'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Wednesday 28 July 2021

Announcement: Unsolicited Review Submissions Month OPEN!

At KBR, we realise how tough it can be—in a flooded kids’ book market, not to mention the current global climate—to get noticed. 

We are a small team, there are only a set amount of days in the year, and we are already chronically flooded with review copies from major and independent publishers.

However, to give emerging creators and self-publishers a chance, we will be opening our review policy for ONE MONTH—to accept unsolicited review submissions from new, self-published or very small (Indie) publishers.

If you fall into this category and would like to have your book considered for review on the #1 kids’ book review site on the web, please read the following guidelines carefully. Email the following to dimity.

A short EMAIL introducing yourself, with a link to your website or other online presence. Please only provide ONE main link. There is no need to give background on you or your books, or any explanations.

A single attachment—one PRESS RELEASE (either PDF of Word doc—no other format accepted) for your book. If you are unfamiliar with press releases, you can google their format and content, but for our purposes, they should include the following:
  • A book cover image
  • Up to two internal pages/spreads
  • A short book synopsis
  • Book title
  • Book genre
  • Publisher
  • Publication date
  • ISBN
  • Retail price (in your country’s currency)
  • A short creator biography
  • Contact details
Ensure your attachment is no larger than 2MB. Zipped files cannot be accepted.

Please don’t send any other attachments or links to anything else, nor provide any extra, unrequested information.

All of the above must be contained in one single Word document or PDF, as an email attachment, not embedded in the body of the email. Remember, guidelines are an important part of this industry, and should be followed to the letter. Submissions that do not follow these guidelines cannot be considered.


What happens after submission?
If we are interested in your book, your press release will be emailed to the entire KBR review team. If someone on the team wishes to view the book, they will contact you directly for a review copy, and will provide their postal address. All reviewers currently reside in Australia.

Please note that we cannot accept anything but fully finished, published books. Galleys, proofs, mock-ups or electronic book versions are not eligible.

While over 99% of our requested books go to review, we reserve the right not to review any book, even those requested.

We regret we cannot acknowledge receipt of books and we cannot return books. 

We cannot advise if and when reviews will be posted. Reviews can take a week or three months or more to appear on the site. Do keep an eye on the site, and there is a search bar on KBR that allows you to search for titles.

Important
As we are expecting a large volume of submissions, we are unable to respond to emails. There will be no acknowledgment of receipt, and no follow-up. If you do not hear from us by the end of the first week of THE MONTH AFTER, you can assume your submission has not been successful this time. We regret we cannot respond to follow-up emails.

Unsolicited review submissions will be accepted from 5.00 am Wednesday 28 July 2021 to 5.00 pm Wednesday 25 August 2021 . Please note that this is Sydney Australia time (GMT +10). Emails dated past 5.01pm on 25 August 2021 (Sydney time), no matter where you live in the world, cannot be accepted.

We are looking forward to seeing your submissions!