our philosophy

Our review philosophy is designed to serve our readership community, review team, authors, and publishers with transparency and professionalism. 

Before submitting a book or agreeing to review for BGB, please read and confirm your agreement with the following policy:

1. Recommendation philosophy: Reviewers are encouraged to share honest, thoughtful opinions. However, recognizing writing a book is a significant accomplishment, we do not publish reviews for books we do not recommend, including gifted copies or ARCs. This reflects our platform’s integrity and the trust of our audience.
2. Editorial Rights: BGB reserves the right to edit reviews, photos, and accompanying content for clarity, format, or style.
3. Archiving: BGB may archive reviews or related posts at its discretion.
4. Timing: BGB does not guarantee specific post dates. We aim to schedule promotions around publication dates whenever possible.
5. Reposts & Permissions: Reviews may not be shared on other public platforms without prior written permission from BGB. Reposts must credit Brown Girl Bookshelf as the original source.
6. Platform Sharing: Reviews may appear across some or all of BGB’s platforms. Placement is at the discretion of BGB and is not guaranteed.
7. Children’s, Middle-Grade, and Young Adult: BGB does not review these books, but they may be featured in other ways on the platform.
8. Self-Published / Amazon (ADP) Works: BGB does not review self-published or Amazon-published books, but they may be featured in other ways on our platform.

If you have any questions about this policy or the review process, please reach out.