Midwest Book Review
Genuinely free, nearly 50 years old, and read by librarians — one of the most overlooked review outlets available to indie authors.
midwestbookreview.comQuick Stats
| Founded | 1976 (James A. Cox, editor-in-chief) |
| Review type | Editorial (staff and volunteer reviewers) |
| Turnaround | Unpredictable — weeks to months |
| Price | Free (send physical copy) |
| Word count | Varies (typically 150-400 words) |
| Audience | Librarians, library system subscribers |
| Accepts self-pub | Yes |
| Accepts ARC/digital | Physical copy required |
Best Use Case
Midwest Book Review is the best free library-reach review option in the US — and possibly the only free review service where a positive write-up directly reaches library acquisition staff through their own professional newsletters. James A. Cox has been running this operation since 1976, and his team's reviews are taken seriously by public and academic librarians.
Submit here if library discovery matters to you and you can send a physical copy. The cost is postage. The potential payoff is library purchases that generate royalties without any marketing spend.
Pricing
| Tier | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Submission | Free | Send one physical copy; no submission fee |
You'll need to mail a finished physical copy to their Wisconsin address. There's no online submission process. The review may or may not happen; there's no acknowledgment system.
What You Get
If reviewed, your book gets a write-up published in one or more of the Midwest Book Review's library newsletters (Bookwatch, Children's Bookwatch, etc.), which are distributed to public libraries, school libraries, and academic libraries throughout the US. The reviews are also published on the Midwest Book Review website and indexed online.
Library acquisition staff read these newsletters as part of their collection development workflow. A positive MBR review that lands in the right newsletter can translate directly into library orders — without any further effort on your part.
Voice and Style
Midwest Book Review reviews are generally positive and accessible. Cox's editorial philosophy leans toward celebrating books worth discovering rather than criticizing failures, so the reviews tend to be enthusiastic. They prioritize audience identification and reading recommendation over craft analysis.
Reviews are shorter than most editorial services but specific enough to be useful — they typically identify genre, audience, comparable books, and what makes the title valuable for a library collection.
Analysis based on publicly available sample reviews.
The Honest Take
Midwest Book Review's main limitation is operational unpredictability. There's no submission confirmation, no tracking, and no timeline. Books go in and may come out reviewed weeks or months later, or never. Running your launch strategy around a MBR review is inadvisable — submit and move on.
The positive bias in reviews is real. Cox's team reviews mostly books they can say something positive about, which means not every book that's submitted gets reviewed. If your book has significant quality problems, it may simply be passed over rather than criticized.
None of that reduces the value proposition at zero cost. Submit a physical copy alongside your launch planning and treat any resulting review as a bonus, not a baseline. For library reach with no budget, there's no better option.
Pros
- Completely free — only cost is postage for physical copy
- Nearly 50 years of operation (since 1976)
- Reviews published in library newsletters read by acquisition staff
- Strong library credibility — one of the most established indie outlets
- Online archive indexed by search engines
Cons
- Physical copy required — no digital submission option
- No submission confirmation or tracking
- Turnaround completely unpredictable
- Not all books get reviewed (no guarantee)
- No consumer audience — purely library-focused distribution