Review Submission Guidelines
BookLife Offers Two Separate Ways for Indie Authors to Get Their Books Reviewed

Publishers Weekly Reviews Are Free, Not Guaranteed

BookLife Reviews Are Paid, Guaranteed

Use the Same Form to Submit for Both

Submit for Both At the Same Time or Independently

When you submit your book to Publishers Weekly for review consideration or purchase a BookLife Review, your book will be judged by the same professional standards that Publishers Weekly applies to traditionally published books. This means your book must be ready for a wide, general-interest readership that expects cleanly written, well-edited, and engaging books. 

This comparison of Publishers Weekly reviews and BookLife Reviews will help you decide whether to choose one or both. You use the same submission form for either or both.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

PW review consideration is FREE!

You do not have to pay anything to submit your book for review consideration. There is no cost associated with submitting your book, or any aspect of the reviewing process should your book be chosen for review.

A small percentage of books submitted will be reviewed

PW receives over a thousand books a month from self- and trade publishers; unfortunately, it’s not possible to cover them all.

BookLife Reviews

Your review is GUARANTEED!

Before You Submit Your Book

Make sure your book is ready

Both Publishers Weekly and BookLife Reviews treat self-published books as professional publications and hold them to professional standards. Before you submit your book, use BookLife’s free self-evaluations to help you make your book the best it can be. (These are for informational purposes only, and do not determine your review eligibility.) The best way to increase your odds of receiving a Publishers Weekly review, or of being reviewed positively, is to make sure your book is up to professional standards.

Make sure your book is eligible

For a book to be eligible for review consideration, it must be written in English and available, or about to be available, for purchase in the United States. Books submitted to BookLife Reviews can be up to 150,000 words long. There is no length limit for Publishers Weekly review consideration.

BookLife was built to assist individual authors and illustrators with submitting their self-published books for review consideration. If you are a publisher working with several authors, please use GalleyTracker instead. Note: You may not submit through both BookLife and GalleyTracker; if you do, your book will be removed from consideration.

Some other helpful tips

We recently published an article that contains some helpful tips you'll want to consider before submitting your book for review consideration.

How To Submit Your Book

Submitting your book for review is easy. Follow the instructions below, or watch this instrucitonal video.

If you're an author-publisher (you are self-publishing), simply follow these step-by-step instructions.

Much of the information we need will be automatically filled in using the project and account information you have already provided. You will have the option to review and change any field before you finish. We also encourage you to include a brief summary of your project as well as the promotional langugage you have on the jacket of the book.

Note: Publicists are welcome to create accounts for their clients, but all accounts must be under the author’s name.

If you're a publisher or publicist submitting books for multiple authors, please use Publishers Weekly's GalleyTracker platform. You can submit for both Publishers Weekly and BookLife Reviews using GalleyTracker, but if you're submitting for Publishers Weekly review consideration, be sure to read PW's review submission guidelines.

Both Publishers Weekly and BookLife Reviews accept digital review copies only. When you’re submitting your book digitally, simply upload your epub or pdf file, and our system will take care of the rest.

For authors submitting books in a series for review, register one title at a time (in series order). Each book will be considered and/or reviewed independently.

After Submitting Your Book

If you have purchased a BookLife Review, your review is guaranteed! You will receive an email when your review is ready—no later than six weeks after the purchase date, or four weeks if you purchase expedited service. By default, the review will only be visible to you. You will then have the option of making your review public, which will display it on your project page and release it for print publication in the next BookLife supplement of Publishers Weekly.

If you have submitted a book for Publishers Weekly consideration, you will receive emails as your book moves through the review process. This process can take 12 weeks or longer. Please do not contact BookLife with review status requests; we are unable to respond. And please remember: PW cannot review every book registered with BookLife. The PW reviews process is highly competitive for both self-published and traditionally published books, and a relatively small percentage of books submitted are reviewed. If your book is chosen, know that it truly stood out. Additionally, being selected for a review is no guarantee that a review will be published. There is a chance that unforeseen circumstances could result in the cancellation of a review.

If your book is declined for PW review, BookLife is unable to provide a personalized explanation of this decision. Please do not resubmit your book with a different ISBN or ASIN. If you do, your book will be removed from BookLife.

Questions?

Be sure to visit the frequently asked questions (FAQs) pages for BookLife Reviews and Publishers Weekly reviews.