy to find the books you'll love, and we put them all in one place. Also, we try to suggest more things we think you'll love and we give you an easy dashboard to keep track of your TBR stack and which books still need reviews.
All of the books available on Novel Reviewers can be found on the on the Explore Books page. You can search books by title, author, publisher, genre, character type, literary trope, setting, and more. We try to make it as easy as possible to both browse through our available library and quickly narrow down to exactly the books you want to read.
However, you cannot request a book for review unless you have a reviewer account and are logged into the website.
Nope. Just put your wallet away. No in-app purchases or anything fancy here. The only "catch" is that you're expected to review the books that you request. If you consistently read books but don't review them, you probably won't get your future requests approved.
Even if you didn't / couldn't / wouldn't finish a book, our publishers and authors still want to know your thoughts on why. You can mark your review as "Did Not Finish" and tell us what was on your mind up to the point you put down the book. That way your "placement ratio" (the ratio of requests you make to the number of reviews you leave) doesn't suffer, and you'll still be likely to receive approval for future book requests.
Just register using this link!
If you would like to request books for review at Novel Reviewers, then you need to create an account. We require our reviewers to fill out - at minimum - their bio, a link to where they like to leave their reviews (such as Goodreads, retail sites and/or their blog) and a few reading preferences from our qualifiers list.
Our reviewers with the highest approval ratios typically have a completely filled out profile - with a profile photo - and a placement ratio that shows they are reviewing the books they are requesting.
A reviewer's "placement ratio" is the number of books they've been approved to review versus the number they've actually approved. A 100% ratio means you have reviewed every title you've ever been approved to read, and that you currently have no approved requests still awaiting their review. This value is calibrated when you reviewer submits your first review. Until then, it's marked 'NYC' (Not Yet Calibrated). Remember, reviewers often have a few books in their to-be-read pile. A low ratio doesn't necessarily indicate a "bad reviewer." This is especially true for newer readers submitting their first reviews since this ratio is quite volatile at first. For example, a new reader approved for five titles would have a ratio of only 20% after their first review. Just three more reviews would bring that up to a solid 80%! Keep your placement ratio in mind when requesting books - spamming requests may lower your ratio and ultimately result in fewer approvals.
We're prepared for piracy. As a registered reviewer, you won't have carte blanche to download any and all books in our collection the moment you sign up. You'll be able to request permission to download and review any book you like, and the publisher or author will be able to approve or decline your request.
When your request is approved, that means YOU have been given permission to review that book. Tell your friends, brag about it on Facebook, Tweet #NovelReviewers - we love that stuff. But you absolutely cannot distribute the files from this site to anyone else. You'll be banned from NovelReviewers.com immediately, and will face legal action under the DMCA ("Digital Millennium Copyright Act").
Think of it like this: you're a ship captain, and a pirate ship approaches. You shoot and disable the ship. What do you say to your crew?
1. "Let's go pick up the survivors," or
2. "Keep shooting - there might be survivors."
We'd say #2, and so would our lawyers.
In short, no.
Amazon is suing reviewers who sold 5-star reviews to authors and product sellers in exchange for set fees. The reviewers in question likely never saw the book or item they “reviewed” and their fake reviews hurt Amazon purchasers.
At Novel Reviewers, readers are provided copies of book titles at no cost in exchange for their HONEST reviews. If you read a book and absolutely love it, tell everyone why in your review. Share your thoughts on the plot, characters and story elements that really impressed you.
If you did not enjoy reading a book - and it’s bound to happen - then you should be honest about that, too. However, instead of leaving a review that just says “I did not like this book,” tell us why. Did the characters seem unbelievable? Perhaps the setting was too far fetched or the story line was full of plot holes.
The bottom line: whether you love a book or hate a book, we want you to be honest in your review.
As a registered reviewer, you'll be able to search for books through your dashboard. You can be as general or as specific as you like, and we offer a number of different ways to search. We think our system is pretty great at helping you find exactly what you're looking for.
As you use the site and leave reviews, we learn more about what you like and don't like. Using this information, we'll suggest books to you that you might like to try. Check the Suggested Books section of your dashboard at any time for books we think you'll love. The more you read and review, the more accurate our suggestions will become!
Once you've found a book you want to request, simply hit the "Request This Book!" button on that book's page. The button will then be replaced with a status message. Until you've been approved to review the book, your request will be "pending." You'll be notified via email and on your dashboard when your request is approved and you're clear to download the book!
When you register a new account, you will be able to request up to 10 books. After you have requested 10 titles, your ability to request more titles will be locked until you review at least 2 of the titles you are approved for.
We'll send you a notification that your request has been approved. Then, you can visit your Reading Shelf and manage all of the books you're currently approved to download and review. Visit the page for the book you've been approved to review, and choose how you'd like to read it! You can download the book in any format the publisher has made available, or (if you've entered your @kindle.com email address) use the Send To Kindle button to deliver the book to your mobile reading device. Be sure to add "kindle@novelreviewers.com" to your "Approved Sender List" in your Kindle Personal Documents List.
The pending request will simply disappear from your Reading Shelf, and you will not be able to read or review the book through Novel Reviewers.
Requests usually get denied when reviewers have a poor "placement ratio" (the have been approved for more books than they have left reviews on) or haven't put much effort into filling out their profile.
Remember, authors and publishers don't just want to give away free books. They're looking for your honest, thoughtful feedback once you're done reading and for you to leave that honest feedback on other spots where readers find new books.
