Welcome everyone, today we have another post in our #NewBloggers 101 series, and this time, we’ve got the lovely Shruti @ This Is Lit again! She is taking the steering wheel and writing a full guest post about how to write a proper review policy. But be warned, I (Evelina) shall poke my head in once or twice to check on you all! *chuckles*

If you want to find all the other posts in the #NewBloggers series, expand this list:

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Shruti: So you have a book blog now and would like to start receiving all those advance copies you read about before starting your blog. You open your mailbox, imagining a gazillion emails from authors and publishers, but all you hear are loud cricket noises. Where are the promised review requests? Why is no one contacting you?

You, my friend, are in sore need of a review policy.

A review policy tells publishers and authors what kind of books you read. You need to make it easy for them by both telling them what you’ll read and how to contact you.

*Evelina pokes head in*
Shruti is so right! I made the mistake of not having ANY review policy for, well, my first whole year of blogging. (gasp!) I did receive requests. However, they were in precisely all the genres I don’t read. This is another reason why you need a review policy.

So let’s see what you need to do…

Review policy checklist

Shruti: Here’s all the things your review policy should include:

1. Accepted formats (print/e-copies/audiobooks).
2. Country of living (especially if you’re not a US resident and are accepting print copies).
3. Time you’ll take to finish the book.
4. Sites you’ll review the book on.
5. Genres you like reading.
6. Genres you just will not read.
7. Email address where you can be reached.

*Evelina pokes head in*
Wow. So remember how I told you about that time when I had no review policy for a year? It seems I STILL have work to do.

Shruti: Haha, actually, I don’t think you do, except for your country of residence, maybe. You have your preferred genres up and details about your blogging communities. That shows publishers that you’re pretty great at this book blogging thing.

Similarly, readers, just write about yourself. You don’t necessarily need to have everything on the checklist. Choose the ones that would work best for you and go for it!

Get inspired by these bloggers’ review policies!

• Perpetual Page Turner: This site has a detailed review policy and includes information from preferred genres right down to what happens if the blogger doesn’t like the book. Don’t like lists? Follow this blogger’s style and put down everything you want in your review policy.
• Katie’s book blog: I like this one because it’s no-nonsense. I love no-nonsense.

This isn’t one size fits all, though. Your review policy is about YOUR reading habits. Identify the points you want authors and publishers to be aware of while contacting you and put them down in your review policy. For example, I can be brutally honest in my review, which is why I’ve included this line: “My review will be entirely honest. If it is a bad review, please note that I’m reviewing the book and not the author”.

Similarly, do you want the publisher contacting you to know something? Do you have a different rating system in place? Do you accept only indie books for review? Do you write funny limericks to summarize books in their review? Put it all down!

And finally, if you’re up to your eyeballs in books and don’t want to accept ARCs for a while, update your review policy. It’s also good if you mention a tentative date till when you will not be accepting review requests.

That’s all! You’re all set now to receive the right review requests. Go out there and read more ARCs, you, reviewer, you! xD

You can find Shruti blogging away her days on her blog here:

This Is Lit

Thank you for guest posting, Shruti! Now it seems I need to run off to fix my own review policy. Is yours more or less like this? Or do you have something to add?