Review policy
This page explains how reviews of our books work: who can write one, how we ask, what we publish and what we remove.
Who can write a review
Only someone who bought a book can review it, or one of our first families (see below). Each order has one review. If you were given a book as a gift, the person who bought it can forward the review link to you, and your review counts for that order. Colouring books and reprints are not reviewed separately.
How we ask
We ask every buyer in the same way. A hardcover buyer gets one email about two weeks after the book is shipped. A PDF buyer gets one about five days after the PDF is ready. If there is no review after a week, we send one reminder. We send nothing more.
We do not choose who to ask. We do not offer anything for a review: no discount, no free book and no prize draw. We do not ask only the people we expect to be happy.
A small group of families received a free book before we launched. We call them our first families. Their reviews are labelled "Read before launch", and they are not counted in our average.
What we publish
We publish every review that keeps to these rules, good or bad. A review shows its star rating, the comment, the first name the reviewer gave, the relationship they chose if they chose one, and the month it was written.
The reviewer ticks a box to publish their review with their first name. We never publish a surname, an address, a child's name or a private note.
We show a count and an average only after we have 20 published reviews. Until then, the reviews page shows the reviews and no figure.
If a reviewer ticks the box to let us quote their review, we may use the review, with their first name, in our adverts, emails and social posts. Without that tick, we do not quote it.
What we remove, and why
We remove a review only for one of these reasons. We use the same reasons for every star rating:
- It contains personal details, such as a child's name or address, or health or faith details. We take out only those words and mark the gap. The rest of the review stays.
- It is abusive, harassing, obscene, sexually explicit or discriminatory.
- It is not about our books or our service.
- It is not from a genuine customer, or we reasonably believe it is fake.
- It is spam or advertising.
We do not remove a review because it is critical of us.
We write down every removal and every redaction: which review, the reason, who made the change and when.
If a reviewer asks us to remove their own review, we will, and we log it as a removal at the reviewer's request.
We do not change what a review says
The only change we make to a review is to take out personal details. We take out words and never add or change them, so the meaning stays the same.
How to report a review
If you think a review breaks these rules, write to us using the contact details at the foot of any page. Tell us which review it is and why you think it should go. We check every report and write down what we did.
Questions about your data
Our privacy notice explains what we keep for reviews, why, and for how long.