This page includes:
Choosing A TopicConducting a Preemptive Search: To make sure that an article you are writing is covering new ground and is not on a topic that has already been addressed, you can search in Westlaw, Lexis, LegalTrac and ILP.
To track a topic, set up a periodic WestClip or Lexis Alert search. For assistance contact
Mary Alice Peeling (x2115) in Delaware or
Bonnie Lerner (x3944) in Harrisburg.
Working Papers:
- University Law Review Project is a free site where you can sign up to receive abstracts of new law review articles by e-mail or submit an abstract for distribution. This site is a partnership among Stanford, Australasian Legal Information Institute, Jurist, the Legal Information Institute at Cornell and Findlaw.
- Legal Scholarship Network publishes electronic journals consisting of working and accepted papers, author contact information and conference announcements. Widener subscribes to the Legal Scholarship Network. For information contact the Collection Development Librarian, Ann Kolodzey (x2036).
Finding Publisher and Submission InformationDirectories:
- On-line Directory of Law Reviews and Scholarly Legal Publications: Online Directory of Law Reviews and Scholarly Legal Periodicals containing the following categories: General Student-Edited Law Reviews; Special Focus Student-Edited Law Journals; Non-Student Edited Peer Review and Trade Journals; and University Presses. This comprehensive listing of United States law journals includes address, phone and fax numbers, e-mail and number of publications per year. It contains a general essay on law review submission requirements. The list is updated on the web at: http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/prodev/lawreview/. (Reference KF1. D58)
- Joyner, Al. Directory for Successful Publishing in Legal Periodicals (1997): This directory provides details on United States law journals. The entries are based on surveys sent to and received from law journal editors. Information on manuscript particulars as well as the individual review and publication process are included. The directory is not exhaustive. Journals that did not return surveys are not included. (Reference K36 .J69 1997)
- Svengalis, Kendall F. Legal Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual: Intended as a reference source for the acquisition of legal materials, this book can also aid as a publishing source. Appendix A provides a detailed listing of leading legal publishers with their history and product lines. (Reference KF1 .L43)
- Law Books in Print (1997): A five volume listing of law books in English throughout the world, ending in 1996. Contains a Publisher's Directory with contact information. (Reference KF1 .L36)
Also available on-line at www.oceanalaw.com
Law Review Web Resources:Many law reviews and journals maintain sites on the web that contain specific submission requirements. Listed below are sources to help you locate these materials.
Selecting a PublisherThe following information will provide some insight into selecting a publisher; however, these surveys and rankings are often criticized based on the methodology employed.
Law Review Rankings
- Most-Cited American Legal Periodicals. A list of the most cited law reviews from Washington and Lee University Law School. Data covers 1987 onward. Also offers an interactive chart of law reviews by rank and their addresses.
- Gregory Scott Crespi, Ranking International and Comparative Law Journals: A Survey of Expert Opinion, 31 Int'l Law. 869 (1997). Ranking of top 25 international and comparative law journals out of a pool of 90 titles.
- Colleen M. Cullen and S. Randall Kalberg, Chicago-Kent Law Review Faculty Scholarship Survey, 70 Chi-Kent L. Rev. 1445 (1995). Includes a list of top 40 law reviews ranked on basis of how often they are cited.
- Tracey E. George, An Empirical Evaluation of Specialized Law Reviews, 26 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 813 (1999) Provides an empirical ranking of top 100 specialized law reviews.
- Robert M. Jarvis and Phyllis G. Coleman, Ranking Law Reviews: An Empirical Analysis Based on Author Prominence, 39 Ariz. L. Rev. 15 (1997). Law review rankings based on the national prominence of the authors of their lead articles.
- Fred R. Shapiro, The Most-Cited Law Review Articles Revisited (Symposium on Trends in Legal Citations and Scholarship), 71 Chi-Kent L. Rev. 751 (1996). Sets forth the 100 most-cited law review articles of all time.
- Fred R. Shapiro, The Most-Cited Law Reviews, 29 Journal of Legal Studies 389 (2000). Ranks the 30 most-cited general and specialized law reviews based on the Social Sciences Citation Index.
Where Is It Indexed?Consideration should be given to where a law review is indexed and in which database it is available (
Westlaw,
Lexis,
LRI, ILP) because titles can be researched more easily and therefore, are likely to be cited with greater frequency.
Guidelines for Preparing a Book ProposalThe following information regarding "How to Prepare a Book Proposal" has been provided by Barry Furrow, former Professor of Law and Director, Health Law Institute, Widener University School of Law.
"Here are some tips for preparing a proposal for a legal monograph, casebook, or treatise. If you follow these tips, you will not only impress publishers with your professionalism, you'll also provide all the data they need in order to fully and accurately assess your work. Unless you are from one of the 25 law schools in the Top Ten, you will need to impress publishers with the low-risk nature of your prospectus -- that you write well, that you can think and organize, and that you have thought about the market. [These tips are based on material I have gleaned from both fiction and non-fiction publishers, and I acknowledge a heavy debt to Simon and Schuster's author proposal memorandum for form and much of the content. Flaws in the humor are solely my responsibility.]"
- Cover Letter - The letter should be no longer than one page. Briefly explain why you are writing to the publisher in question - for instance, does he typically publish books of the type you are proposing. Be sure to include a one to two sentence description of your book. For example: "My book has passion, being the legal equivalent of Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint; and perspicacity, being the analytic equivalent of Aquinas' Summa Theologica - in other words, it's damn good."
