Track and use review results
Record every review submission and route
Keep a single log of every place the book was sent for review, who sent it, by which route, on what date, and under which model, so nothing is duplicated or forgotten.
Why it matters
The log is what turns a scattered set of submissions into a campaign you can manage. It prevents duplicate submissions, shows which windows are still open, tells you where to follow up, and becomes the source for the results log later. It also answers the question every future publicist, agent, or award form will ask: where has this book been sent?
Your part
- What you do
- Do it. You normally do this yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Author and Publicist. Author keeps the log; publicist contributes its submissions
- When
- At the moment of each submission, starting with the first galley (Track and use review results: from the first submission onward, and whenever a review appears)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
A review submission log is a table with one row per outlet: the outlet name, the model (editorial consideration, paid review, reader platform, or media coverage), who submitted, the route used (publisher submission, BookLife, author account, mailed copy, and so on), the date sent, the format sent, any fee paid, and a column for the outcome. It lives in your Book Identity Sheet or wherever you keep the book's records.
The log exists because submissions are made by several people over several months. The publisher sends galleys in the spring, a publicist pitches in the summer, and you mail copies to journals in the fall. Without one list, books get sent twice to the same outlet, outlets get skipped because everyone assumed someone else covered them, and a year later nobody can say where the book went.
On the traditional path, ask your publicist for the list of outlets and dates and copy it into your log; the publisher's records are theirs, and yours should be complete on their own. On the hybrid path, record what the press did and what you did. On the self-published path, you are the only submitter, which makes the log easy to keep and easy to neglect.
Record at the moment of submission. Reconstructing the log later from email is slow and never quite complete.
Common mistakes
- Keeping the log in your head, or in three different email threads.
- Recording the outlet but not the route, so you cannot tell whether a self-published title went through the right door.
- Omitting fees, then losing track of what the campaign cost.
- Not asking the publisher for its list, and duplicating its submissions.
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
- One table with a row for every outlet the book was sent to, on any path, by any person.
- Columns for model, submitter, route, date, format, fee, and outcome.
- Paid reviews and editorial consideration clearly labeled and never mixed.
- Rows added at submission time, not reconstructed months later.
- The publisher's and publicist's submissions included alongside your own.
Evidence. Done means someone says the work happened. Verified means you checked the confirmation, link, or public record yourself.
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