NetGalley Review Guidelines

Book advocates and industry professionals use NetGalley to discover and recommend new books to their audience. NetGalley members are Booksellers, Book Trade Professionals, Educators, Librarians, Reviewers who promote books on social media, blogs, and consumer websites, as well as Media/Journalists who work for traditional media outlets. Publishers and authors make digital review copies and audiobooks available for the NetGalley community, and in exchange, members provide reviews, star ratings, industry list nominations, and more.

Our Review Philosophy

We believe… 

  • Reviews and feedback are essential to publishers, authors, and other readers. You help books succeed! 
  • Reviews are a powerful way to connect readers everywhere. Reviews are not just book recommendations—they’re also bridges to fellow bookworms all around the world. Reviews offer a chance to share your thoughts with other readers, share your unique perspective and insights, and offer suggestions that can help others decide which books to read next.
  • Reviews should be honest, and shared with positive intentions—even if it’s a critical review. Remember a critical review isn’t necessarily negative, but rather a valuable source of feedback.

NetGalley members are respected for their honest, thoughtful opinions of the books and audiobooks they have read or listened to. As a community, we hold ourselves to a high standard when submitting and sharing reviews—always keeping in mind that the goal is to help other readers learn about a book, and decide whether they want to read it.

NetGalley is committed to ensuring that every member feels safe and supported when sharing their reviews. To ensure that NetGalley remains a welcoming environment, reviews that violate the below guidelines may be hidden from public view, and NetGalley may take any action deemed appropriate, including deactivation of that user’s NetGalley account and barring the user from future use of the NetGalley platform.

We encourage:

  • Your honest, thoughtful, and relevant opinions and reviews based on your reading or listening to the book or audiobook.

We discourage*:

  • Spoilers
  • DNF (Did Not Finish) without constructive feedback 
  • Vague or irrelevant feedback not related to the book itself 
  • Support-related feedback (such as file or download issues)

*If you submit any reviews with discouraged content, your review may be hidden and you could receive an email from NetGalley. Use the Will Not Give Feedback option to indicate legitimate reasons why you may not be able to submit a review.


We have zero tolerance for**:

**If you submit any reviews with prohibited content, your review will be hidden, and your NetGalley account will be deactivated

A note about AI (Artificial Intelligence):
NetGalley is a human-centered website that depends on technology to allow our members and publishers to connect and share content. In order to maintain the integrity that publishers, authors, and other readers rely on from our community, reviews submitted on NetGalley must be human-generated and original. We acknowledge and accept that AI can be a valuable tool to help research or edit content, as long as you are the author of the content.

Please report suspicious and/or abusive reviews by contacting NetGalley immediately

NetGalley reserves the right to remove a review at any time for any reason. It is at our sole discretion to pre-screen, refuse, or remove any content that violates these Review Guidelines, the Terms of Use, NetGalley’s Anti-Harassment & Hate Speech Policy, or is otherwise objectionable.

The reviews posted on NetGalley are individual and subjective opinions. The opinions and thoughts expressed in reviews are those of NetGalley members and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of NetGalley.

NetGalley asserts no ownership rights over the content you post, transmit, share, or otherwise make available on NetGalley. However, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to use such content anywhere on the website, or elsewhere and in any media for the purpose of providing, promoting, or advertising NetGalley and related services.

NetGalley advises our clients (including publishers and authors) to inform members if they intend to use your review in print—for instance on a book cover or printed materials for a conference—and to ask for permission, as well as to confirm how you’d like the review to be attributed (for instance: if your full name, social media handle, blog, etc. should be credited). They are only able to do this if you make your email address visible in your NetGalley profile. We expect our clients to extend the same courtesy to NetGalley members as they would for an author whose blurb they might use in a similar way. 


Please note: These Review Guidelines are in addition to NetGalley’s Anti-Harassment & Hate Speech Policy and Terms of Use.

 

Want additional tips on writing reviews? Check out these We Are Bookish articles:
 
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