Reviewers Rules & Guidelines
Reviewers who wish to use Booksprout to gain access to review copies should adhere to the following guidelines. We may take action against any account found to be in violation of these rules.
Don't use the same generic review multiple times
Using the same review over and over for multiple books appears spammy and can harm an author's reputation. Do not write the same review for multiple books.
Attempt to read and review every book you download
We understand that you might not want to leave a review for certain books. It's possible that the book just didn't resonate with you and instead of leaving a bad review, you would rather just not leave a review. That's totally fine. In those cases, you can withdraw your review promise and give feedback to the author. Your reason for withdrawing can be just as valuable to an author as an actual review.
However, if it's clear that you're downloading more books than you can handle then we may prevent you from getting any more.
Don't share your review copy
It's an author's worst nightmare to find their book in circulation without their consent. Any review copy you download should be considered an exclusive copy for your eyes only.
Do your best to review on time
Reviews on launch day are incredibly important to authors in terms of them getting better promotional opportunities to properly take advantage of the initial boost a book gets in the short time after it's first published. A review that appears a month later isn't nearly as helpful. If you have too many overdue reviews, we may limit the number of new review copies you can claim. Simply finish the overdue reviews to get access to more books.
Review based on the story you receive, not how it's formatted
Remember: Booksprout is all about advanced review copies. These are often formatted by the author that wrote them, so they may not contain the same formatting as you would expect from a copy you get from Amazon or another retailer.
Write your review based on the story you receive, not whether or not it has the formatting you've come to expect.
Don't threaten anyone
If you're found to be threatening authors for any reason, your account will be blocked immediately.
Don't ask for the author to send you a copy outside of Booksprout
Booksprout has protections in place for both authors and readers. Asking authors to go outside of the system is usually an indicator of bad intentions.
Only claim review copies that you can complete your review for
When making their books available for free to you as a reviewer, authors are asking that you write your review on stores that are important to them. Please make sure that you can actually write a review on all stores that they mark as required.
Repeatedly asking authors to mark your review as complete because you cannot review on stores they ask for is not allowed.
Don't lie about having completed your review on any store
Lying about having completed your review on a specific store is not allowed. If you have accidentally taken a review copy that requires a review on a store you cannot review on, then please withdraw your promise to review that book.
Have only one Booksprout account per person
You may only have one Booksprout account. Multiple accounts for the same person will be removed from our system.