Open Shelf FAQs

Open Shelf Reviews is the newest publication from the cornerstones of professional book reviews and book selection tools on which educators, librarians, and booksellers have depended for decades.

Library Journal is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2026, School Library Journal just turned 75, The Horn Book turned 100 in 2024, and Junior Library Guild, which began as the Junior Literary Guild, was launched in 1929.

Indie authors, smaller titles, niche books, passion projects, and other authors and books live outside the famous walls of traditional publishing, which our family publications cover.

But there are so many books! Open Shelf Reviews opens the gates for small presses, self-published authors, overlooked mainstream titles, and other works deserving of notice.

As a new author, or as one who hasn't gained a following for early works, you'll find in Open Shelf Reviews a book-loving, book-reading, professional network of reviewers — writers, librarians, and educators you already trust, in a publication that wants to help put authors on the map.

If your book was published in the last 24 months, you are welcome to submit a digital galley of your book to us. Start the submission process here.

Get support with submissions by emailing support@openshelfreviews.com.

Please make sure that you are using the email address and password associated with your Open Shelf Reviews account. If you forgot your password, you can retrieve it through the "Forgot Password" link.

If you have not received your review up to 6 weeks from your submission date (4 weeks, expedited), email info@openshelfreviews.com and briefly explain your experience.

If you receive a negative review, you have two weeks to let us know whether you'd like it published or not. We retain the review for our records, and you may change your mind for up to a year to publish it, but after that, the decision is final.

OSR reviewers are experienced professionals who honestly and impartially evaluate the books they receive. The resulting reviews can be positive — even earning an OSR Star, one of the industry's most revered designations — negative, or anywhere in between. What we do guarantee is a fair, unbiased assessment of your work and its potential in the marketplace. No matter the outcome, you will have the option of keeping the review private and simply using the assessment as feedback to improve your craft. Otherwise, you can publish the review and use it to market your book to consumers or to catch the attention of a literary agent or publisher.

Our editorial board is at 75 members and growing. One of them will be selected and matched to your book, based on many factors, including subjects, genres, and expertise.

We calculate our due dates based on the date we receive your submission. If you order standard service, the review will be returned up to 6 weeks from the date you submit. There is an expedited option, 4 weeks, expedited. You will have two weeks to examine the review and tell us whether to publish it. If we don't get written confirmation via email from you to not publish it, we will go ahead and post it online.

We review Spanish books at this time.

We will accept PDF and Word documents with any formatting.

• 12-point type, in a familiar font (e.g., Times New Roman, Arial)
• One-inch margins, with 1.5 spacing or double-spacing
• Page numbers, please

We accept sales-ready electronic copies of your book. It should be as polished as you can make it, and if there are illustrations, they must be completed art. Our reviewers will treat any title they receive as a finished work.

This site is secure for credit card payments. We prefer to process orders online to support an efficient workflow process. We also accept PayPal.

The Author Agreement expressly forbids certain uses, so let's repost it here:

Excerpt Policy. Any use of an excerpt from the Review must not add to, edit, alter, revise, paraphrase, distort, or otherwise modify the Review or any excerpt in a manner that materially changes its meaning, tone, context, or overall impression. Any excerpt must be accurate, non-misleading, and presented in a manner that fairly reflects the Review as a whole.

If you decline to have your review published on Open Shelf Reviews, online or in any medium including social media and in print, you may not quote, reproduce, post, distribute, summarize, excerpt, reference, or otherwise use the Review, and you may not refer to Open Shelf Reviews or its review services in connection with the Review or your book.