Open Shelf FAQs

An Open Shelf Review is a professional, independent editorial assessment of your book written by an experienced reviewer with relevant knowledge in librarianship, education, publishing, or a specific subject area.

Our reviewers provide evaluations based on factors such as content, writing, audience, presentation, and market readiness. Every review reflects their honest editorial judgment.

Open Shelf Reviews was created to make professional book reviews available to more authors and publishers. With so many worthy books being published every year, we believe more voices deserve the opportunity to be professionally reviewed and discovered.

Your review isn't simply feedback from a reader. It is a professional editorial assessment that can help you understand how your book may be received by its intended audience and, if you choose to publish it, give readers, booksellers, librarians, educators, and other publishing professionals an independent perspective on your work.

A professional review provides something an author can't provide for themselves: an independent assessment of the book from someone who has no stake in its success.

For readers, librarians, educators, booksellers, and publishing professionals, reviews can help answer an important question: Is this a book worth discovering?

For authors and publishers, a professional review can provide:

• Independent third-party validation
• A professional assessment of the book's strengths and opportunities
• Insight into how the book may be received by its intended audience
• Reader & Market Readiness Ratings
• A potential discovery point for readers and publishing professionals
• Credible material to support marketing, publicity, and outreach

Open Shelf Reviews exists because we believe professional reviews should be available to more authors and publishers, helping more books get discovered.

Open Shelf Reviews brings together the experience of a professional book-review team with a network of reviewers who understand books, readers, libraries, education, and publishing.

Open Shelf Reviews is part of the Media Source family of brands, which includes Library Journal, School Library Journal, The Horn Book, AKJ Education and Junior Library Guild, organizations with decades of experience helping professionals discover and evaluate books.

Our reviewers are experienced professionals, and books are matched to reviewers based on factors such as genre, subject, audience, reading level, and area of expertise. We believe that the value of a review comes from its editorial independence. You are paying for a professional evaluation, not for praise.

Not all book reviews serve the same purpose. Open Shelf Reviews is a professional editorial review publication, rather than a consumer-review platform or a service designed to guarantee positive feedback.

When you submit a book to Open Shelf Reviews:

• Your book is read and evaluated by a vetted professional reviewer.
• Your reviewer is selected by our editorial team based on relevant expertise.
• The review is independent and may be positive, mixed, or critical.
• Your review includes Reader & Market Readiness Ratings.
• You have the opportunity to publish the completed review on Open Shelf Reviews.
• A published review becomes part of a professional book-review resource where it can be discovered over time.

The value of a professional review comes from its independence and honest assessment.

Your book is assigned to a vetted professional reviewer selected by our editorial team. We consider factors such as:

• Genre
• Subject matter
• Intended audience
• Reading level
• Professional experience
• Areas of expertise

Our Editorial Board includes experienced professionals from librarianship, education, publishing, and related fields. Reviewer selection is entirely at our discretion. Authors cannot request a specific reviewer or set requirements related to a reviewer's background.

Open Shelf Reviews welcomes submissions from self-published authors, independent authors, small presses, and publishers, as well as traditionally published books that fall within our eligibility guidelines.

Books should be complete, publication-ready works. We review a range of genres and audiences, subject to our current submission guidelines.

If you're unsure whether your book is eligible, contact our support team before submitting.

If your book was published within the last 24 to 36 months, you are welcome to submit a digital galley. If your book was published earlier than that, contact us at info@openshelfreviews.com. We can consider older titles on a case-by-case basis.

Yes. We currently accept Spanish-language books as well as bilingual English/Spanish titles.

As our reviewer network grows, we expect to expand the languages we are able to accommodate.

We accept PDF and Word documents. Please submit the finished, sales-ready version of your book. We do not review audiobooks. Your digital galley should represent the book as you intend readers to experience it. If your book contains illustrations, the artwork should be complete.

Once submitted, we are not able to accept interim revisions to your file, so please make sure your submission is as polished and complete as possible before you send it.

If you have questions about eligibility, your digital galley, or the submission process, email us at support@openshelfreviews.com. We're happy to help.

We securely process credit card payments through Stripe. Online payment allows us to move your submission efficiently into our review workflow.

Yes, if you choose to publish your review, you may use permitted excerpts for marketing and promotional purposes in accordance with the Author Agreement and our Excerpt Policy. Any excerpt must accurately represent the review and may not be edited, altered, paraphrased, or presented in a way that materially changes its meaning, tone, context, or overall impression.

Whenever you quote or reference the review, the excerpt must be attributed to Open Shelf Reviews as the source. This credit can appear in any font; it does not need to be italicized.

If you decline publication of your review, you may not quote, reproduce, distribute, summarize, excerpt, reference, or otherwise use the review, or refer to Open Shelf Reviews or its review services in connection with the review or your book.

Please consult the Author Agreement and Excerpt Policy for complete details.

The choice is yours. If you decide not to publish your review, it will remain private, subject to the terms of the Author Agreement. You can use the review as private professional feedback to better understand your book's strengths, opportunities, audience, and market readiness, but you may not use it publicly.

See the Author Agreement for details on your options after the initial decision period.