Build the trade-review plan
Build the trade review submission plan
Choose the trade review outlets that fit your book, confirm who will submit to each one, and work backward from the earliest deadline.
Authors often hire help with this: publicity or marketing.
Why it matters
Trade review deadlines are the least forgiving dates in a book's life. Library Journal wants copies about six months out, and Publishers Weekly asks for three to four. Once those windows close, a book is simply not considered, no matter how good it is. Authors who discover the deadlines at launch have lost the chance, and no amount of later effort brings it back. A plan built early also prevents double submissions, missed outlets, and the awkward discovery that nobody sent the book anywhere.
Your part
- What you do
- Verify. Someone else may do it. Inspect the result yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Publisher and Author and Publicist. Publisher or publicist builds and executes; author verifies coverage and fills gaps
- When
- 6 to 9 months before publication, before the earliest trade review deadline passes (Build the trade-review plan: twelve to six months before publication, before any deadline closes)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Trade reviews are the prepublication reviews that booksellers, librarians, and wholesalers read: Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Foreword Reviews, and a handful of specialists. Most of them want a galley or digital review copy 4 to 6 months before publication, and each has its own rules about who may submit. The plan is simply a written list of every outlet you intend to reach, who is sending the copy, the deadline for that outlet, and the route being used.
A selection librarian, describing how their own collection team works, offered a way to rank that list. In their experience the most effective way to make a book widely visible to the people who choose what a library buys is a review in the journals those people already read, and they named four: Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Choice. A starred review in one of them, the marker a journal puts on the titles it rates most highly, is much coveted. Choice belongs on the list for a book that could read as academic, since it reviews for college and university collections rather than public ones. They also said the copies are typically sent by the publisher, which is why an author on a traditional route starts by asking what is already being done rather than by looking for a submission form. That is one librarian's account of their own work and not a rule, but it is a sensible order to put a long list in: those four first, then the specialists your book actually fits.
It helps to keep four models straight from the start. Editorial consideration means an outlet decides whether to review at all; nothing is promised. A paid review means the fee buys a review, not a favorable one. Reader platforms (NetGalley, Goodreads, and similar) produce reviews from members rather than staff critics. Media coverage is publicity, not a library trade review. A good plan says which model each line belongs to, so nobody confuses a paid Kirkus Indie review with a Kirkus editorial review later.
Who builds and runs the plan depends on your route. A publisher's publicity department normally does it, a hybrid contract usually covers some outlets and not others, and if you are the publisher it is yours. What you need is the same in every case: a written list of outlets, routes, submitters, deadlines, and costs, with nothing left in the gap between what you assumed and what someone else assumed.
The plan does not need to be elaborate. A single table in your Book Identity Sheet with outlet, route, submitter, deadline, cost, date sent, and result is enough, provided it exists before the deadlines do.
Common mistakes
- Starting the plan when finished books arrive, by which point most trade windows have closed.
- Assuming the publisher is sending to every outlet. Ask which ones; the list is usually shorter than authors expect.
- Mixing paid reviews and editorial consideration in the same column, then quoting them as if they were the same thing.
- Counting deadlines from the publication date instead of the first day of the publication month, which is how several outlets count.
- Sending a self-published title through a publisher-only route and hearing nothing back.
Choose from the directory
Set a status on any outlet and it joins this step.
