Want to be a book reviewer?
Review new books and start building your portfolio.
Finding your first book review can be a daunting task — there aren’t many readers willing to take a gamble on a book with a barren online listing. Fortunately, finding those all-important initial reviews to get your book off the ground is easier than ever. But with so many options available, it can be difficult to know which service you should select.
In this post, we round up the best book review sites for authors, from paid editorial critiques to ARC platforms and reader communities.
If you want professional editorial credibility without breaking the bank, Reedsy Discovery is the standout choice. Its flat $299 fee undercuts every other editorial service on this list. Your review is guaranteed within four weeks, and you can request up to five reviews while paying only for the ones delivered. Kirkus Indie comes at a much steeper price point, but it may be worth the splurge for the chance at a Kirkus Star, the publication's mark of exceptional merit.
For authors who want an affordable, low-commitment way to gather reader reviews, we recommend BookSirens. Its pay-as-you-go pricing starts at just $10 plus $2 per download. You can cap reader numbers to keep your spend in check, and roughly 75% of readers who download a book go on to review it.
Let's take a closer look at each, starting with paid editorial reviews from experienced professionals.
An editorial review is a professional critique written by an experienced reviewer rather than an everyday reader. If you're after industry credibility and quotable marketing material, consider investing in a professional review from one of these top editorial review services.
💸 Cost: $299
📄 Review word count: 350+ words
⏳ Turnaround time: 30 days
📋 Submission requirements: Completed book or ARC
Reedsy Discovery has been pairing indie authors with readers since 2019. Following a complete overhaul in 2026, it's now one of the strongest options for self-published authors seeking a professional-grade editorial review.
Reviewers need at least three years of book reviewing experience and a portfolio of high-quality work to qualify for Reedsy Discovery. Many of Discovery’s reviewers have previously been featured in publications like the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, so you can rest assured that your submission is in capable hands. Each review is written to deliver a thoughtful analysis of your book's strengths and provide quotable excerpts you can use in your marketing materials.
You can commission up to five reviews per book, but you only pay for the ones you actually receive — there’s no charge if a reviewer never selects your title. Reviews are guaranteed within one month of a reviewer picking up your book. From there, you can publish your review on Discovery and use it across your marketing, or keep it private if it isn't what you'd hoped for. Top-performing titles are featured in the Discovery newsletter, which reaches hundreds of thousands of readers each week, and become eligible for the annual Editors' Choice Award.
💸 Cost: $399 to $599
📄 Review word count: 250–500 words, depending on review type
⏳ Turnaround time: 7–9 weeks (4–6 weeks expedited)
📋 Submission requirements: Completed book
Kirkus Reviews has been providing traditionally published authors with high-quality reviews for nearly a century now. Their sister service, Kirkus Indie, opens up that same review process to self-published authors.
Of course, that prestige comes with a price. Kirkus Indie Reviews come in three tiers. A Picture Book review costs $399, a 250-word Traditional Review $450, and a 500-word Expanded Review $599 — all of which are significantly steeper than Reedsy Discovery, which charges a flat $299 for a 350-word review. Even if you pay for an expedited service, it will take 4–6 weeks for your review to arrive, which is slower on average than Discovery's four-week guarantee.
Exceptional works may earn a coveted Kirkus Star, and the best of the best will be eligible for the prestigious Kirkus Prize, though the odds of either are slim for indie titles.
💸 Cost: $399 ($499 for books over 100,000 words; $150 extra for expedited)
📄 Review word count: ~300-words
⏳ Turnaround time: 6 weeks (4 weeks expedited)
📋 Submission requirements: Completed book under 150,000 words
Most people in publishing have heard of Publishers Weekly, a long-running magazine devoted to the goings-on of the book world. But you may not be familiar with their indie review service, BookLife Reviews, which gives self-published authors access to the same professional reviewers who write for the magazine.
Each review is packaged with comp titles, a one-sentence takeaway summarizing the book’s best attributes, and letter grades on production elements like cover art, editing, and design that you can use to help market your finished product.
A standard ~300-word review costs $399 (or $499 for books over 100,000 words), with an expedited service available for an extra $150. Reviews are private by default — it’s up to the individual author to choose whether or not to make them public. Outstanding titles are granted an Editor's Pick badge, and for an extra $100, you can have your BookLife review reprinted in Publishers Weekly magazine itself.
There's also a separate, more competitive route into PW. For an additional $25, you can submit your book for consideration in PW's editorial review program, the same selection process that traditionally published books go through. Only a small percentage of submissions are selected each month, but if you're one of the lucky few, your book will be reviewed alongside traditionally published titles in a future issue.
💸 Cost: $549
📄 Review word count: ~400 words
⏳ Turnaround time: 4–6 weeks
📋 Submission requirements: Completed book with an ISBN
Foreword is another well-known magazine in the publishing space, read widely by the librarians and booksellers who decide what to stock. Clarion is its paid review division, which is designed to give indie authors access to the same trade audience that traditionally published authors enjoy.
At $549, a Clarion Review is one of the pricier options on this list. Each book is assigned a genre specialist from a team of over 100 reviewers, who spend up to a month reading it. The resulting ~400-word critique comes with a star rating and a headline quote that you can lift straight onto your cover. If you decide to make your review public, it will be posted on the Foreword website and distributed through industry partners like Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and Cengage, putting it directly in front of booksellers and librarians across the US.
