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Submit to relevant trade-review outlets

Submit or verify submission to Publishers Weekly

Confirm that your book has been submitted to Publishers Weekly through the correct route for your publishing path, preferably four months before the publication month.

RecommendedOwner: Publisher and Author and PublicistYou: VerifyFee: Free through the publisher route; the BookLife route to PW carries a submission fee under current rules (confirm the amount on the BookLife page)All publishing paths

Authors often hire help with this: publicity or marketing.

Why it matters

A PW review is widely syndicated into the databases that booksellers and librarians use when deciding what to stock, and a starred review travels further still. Because the deadline falls months before publication, a missed submission cannot be repaired later. Verifying the route and the date is a ten-minute task that protects one of the more consequential windows in the schedule.

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 submits for traditional titles; self-published author submits through BookLife
When
Preferably 4 months before the first day of the publication month; at least 3 months for adult titles and 4 for children's and young adult titles (Submit to relevant trade-review outlets: six to three months before publication, against each outlet's own deadline)Checked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)

Your part changes with your publishing route.

How to do it

The full walkthrough

Publishers Weekly (PW) is the trade magazine most booksellers, librarians, and rights buyers read. Its reviews are editorial consideration: submitting a galley puts the book in front of the editors, and they decide whether to review it. Nothing about the process promises coverage, and PW reviews only a fraction of what it receives.

For traditionally published books, the publisher or publicist submits through PW's publisher submission system, which the guidelines currently describe as GalleyTracker. PW asks for adult titles at least three months before the first day of the publication month, and preferably four; children's and young adult titles need at least four months. Your job on this path is to verify that the submission happened and when, not to send a second copy.

Self-published books do not go through the publisher route. PW considers them through BookLife, its platform for independent authors, where you create an author account and submit a final digital copy. BookLife submission to PW is still editorial consideration (it carries a submission fee under current rules, and a fee does not change the editors' freedom to decline). BookLife Reviews is a different service entirely: a paid review that the fee secures. Keep the two separate in your records and in your marketing copy.

Hybrid titles sit in between. Some presses submit through the publisher route; others direct authors to BookLife. Ask your press which route it uses and confirm the submission date.

Common mistakes

  • Assuming the publisher submitted and finding out at launch that the title was not on the list.
  • Sending a self-published book through the publisher route, where it will not be considered.
  • Counting three months from the publication date rather than from the first day of the publication month.
  • Treating a BookLife Reviews paid review as if it were a Publishers Weekly editorial review in quotes and marketing copy.
  • Submitting an early draft. PW wants the galley to represent the finished book.

What done looks like

  • The submission route for your path is identified (publisher submission for traditional titles, BookLife for self-published titles, confirmed for hybrid titles).
  • The galley or digital copy was sent at least three months before the first day of the publication month, ideally four, and earlier for youth titles.
  • The date sent, the route, and the submitter are recorded in your submission log.
  • Your records label a BookLife PW submission as editorial consideration and any BookLife Reviews purchase as a paid review.
  • Any result (selected, reviewed, declined, or no response) is recorded when it arrives.

Evidence. Done means someone says the work happened. Verified means you checked the confirmation, link, or public record yourself.

Ask your publisher

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Sources and last checked

Official source
Official source (opens in a new tab)
Other sources
Last checked
September 13, 2026
How confident we are
Verified

Rules and deadlines change. We last checked this information on September 13, 2026. If you see something that needs updating, please tell us.