RNKD

How a review
gets here.

Nine things RNKD promises. Not more. If we can't truthfully say one of them about a review, we change the review, label it, or don't publish it.

  1. 01

    A real person read the book.

    Every review is written by a named reader whose identity RNKD has verified privately. They may use their real name or a stable pen name. The reader writes the first draft; an editor may work on it afterwards, and it goes back to that reader before it publishes, so the text that carries a name is the text its author approved. Nobody here is a character, and nobody writes from a summary. If a reviewer didn't finish a book, the review says Did not finish and tells you where they stopped.

  2. 02

    They're allowed to hate it.

    We publish negative reviews on the same terms as positive ones. We don't remove a review because an author, a publisher, or an advertiser would prefer we did. The opinion belongs to the reviewer.

  3. 03

    Old books count.

    A book read last week or twenty years ago is fair game. RNKD isn't a news site, so reviews don't carry publication dates. A good review of a 1974 novel is as useful today as the day it was written.

  4. 04

    Nobody connected to the book supplied it.

    Every reviewer read a copy they owned, bought, or borrowed. RNKD has never supplied a book to a reviewer, and does not accept books, payments, or anything else from authors, publishers, agents, or publicists. If we ever do buy a reviewer a copy, that review will say so on the page.

  5. 05

    Nobody's paid for their opinion.

    Reviewers aren't paid for reviews, and no reviewer earns anything from what a review sells. RNKD is a member of the Amazon Associates programme, but no book link on this site carries an affiliate tag, so the links earn us nothing at all. If that changes, this page and the affiliate disclosure change first, and we mark every paying link.

  6. 06

    Editing fixes typos, not opinions.

    An editor may correct spelling, grammar, formatting, and accidental spoilers. Changing a criticism, adding praise, or changing a recommendation requires the reviewer's approval. The reviewer's voice wins.

  7. 07

    AI helps with chores, not opinions.

    We use software to catch typos, check for duplicate text, flag possible spoilers, and draft the "where they agreed / split" summary on Roundtables from the reviews themselves. A person checks every summary against what the readers wrote. No AI writes a review or invents a reaction.

  8. 08

    Roundtables are independent first.

    When two or more readers review the same book, each writes before seeing the others. Reviews then lock. We show every take, and the points of agreement and disagreement, drawn only from what the readers wrote. We don't manufacture drama and we don't manufacture consensus. A Split Decision label just means one reader would recommend the book and another plainly would not.

  9. 09

    Mistakes get fixed out loud.

    We correct factual, attribution, or disclosure errors on the page itself, and we keep our own record of every one. If a reviewer changes their mind about a book, we say so rather than pretending the new opinion was always there. Every book page has a Report an error link, and a correction that changes what a review says is marked on that review.