Filling out your profile, consistently reviewing the books you're approved to read AND leaving your review on outside websites like Goodreads and retail site will help our authors know you're serious about being a reviewer, and that'll mean more approvals for you.
Although we love the look of a full library, Novel Reviewers is only setup for eBook distribution. Occasionally, we do host paperback giveaways of books available for digital review on Novel Reviewers. If you want to keep up with those giveaways, be sure to follow us on social media.
Yep! If an author wants to, they've got the ability to invite you to review one of their books. If you accept the invitation, you'll be able to download and review the book just as though you'd requested it.
If want to decline an invitation (maybe it's just not your kind of book), that's okay! Just don't delay in making your decision, whatever it is. A book listed today might not be listed tomorrow - that's up to the publisher.
Once a reviewer requests a book or an author sends an invitation for a reviewer to read a book, a timer starts behind the scenes. If the request or invitation is not responded to within a two week period, our system will automatically archive the request or invite.
Once this happens, the review can request the title again or the author can resend the invitation, but we tend to think that no response is sometimes a response in itself.
It means they think you're a rockstar!
More practically, it means that your requests for books by that author will always be automatically approved. No more waiting for approval!
The book you've been approved to review will appear in your Reading Shelf (a section on your Reviewer Dashboard) as a book awaiting your review. Visit that page and you'll see a list of all the books you're approved to download and review.
Next to the book cover and link to the book’s page, you will see a link to review the book, links for various ebook formats and, if you've set up Send To Kindle, you can click the Send To Kindle button to send it directly to your Kindle reading device or app.
You'll also be able to download any book marketing files that the author has made available.
On most mobile devices, simply clicking the button for a book's file and opening the file in its native application will accomplish everything you want to do. If that doesn't work, contact us with the specific device you're trying to get working and we'll help you out.
Our "Send to Kindle" button uses the Kindle Personal Document service to deliver content to your kindle. In order for it to work, you'll need to do two things:
All done! You will experience a few minutes of lag time between hitting the button and receiving the document on your device.
No. When you're granted permission to review a book, only YOU are granted permission to review that book. You may not share or otherwise distribute books from Novel Reviewers to any third party in any way. Tell the world that you got a book from Novel Reviewers, and what you think of it. We love that stuff and so do our authors. But don't share the books themselves.
If you want to get into the nitty-gritty, read the Terms and Conditions. If you want the short version: sharing book files is piracy, piracy is illegal, and we absolutely do not tolerate it.
Yes - this is the only "catch" with Novel Reviewers. Once you read a book, the author will expect you to leave an honest review on Novel Reviewers and on a few outside websites as well. If you consistently get approved to review books and don't review them, your "placement ratio" (a measure of how likely you are to review a book after downloading it) will drop. Authors don't like to see low placement ratios, and that means your future requests will be less likely to get approved.
Yeah, definitely! Authors LOVE it when you leave reviews on Amazon, tweet about their books (#NovelReviewers!), make Facebook posts about books, discuss it on Goodreads - the works. We encourage you to distribute your review far and wide.
In fact, you'll notice that once you submit a review you're given the opportunity to add links to outside sites where you've posted that review (like Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, etc.). Post your review on those sites and add the link here. Authors absolutely adore this - the more you distribute your reviews, the more benefit the author realizes and the more likely you’ll be approved for future requests.
Reviewers that do a great job of reviewing books and distributing their reviews are reviewers that get favorited by authors and get invited to review new books. It's a good thing!
Life happens. Or maybe the book just wasn't your cup of tea, and you know you're not making it to the end. That's okay - leave a review anyway. You'll have the option to mark your review as "Did Not Finish." Include in the review why you didn't finish, and give it an honest rating. This way your "placement ratio" won't suffer and our authors will still get the honest feedback they want.
If you DNF a book, it’s not necessary to leave that review on other websites.
We forget stuff, too. Our lead developer hasn't left the office in four months because he can't remember where he's put his keys.
Don't worry. We'll send you a reminder twenty, forty, and sixty days after you're approved to review a book if you haven't written your review for that book yet.
Authors who make an ARC available for review have the option of sending out a "Publication Notification" when their book is published. You'll get a notification that the book is available and a list of links where the book is posted - it'd be super cool if you put your review on those linked sites.
According to the FTC, yes - you at least need to disclose in your review that you've received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review.
For instance, you could say: "I received a review copy of this book at NovelReviewers.com in exchange for an honest review."
Check out your "Reading Shelf," which is a section on your reviewer dashboard. You'll see it in the left side of the page when when you log into your dashboard.
In your Reading Shelf, you'll notice a link to a page titled “Awaiting My Review.” There, you’ll be able to see all of the books you're currently approved to download, which books are awaiting your reviews and more.
No, you can't. Only the person approved for a book is allowed to download that book.
However, every member of your review team is invited to setup a free account with Novel Reviewers and request books for review on your website.
Just have them list your blog as a website they contribute reviews for in their profile, and then publishers will know they're a member of a review team.
Our team is happy to help make these materials available when possible. Typically, we encourage authors to add links to these materials in the "Publisher Notes" section of their book listing.
However, the provision of additional marketing materials is ultimately up to the author/publisher of a given book. We definitely encourage it, but we can't promise every publisher or author will provide these materials.
Is there anything else on your mind? We’d love to chat with you. Feel free to send us a request over on the contact page and we’ll connect with you!