Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.
How to Review Scholarly Books
Published 5 months ago • 7 min read
The Manuscript Works Newsletter
Essential knowledge on scholarly book publishing that every author should have
Dear Reader,
If you've done my Find the Perfect-Fit Publisher challenge or taken my book proposal courses, you know that the first step I have aspiring scholarly book authors start with is generating a list of recently published books that are similar to the one they want to write. This list of books is critical for identifying the publishers that will be most open to acquiring your book. A pared down version of this list can also serve as the basis for the "comparable books" section of your book proposal (the section most often missed or misunderstood by academic writers, in my experience).
But how do you generate this list of similar books? Do you have to be aware of every book that's been published in your field in the last couple years? No, you don't. You can actually use the same methods you might use to identify a new book you'd like to review for a scholarly journal. That's where today's newsletter comes in.
Today I'm pleased to share an excerpt from How to Review Scholarly Books, a new volume in the Skills for Scholars series at Princeton University Press (also home to The Book Proposal Bookand Make Your Manuscript Work). In this guide, Steven E. Gump provides comprehensive advice on how to write an effective scholarly book review. Like the other books in the series, How to Review Scholarly Books demystifies the hidden curriculum of scholarly writing and provides practical advice that can help grad students, early career scholars, and even later-career scholars who are tired of muddling through and guessing at how things are supposed to be done.
In the excerpt below, Gump offers a several techniques for identifying recently released books that might be good candidates for review in a scholarly journal. I love these tips because I think they're also very helpful for identifying comparable books that you might discuss in your book proposal. I hope you find them helpful too!
Finding New Books to Review
Excerpted from How to Review Scholarly Books by Steven E. Gump. Reproduced with the permission of Princeton University Press.
Check out the “recent acquisitions” shelf at your local library. I’m referring to a college or university library here, since such libraries are more likely to acquire a more diverse array of scholarly books than are public or community libraries. And I’m referring either to a physical shelf, if your library has one, or to a filter in the online catalog that lets you identify recently added titles. Library catalogs allow you to filter items by date of entry and by date of publication, but you may have to ask a friendly librarian to show you how to do so. (Some library websites offer more intuitive or more obviously customizable filters than others.) In libraries where new books are sent directly to the open stacks, you would be welcome to peruse the shelf or shelves on which scholarship in your subfield is likely to be located.
One joy of a physical shelf of books is that you can easily browse—that is, pick up, flip through, consult the contents and references, and otherwise get a sense of whether a book is a good fit for your interests. I find value in actually seeing a book before I commit to reviewing it, because it’s often easy to judge relatively quickly whether a book will be a “keeper.” Websites with “search inside the book” previews can approximate such browsing of contents.
Check out WorldCat.org. From WorldCat.org, a robust library network of over thirty thousand libraries in over one hundred countries, you can use the “Advanced Search” to perform keyword or subject searches in over a dozen languages and can simultaneously filter for titles published recently, say, this current year. (In addition, WorldCat lets you see which libraries own copies of the book, which may prove helpful when you’d like to get your hands on a copy.) Note, however, that WorldCat does not include forthcoming titles, and new books need to be cataloged somewhere before they will show up as results of a search.
Query new and forthcoming titles at Amazon.com. You can love Amazon.com, or you can hate Amazon.com. But one thing the company has is reach. Publisher Anne Trubek writes that “Amazon is now, for better or worse, the card catalog.” Here is a way to use the Amazon.com catalog for apprising yourself of new and forthcoming releases. First, use the menus to navigate to the “Books at Amazon” page, which offers multiple filters. The two most fruitful for finding new or forthcoming books are the “New Releases” filter and the “Department” filter. Activate the “Department” filter first. You can choose “History,” say, and then you can further choose “Asian History” and, finally, “Japanese History.” Once you’ve found your disciplinary home (or as close to it as Amazon’s classification system allows), you can activate the “New Releases” filter. There, you may select “Last 30 days,” “Last 90 days,” or “Coming soon.” Within the results list you can additionally sort by publication date. Voila! Not all of the items returned will be germane, but what you may find should nonetheless be remarkable.
If you play around on the website, you’ll uncover more methods to finding needles in Amazon’s haystack. You may also start by typing your field or subfield in the “Books” search bar and then selecting the appropriate “New Releases” filter. The filtering system works differently on the Amazon.com app, so I usually perform my searches from a computer. And I don’t expect the Amazon website to remain static. These instructions were still relevant as of late 2024, but your experience may vary.
And regarding that Amazonian reach: Check out the Amazon pages in any of the other twenty-two (as of late 2024) countries or regions, particularly if you’re based in the United States and are looking for non-English-language books or books unavailable in the USA.
Visit relevant university press websites. If you’re not familiar with the university presses that actively publish in your field, you should become familiar with them. (Simply note the publishers of the books you use most frequently in your work, and look for repeats.) Scholarly publishers have “lists”—that is, areas of specialization around subjects or topics. Many press websites will let you search these lists, ordering the books by publication date. Scholarly publishers also regularly publish named series that are similarly searchable. In the absence of navigational tools on press websites, university presses typically digitize their seasonal catalogs (spring and fall), with books commonly grouped by subject or series. You can easily learn what’s new and forthcoming in your field by periodically visiting the websites of your favorite presses. I’ve bookmarked a number of series pages myself for quick reference.
Search Edelweiss+ for new and forthcoming releases. If you don’t like the idea of visiting press websites one by one, you’ll find past and current catalogs for several hundred publishers—both scholarly and trade—at https://www.edelweiss.plus. You can search recent and forthcoming releases by keyword, access important details (including list prices), and preview media kits and book galleys (where available). Edelweiss+ is intended for use by individuals associated with the trade publishing industry, and you may be surprised by the coverage.
Consult the “books received” lists at scholarly journals or scholarly organizations. Don’t forget these helpful resources. They’re not always where you might think they’d be, however. Sometimes the lists of “books received” are housed on the websites of the sponsoring organizations, not of the journals themselves.
Indulge in social media. Here, you can let the publishers do some of the work for you. Subscribe to marketing and other messages in your fields of interest from your top presses. Follow their social-messaging feeds, scan their posts, tap into whatever methods you have for connecting with the world and keeping your finger on the pulse of matters that matter to you.
Keep your professional social network alive. When you come across new titles that complement the research interests of your academic friends and colleagues, share your insights. My suggestion earlier about not being quiet about your own interests thus transfers to not being quiet about others’ contributions. Ideas can change the world only when shared with others. So: Read and contribute to blogs. Listen and contribute to podcasts. Remain active, attentive, engaged.
How to Review Scholarly Books by Steven E. Gump releases on June 17, 2025. You can preorder the book from Princeton University Press (use code SG20 at checkout for 20% off) or anywhere else you buy books.
If you'd like more support in putting together your comps list for your book proposal or any other aspect of getting your scholarly book published, my Book Proposal Accelerator is still open for enrollment. We started yesterday, but you can easily catch up on yesterday's meeting recording and jump right in. FYI: I don't plan to offer the Accelerator again until 2026.
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This newsletter is coming to you from Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD, professional developmental editor and publishing consultant. I help scholarly writers navigate the book publishing process with more ease and agency.
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Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.