My main goal when I started writing this blog, and on social media, was always to get books into the hands of readers and making good book ...

Review Policy

Wednesday, May 08, 2019 BookBairn 0 Comments

My main goal when I started writing this blog, and on social media, was always to get books into the hands of readers and making good book matches connecting readers and stories. I have therefore always shared books that we truly love and adore. Over the years I have been sent thousands of free books for review which I was thrilled about, but in recent years, it started to feel less like a hobby and more like an unpaid job and therefore I can no longer solely accept free copies of books in exchange for review. 

What this means:

I now work with publishers on a paid basis (rather than simply a free book) in exchange for my time, experience and sharing with this wonderful community of book lovers that have joined me over the years. Publishers are welcome to request my rates card and thus far the majority have been understanding and supportive. And it thrills me that I now get to work on the books that I LOVE!


How will this affect my reviews?

Well, first and foremost: you will still only ever see books that the bairns and I enjoy. That has and always will be the case. Over the past few years I have established a great working relationship with lots of publishers and I often get to select the books I work on or the publishers suggest books I might like. I have also turned down some books, both before and after reading, because they do not always meet my expectations and publishers have so far been happy to swap for an alternative, more fitting, title. It's how I continue to guarantee you only see the BEST books on BookBairn.

Reviews which I am being paid for will be marked as AD.

You may occasionally to see some books I have been sent for free on my social media channels which will be marked as AD -PR Product as publishers that I work with on a paid basis sometimes offer me a pick from their collection and this saves me some book spending money. Or I have reached out to publicists for specific titles for a dedicated campaign and I donate these to the bairns school library once the project is complete.

You are likely to see more library copies and copies of books that I have bought myself in my reviews. This means that my feed will return to a more steady balance of sharing books that we genuinely love and not simply the best of books we have been sent recently.

It should be a small and subtle change for readers but is a massive shift for me in both my mindset (i.e. valuing my time and experience and knowing my worth) and in the relationships I have with publishers.

Thank you for your ongoing support and engagement with reviews and mostly, above all, thank you for being as passionate about books as me and sharing that love with your young readers. As I said at the start, this was always what I wanted. 

Review Policy

We are always happy (delighted, in fact) to hear from publishers, authors and illustrators about books and paid advertising review opportunities.

I do not accept books from international publishers. Please do not enquire unless you are UK-based.

Books which are sent by publishers, authors and illustrators free for review purposes will be labelled clearly on our social media as "AD PR Product". Books that have been reviewed for a fee will be labelled as AD . On the blog, each post will be labelled with an appropriate disclaimer as to where the books came from.




This Review Policy was last updated 11th October 2024. Feel free to contact me using the information on our contact us page here or email bookbairn [at] gmail.com 

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