What is an editorial book review?
An editorial book review is a book review of a published or soon-to-be published book that authors & publishers use in their marketing material. They are also called blurbs, and they work a lot like testimonials.
These reviews often come from recognized sources like book review sites, other authors, and experts in the book’s field. You have probably seen these reviews as catchy quotes on book covers, social media graphics, and the book’s Amazon page.
Getting an editorial review from Independent Book Review:
IBR provides editorial book reviews of 400+ words within your preferred timeframe (5 weeks, 2 weeks, or 1 week). The reviews include summary, quotable praise, and, if applicable, criticism. The reviewer may not like everything your book does, but they always comment on what good they see in the book too. Out motto: “Always honest, never mean.” On or before the agreed-upon deadline, you will receive the review and be asked if you would like to publish the review on our website.
With this service, you also enter for the chance to be given a Starred Review, to be named as one of The Best Books We Read This Year, to be featured in a genre-specific book list, or to be featured as one of our Notable Indie New Releases.
NOTE: 1) The fee for this service depends on your book size & preferred deadline, but you can preview the fee by filling out the form below. 2) Some nonfiction books could be too niche for our team. You can either submit your book first and receive a refund if it applies, or you contact us beforehand.
Purchase your IBR editorial review here:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The form is telling me “something went wrong.” What do I do?
Email us with all of the requested book materials & service info at reviews@independentbookreview.com! It’s probably just a sizing issue. If you want a review, you’ll get one.
How do you use editorial book reviews to market your book?
In any number of ways! Here are a few examples:
- Add a catchy quote on your front or back book cover.
- Add a catchy quote to the “editorial reviews” section on your book’s Amazon page.
- Design or pay for graphics highlighting a quote from the review and use them on social media, websites, newsletters, and on a book’s Amazon page with Amazon A+ Content.
- Use them on bookmarks, posters, trailers, press releases, etc.
- Include a pull-quote in your pitches to bookstores, libraries, conferences, other reviewers, etc.
- Share the published review as an announcement on social media and your newsletter.
- And more!
Examples of how to use editorial book reviews to market your book:
How do you get a starred book review?
We don’t do 1-5 star ratings at IBR. Instead, we give starred reviews to the top 5-10% of books we read here. Starred reviews are featured at the top of our website, in our Bookshop, and are most often pushed on our social media accounts.
In order to get a starred review, you’ll want to write a book so good that our reviewer recommends it for a company star. After it’s recommended by the reviewer, it is sent out to a different team to determine whether it should get the final star or not.
Can IBR post the editorial book review on your Amazon page?
Nope, but you can! Paying for reviews in the “Customer Reviews” section on Amazon is against Amazon’s policy and runs the risk of our accounts and your account getting suspended or removed. Instead, you can add editorial reviews to your Amazon product page via Amazon Author Central. Here’s how.
Can I choose not to publish the review and still use quotes from it?
Yes! On or before the agreed-upon deadline, you’ll receive the review in your email inbox, and we’ll ask you if you’d like to publish the review. You’re free to deny it for whatever reason you see fit and still use the catchy pull-quotes we provided to market your book, whether it be with graphics, in your editorial reviews section on Amazon, or elsewhere.