Traditional Reviews

About 250-300 words, our reviews include summary to give our readers context, along with a concise, unbiased opinion that can be positive, negative, or, most likely, mixed. Each Kirkus review gives both a general sense of a book’s worth and specific information about its strengths and weaknesses. 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 try to catch the attention of a literary agent or publisher.

THE REVIEWING PROCESS FOR A TRADITIONAL REVIEW

1. Request review

Select the Traditional Review option. When you submit your order, you’ll get an email from the Kirkus Indie team confirming receipt of your request.

2. Submit manuscript

After you place your order, you will be directed to a page with simple instructions to send us your book or manuscript.

3. Stand by while we review your book

Upon receipt of your book or manuscript, our editor will assign your project to a qualified reviewer who will read the complete book and write a full review (approximately 250-350 words). Our reviewers include librarians, business executives, journalists from national publications, PhDs in religion and literature, creative executives in entertainment and publishing industries as well as other professional reviewers.

How we choose your reviewer: A Kirkus editor analyzes your book and considers its elements individually, including content, style, and voice. The editor matches your book with a reviewer who has significant experience with and appreciates your book’s genre and topics.

4. Download review

Kirkus Indie will email you a link to your author dashboard when your review is ready. Simply click the link and download your review directly from our site.

5. Keep your review private or publish it for free on KirkusReviews.com

We’ll email you with a link when your review is ready to download. After you read your review, you will have the option to publish it on KirkusReviews.com, where it may be discovered by industry influencers, agents, publishers, and consumers. Our editors will also consider your review for publication in Kirkus Reviews magazine, where we include an average of 80 Indie reviews per month. You may keep your review private by simply not publishing it on our site.