But this trade focus comes with a trade-off. Because Clarion is designed for librarians and booksellers, there's no community platform (à la Reedsy Discovery) for book lovers to browse and stumble across your work. While a Clarion review may help get your book onto shelves, many libraries and bookshops are slow to stock indie titles. And even if you do land a spot, the review itself won't directly connect you with new readers.
An advance reader copy (ARC) or review-generation platform distributes free advance copies of your book to a pool of readers, who then post their own reviews on retail and community sites like Amazon and Goodreads. Having a healthy stack of reviews leading up to launch day will both reassure would-be readers that your book is worth their time, and give it a much-welcomed boost in retailer algorithms.
💸 Cost: Varies, but cheaper through a third party
📄 Review word count: Variable (reader-written)
⏳ Promotion length: Up to 6 months
📋 Submission requirements: Completed book or ARC
Librarians, booksellers, and educators from all over the world flock to NetGalley to discover new and upcoming books. If you want to drum up reviews from an audience of experienced readers before your book drops, NetGalley is hard to beat. But getting your book listed isn’t nearly as straightforward as it is for the other options on this list.
There's no fixed public price for a NetGalley listing — quotes will vary based on how long you list your book for. Going direct doesn't come cheap, however, so most indie authors opt for a co-op instead. Under this arrangement, an organization holds one publisher account and rents out spots in it to individual authors. Rather than forking out for your own account, you pay a smaller fee to list your book through theirs. The IBPA, for example, charges members $299 for a three-month listing or $499 for six, on top of a $139 annual membership.
Reviews also aren't guaranteed. Whether your work gets picked up comes down to the members, who choose which titles to request. In turn, you can review each requester's profile and approve only those who suit your book. The reviews you receive are often cross-posted to Amazon, Goodreads, and members' own blogs and channels, which can give your book a serious leg up when launch day comes around.
💸 Cost: $10 setup + $2 per reader, or $100/year for unlimited ARCs
📄 Review word count: Variable (reader-written)
⏳ Promotion length: 3-month promotion per book
📋 Submission requirements: Completed book or ARC
Where NetGalley will get you reviews from seasoned readers for a premium, BookSirens nets you reviews from everyday readers for a fraction of the price. Books are matched with readers by genre, who download your ARC for free and are encouraged to leave an honest review on Amazon, Goodreads, or both. The catch is that those reviews tend to run short — you’re more likely to get a line or two of feedback than an in-depth critique.
The pay-as-you-go option costs $10 if your book is accepted, plus $2 for every reader who downloads it, and you can cap the number of readers to keep within budget. If you publish often, the $100 yearly Author plan covers unlimited ARCs across up to two pen names. Either way, each book is promoted to the community for three months.
As with any ARC platform, good reviews aren't guaranteed. But BookSirens reports that roughly 75% of readers who download a book go on to review it, with an average rating of 4.1 stars across all titles.
💸 Cost: $20 deposit (covers your first 10 readers), then $3 per extra reader, up to a $400 max
📄 Review word count: Variable (reader-written)
⏳ Turnaround time: Scheduled around your release date — most reviews land within a week or two
📋 Submission requirements: Completed book or ARC
Hidden Gems works similarly to BookSirens, with two major differences. First, it allows you to gather reviews on seven sites, rather than just two — Amazon, Goodreads, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google Play, and Bookbub.
Second, instead of a rolling promotion, Hidden Gems has you reserve a date ahead of time — typically a week or two before your book’s release. When the big day comes around, your ARCs ship to all your readers at once, resulting in a burst of reviews right as you go on sale. Popular genres like romance will be booked up well in advance, so the sooner you claim a slot, the better.
However, that precision comes at the cost of flexibility. While BookSirens trickles copies out over three months, Hidden Gems locks you to a firm deadline. So if your timeline is still up in the air, think twice about committing to a Hidden Gems booking.
And finally, one bonus to round things off: a reader review community, where readers log, rate, and discuss the books they read. Unlike the paid options we've discussed so far, you can't commission reviews here; rather, it's where the reviews you earn elsewhere accumulate.
If you spend any amount of time engaging with online reading communities, you’ll doubtless be familiar with Goodreads, the premier site for book lovers to rate and review their most recent reads. While you may not be able to control your page directly, you can use Goodreads to help shape your online presence. A free Goodreads Author profile lets you claim your titles, add a bio, and link to your website, giving you a place for readers to find and follow you.
You can also take advantage of Goodreads Giveaways, which are paid promotions that put free copies of your book up for grabs. A Standard package will set you back $119, or $599 for Premium, which spotlights your listing on the main Giveaways page for extra exposure. Everyone who enters has to add your book to their Want-to-Read list, and Goodreads later prompts the winners to leave a review. There are no guarantees with these giveaways though, so temper your expectations.
We should note here that Goodreads users are not known for leaving well-thought-out, structured commentary on the books they review — one-star, single-sentence reviews come with the territory. Treat your Goodreads page as more of a public record of how readers are responding, rather than a channel you can steer.
There's no rule that says you need to stick to just one review service. Most successful indie launches combine an editorial review for marketing with an ARC platform for volume, then let Goodreads catch the rest. Good luck!
Want to be a book reviewer?
Review new books and start building your portfolio.