Decide on paid and advance-copy services
Check the Edelweiss listing and review copy
Confirm that your book appears in your publisher's Edelweiss catalog with correct metadata and a digital review copy available to booksellers, librarians, and reviewers.
Authors often hire help with this: metadata or distribution, publicity or marketing.
Why it matters
Bookstore buyers and many library selectors decide what to order from the Edelweiss catalog, months before publication. If the listing is missing, mislabeled, or has no review copy, those buyers see a weaker version of your book than the one you wrote. It is also the platform LibraryReads and many bookseller programs draw advance copies from.
Your part
- What you do
- Verify. Someone else may do it. Inspect the result yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Publisher and Author. Publisher or authorized marketer lists; author verifies
- When
- 3 to 6 months before publication, as part of the prepublication sales cycle (Decide on paid and advance-copy services: six to three months before publication, before the money is spent)Checked September 14, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Edelweiss (often written Edelweiss+) is the platform publishers use to present their seasonal catalogs to the trade. Booksellers, librarians, and reviewers browse upcoming titles there, read the publisher's sales copy, and request digital review copies. It is not a review outlet; it is the catalog and review-copy infrastructure behind bookstore buying and much library ordering.
A publisher builds its Edelweiss listings from its metadata feed and adds marketing material, comparison titles, and review copies. For a traditionally published author, the task is to ask whether your title is listed, whether a digital review copy is attached, and whether the listing's description, cover, and comparison titles are what you expect. You can often view the public listing yourself by searching the site.
Hybrid presses may or may not use Edelweiss. Ask. Self-published authors generally cannot list directly; Edelweiss is publisher-facing, and independent titles usually appear only when a distributor that uses Edelweiss carries them. If you are self-published and your distributor lists there, ask the distributor to confirm your title and attach a review copy. Otherwise, NetGalley covers the review-copy side and you can skip this item without guilt.
An Edelweiss listing is built into the prepublication sales cycle, so problems found at launch are found late. Check three to six months out.
Common mistakes
- Never looking at the listing and discovering an outdated cover or description after buyers have seen it.
- Assuming a review copy is attached because the book is listed.
- Expecting to list a self-published title directly.
- Confusing Edelweiss's catalog with a review; nothing is reviewed there, only presented.
Identifiers for Check the Edelweiss listing and review copy
Set a status on any record and it joins this step. All book identifiers.
| My status | Identifier | Why this matters | Yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
What done looks like
- Your title visible in the publisher's Edelweiss catalog 3 to 6 months before publication.
- Cover, title, subtitle, description, publication date, price, and comparison titles correct on the listing.
- A digital review copy attached and available to trade members.
- Confirmation of who at the publisher approves review copy requests.
- For self-published titles, a clear answer on whether the distributor lists there.
Evidence. Done means someone says the work happened. Verified means you checked the confirmation, link, or public record yourself.
Ask your publisher
Copy this into an email. Replace the bracketed parts with your details.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- Official source (opens in a new tab)
- Last checked
- September 14, 2026
- How confident we are
- Partially verified
Rules and deadlines change. We last checked this information on September 14, 2026. If you see something that needs updating, please tell us.