| My status | Outlet | When |
|---|---|---|
| Publishers Weekly Booksellers, librarians, agents, and publishing professionals | Adult titles three months, preferably four, before the first day of the publication month; children's titles at least four months before publication | |
| BookLife submission to Publishers Weekly Booksellers, librarians, and publishing professionals who read Publishers Weekly | Before or after publication; allow six to twelve weeks for a decision, so submit at least three months before you need a review in hand | |
| BookLife Reviews Independent authors who want a professional review on a known timeline; readers and retailers who see the published review | Any time before or after publication; allow six weeks for delivery, or four weeks with the expedited option, plus up to one week of slack | |
| Booklist Public and school librarians selecting books and audiobooks | Prepublication. Booklist's current guidelines are not publicly readable, so no lead time is stated here. Do not calculate a deadline from a third-party figure. | |
| Library Journal Public and academic librarians buying adult books | Review copies should arrive about 6 months before publication | |
| School Library Journal School and public youth librarians selecting books for children and teens | Not stated on the official submissions page. Submit before publication, but do not calculate a deadline from a third-party figure. | |
| Kirkus Reviews (editorial program) Booksellers, librarians, agents, film and rights scouts, and book media | Digital galley at least four to five months before the publication date | |
| Kirkus Indie Independent authors and publishers who want a Kirkus-branded review; readers and retailers who see the published review | Any time before or after publication; allow seven to nine weeks for standard delivery, or four to six weeks for express | |
| Foreword Reviews magazine Booksellers and librarians who follow independent and university press publishing | At least four and a half months before publication; late submissions are not considered | |
| Foreword Clarion Reviews Independent authors and publishers who want a professional review; booksellers, librarians, and readers who encounter the licensed review | Any time, including backlist. The official page says the four to six week turnaround starts when your book arrives. That is delivery time, not a deadline. | |
| Choice Reviews Academic librarians and faculty selecting for undergraduate and college collections | Send a finished copy as soon as it is available and within three months of publication | |
| Midwest Book Review Community and academic librarians, booksellers, and general readers of its online review publications | Primarily after publication for finished print books; allow 12 to 14 weeks for the free track. Prepublication files are accepted only with the $50 Reader Fee and take about 10 to 12 weeks. | |
| AudioFile Magazine (now part of Kirkus Reviews) Librarians, audiobook producers, and listeners who follow audiobook reviews | Not published for audiobooks. Kirkus states a 4 to 5 month lead time for digital galleys and ebooks, but that line is not written about audio, so do not calculate an audiobook deadline from it. | |
| The Horn Book Children's and young adult librarians, educators, and booksellers | In advance of the publication date, preferably three months, in the words of the official page | |
| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Children's and young adult librarians, educators, and award committees | Review copies at least three months before the publication date | |
| NetGalley Reviewers, librarians, booksellers, educators, and media who read prepublication copies | List the title several months before release so review journals, library programs, and early readers can use it; four months or more is typical | |
| Edelweiss+ Booksellers, librarians, publisher sales reps, and media who use Edelweiss+ catalogs | Build into the prepublication sales cycle; post the DRC when the season's catalog goes live, typically four to six months before publication | |
| LibraryReads Public library staff and the adult readers they recommend to | Galley on Edelweiss+ or NetGalley at least two months before publication; nominations close on the first day of the month before the publication month |
Identifiers for Build the trade review submission plan
Set a status on any record and it joins this step. All book identifiers.
| My status | Identifier | Why this matters | Yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| NetGalley The main platform for giving reviewers, librarians, and booksellers a secured digital review copy before publication. | This decides who can read your book before it is out and how early, and feedback posted through it frequently reappears as reviews on Goodreads and retailers around publication. Traditionally and hybrid published authors normally ask whether the book will be listed, when the listing goes live, how long it stays up, and who approves requests, and a hybrid author should confirm who is paying. If you publish the book yourself, this is a real expense you choose, and it needs an approval plan, a plan for reading the feedback, and enough lead time, typically three to six months before publication, to be worth anything. Record the listing dates and check that the description and review file match the book you intend people to read. | Add your NetGalley listing link | |
| Edelweiss+ The digital catalog where booksellers, librarians, and reviewers see forthcoming books, months before publication. | Buyers deciding what to stock and librarians deciding what to buy often see your book here first, so the description, the author biography, and the comparison titles in that listing do their work long before anyone has read the book. It displays what the publisher's feed and catalog team supply, so it is a downstream view rather than a source, and a mistake in it came from upstream. Traditionally and hybrid published authors normally ask which catalog the book sits in and to see the listing before buyers do, and a hybrid author should confirm the publisher has an account at all; a self-published book appears only if a distributor lists it, and titles published through IngramSpark don't appear automatically. Check the listing against your own record, especially the description, biography, comparison titles, and publication date. | Add your Edelweiss+ listing link |
A template for this
Professional review submission cover noteA one-page cover note that travels with a galley or finished copy to a professional review outlet and puts every fact an editor needs in one place.
When to use it: Use this when you submit to a trade or professional review outlet that accepts material from your route, whether the note is printed and tucked into the package or sent with a digital galley. Do not use this when the publisher or publicist is already sending the same book to the same outlet. Check first, because a duplicate submission wastes an editor's time and yours.
What done looks like
- A written list of every trade outlet you intend to reach, with the model (editorial consideration, paid review, reader platform, or media) noted for each.
- The journals selection librarians routinely use at the top of that list: Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and, for a book that could read as academic, Choice.
- For each outlet: who submits, the route (publisher submission, BookLife, author account, and so on), the deadline counted back from your publication month, and the materials needed.
- Confirmation from the publisher or publicist of which outlets they are covering, and which are yours.
- A galley or digital review copy schedule that lands before the earliest deadline, not after.
- A place to record the date sent and the outcome, so this plan becomes your submission log.
Ask your publisher
Copy this into an email. Replace the bracketed parts with your details.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- No single official page for this step.
- Last checked
- Not checked against its source yet.
- How confident we are
- Verified