- Overview of Book and Its Market - In two or three paragraphs, describe your book's content and purpose. What gap does it fill in the market, if any? What need does it fulfill, or what problem does it solve? For instance: "The fastest growing area of health law is managed care litigation. No other book has canvassed this topic, other than CLE materials. I intend to exhaustively treat this subject in a way that will be of compelling interest to lawyers, judges, law professors and students." Include supporting statistics, if relevant, surveys that indicate that law professors are dying for a book like yours, and letters by lawyers and law professors to you begging you to write such a book. For the law school market, describe how many law schools offer a course for which your book would be perfect as primary or secondary reading.
- Author Biography - Describe why you are uniquely qualified to write this book. Enclose relevant reprints of your articles. Suggest well-established writers or legal celebrities who would be willing to give your manuscript a glowing pre-pub quote, such as Richard Posner, Guido Calabresi, Rudy Giuliani, or Britney Spears. Include relevant information regarding your education, credentials, experience, awards, and achievements. Have you published any other books? For example, authorship of a best-selling cookbook such as "365 Ways to Cook Turnips" tells a publisher that you have name recognition, even if the subject is different. If so, provide name of publisher, publication date, and - most importantly - sales for each previously published book. Did your previous books garner positive reviews? Or was there at least evidence that someone besides your mother read them? Did your previous books win any awards, or appear on any recommended lists? Are you an acknowledged expert on the topic on which your book is written? Prove it.
- How You will Help Sell Your Book - Selling the book is not just your publisher's job - it's also yours. If you plan to use your own book in teaching, describe the size of your audience each year. Do you regularly hold seminars, workshops or lectures at which the book could be sold? Do you have any contacts with the media - radio, internet, newspaper, magazine, television, cable - that would be helpful in promoting the book? Are you willing to write some publicity material that your publisher can use as part of their publicity efforts? Have you ever founded or been associated with a relevant organization that might push the book's use? Do you have a database of organizational memberships to whom the book could be sold? Do you plan on buying a large quantity of books at a discount to resell? If you have a web site, will you promote the book on it? If not, will you create a web site to help promote the book? Can you get the Church of Scientology to compel its reading? Nike to distribute it to all purchasers of new shoes? Larry Flynt to hustle it? The producer of The Sopranos to have it prominently displayed on Tony's coffee table in an upcoming episode?
- Competition - List all the books in print that most resemble your book. Describe how your book differs from each, and how that difference will help make your book sell as well, if not better. For example, if you've written a constitutional law tract on participatory democracy, every other constitutional law book with that focus is competition - Tribe, Lipkin, J.S. Mill. If there aren't any direct competitors, list the books in the same category that come closest; in this case, regular constitutional law casebooks, treatises, and hornbooks. Note: There is no such thing as a book with no competition. Every book published on the same subject and located on the same shelf as your book in a bookstore is, technically speaking, competition.
- Specifications - Approximately how long will the final manuscript be, in terms of word count? How much time do you need to finish it, or is it already complete? Have you already shown it to other publishers? If so, whom did you show it to, and what was the outcome? Indicate whether the book will include any special features, such as illustrations (color? b&w photos? line art?), tables, sidebars, excerpted or reprinted material, etc. Note: authors are usually responsible for supplying art as well as obtaining and paying for permission to use art and/or reprinted material.
- Table of Contents/Outline - Include a complete table of contents. If possible, provide a paragraph describing each chapter. Indicate if there will be a resources section, appendix, bibliography, etc.
- Sample Chapter - Include a sample chapter, preferably one that best represents not only your writing ability, but also the book's basic premise. The Introduction is also extremely useful.
- SASE - Always include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) large enough to contain all the material you wish returned to you. It is not appropriate to enclose cash or checks to cover postage. Though rare, submissions are occasionally misplaced, so do not send agents or editors original art or anything of value that cannot be replaced.
- Clippings - Include copies (not originals) of recent clippings about you and your work. For instance, if you were quoted in an article by a local paper, include a copy of the article. If you've ever appeared on television, network or cable, include a video.
- Presentation - Don't use fancy binders, covers, plastic comb binding, etc. When publishers get excited about a proposal, they need to xerox it and share it with colleagues as quickly as possible, and fancy binding gets in the way. Save your money and use rubber bands, paper clips and/or binder clips instead.
- Mail To - Publisher (find out by phone who the best contact person is to shepherd the prospectus through the publisher's hands). Do not email submissions. Do not call or email to see if submission arrived safely; if verification of delivery is desired, please use a form of delivery that offers tracking information, such as certified mail or UPS.
Scholarly Publishing General Information
- Robin M. Derricourt, An Author's Guide to Scholarly Publishing
(Princeton University Press, 1996). This book lays out ways for the scholarly author to find the right publisher and, once found, provides perspective on the relationship and stages of editing. The author was formerly the publishing director for Cambridge University Press. (Reference Z286 .S37 D46 1996)
- Philip F. Postlewaite, Publish or Perish: The Paradox,
50 Journal of Legal Education 157 (2000).
- Deborah L. Rhode, Legal Scholarship,
115 Harvard Law Review 1327 (2002).
- William R. Slomanson, Legal Scholarship Blueprint,
50 Journal of Legal Education 431 (2000).