Can I send my/our newly published book(s) to the CCBC?
Yes! If you are publisher in the United States or Canada, we would love to receive your new (current publishing year) book(s) for children and/or teens if you aren’t already sending them. (If you are an author or illustrator, we encourage you to check first with your publisher to see if they are already sending to us. Most large trade book publishers in the U.S. send us review copies of their new books, as do some smaller publishers). Please contact CCBC librarian Merri Lindgren for more information on sending review copies.
You are also welcome to send us your book if you are self-published.
Most new books are added to our Current Collection of newly published books. If we are unable to find a cataloging record for copy cataloging–sometimes the case with small press books; often the case with self-published books–we can’t add the book to our collection . However, all books we receive are logged and documented for our annual diversity in publishing data.
Can you review my manuscript or help me find an agent or publisher?
We can’t put you in touch with a publisher or agent, or offer feedback on your manuscript or portfolio. We also can’t offer contract advice.
However, if you can come to the CCBC in person, you can spend time browsing our Current Collection of recently published books to see what U.S. publishers are producing. Pay attention to who is publishing what so you can better target specific publishers that seem a good fit for your own work, or whose books you especially admire. We also have resources in our Reference Collection on writing for children and teens, and on publishing. (About CCBC Collections)
Can you review my new book or help me market it.
The CCBC does not regularly review books. We do feature one book a week as a Book of the Week, and we do write about selected books for our annual best-of-the-year list, CCBC Choices, but we are not a regular review source and cannot accommodate requests to review specific books.
We also cannot help you market or promote your book. If you send us a review copy, however (check to make sure your publisher hasn’t already), we will make every effort to add it to our Current Collection, so it is available to those using our library who are coming in to see new books.
Visit our Publishing links for organizations and web sites that have some terrific advice and tips.
Can you feature my book as a Book of the Week on your web site or include it in CCBC Choices?
The CCBC receives roughly 3,500 new books annually. We can’t commit to featuring a specific book as a book of the week or including it in CCBC Choices .
In selecting a book to feature weekly (52 titles per year), we are balancing numerous considerations. We try to select a variety of books across each month and throughout the year, including picture books, informational books, and fiction, and considering readers from very young children through high-school age. We also strive to illuminate a range of diverse voices and perspectives.
CCBC Choices, our annual best-of-the-year list, highlights roughly 200-250 titles from among those that we receive. In selecting books for Choices, the CCBC professional staff again considers readers across a range of ages and books in a variety of formats and again reflecting a range of diverse experience and perspectives. (See the earlier question about how we choose books for CCBC Choices for more on creating the Choices list.)
I’ve written a book that would be perfect for one of your thematic booklists. Can you include it?
CCBC thematic and genre booklists are comprised of books we have first recommended in an edition of CCBC Choices, our annual best-of-the-year list. (See previous question about choosing books for inclusion in Choices.) We don’t typically consider books exclusively for inclusion on a CCBC bibliography.
I’m looking for books on a similar theme to the one I’m writing. Can you help me find them?
We know sometimes writers do this kind of research out of their own interest, and sometimes at the request of publishers. Here’s how we can—and can’t—help.
We CAN identify titles with similar themes/topics that we’ve recommended in our annual-best-of-the-year list, CCBC Choices. Depending on your topic, we may also be able to search effectively in our catalog for newer books we haven’t recommended.
We CAN’T give you a comprehensive list of everything published that may be similar to your topic.
We’ll want to know if you are interested only in recently published books (e.g., past two years) or older titles, too. And we’ll want to know what formats you’re interested in (e.g., picture books, beginning readers, middle grade fiction, young adult fiction, non-fiction, etc.).
And of course, we’ll need to know what the themes or topics you’re interested in are. We encourage you to think about this in terms that are relatively broad. For example, if you are working on a book about the death of a boy’s pet guinea pig, the themes we can help you find books on are death of a pet, and perhaps, more broadly, grief and loss. We won’t be able to search specifically on death of a guinea pig—even if such a book exists, we won’t necessarily know about it. The same is true if you are looking for books in a specific genre—if you want adventure stories featuring a girl as the main character, we can help; if you want adventure stories featuring a girl in a single parent family as the main character, that’s too specific for us to be able to search on (although there may end up being a few among those we’ve recommended).
Sometimes it can help to separate your request into multiple topics (e.g., books about the death of a pet and books about guinea pigs; adventure stories about girls and books about kids in single-parent families). So think about what it is you really want to see examples of—what will be truly useful to you—to help determine what it is you want to ask for.
As with all reference questions, we encourage you email us or call (608-263-3720) with your question. If you are interested in seeing books, we can work with you to arrange a time to come in and look at books we will arrange to have pulled for you.