The Victorian Web welcomes submissions of original reviews of books of interest to Victorianists.
What we review: We primarily publish reviews of recent scholarship and scholarly trade books about the Victorians and their era. We also occasionally publish reviews of contemporary literature, drama, and art exhibits with clear connections to the Victorians. We do not ordinarily review self-published books.
To get an idea of what we're looking for, see our list of books available for review and our archive of book reviews organized by topic.
Commissioned writers should submit finished reviews via email to the commissioning editor. Reviewers are also welcome to submit uncommissioned, finished reviews of books of Victorian interest to Diane Josefowicz, Managing Editor, diane@victorianweb.org. You should attach the review to the email as a Word document or send a link to a Google doc (preferred).
We are also open to submissions of previously published reviews for posssible re-publication, but the author of the review must secure the relevant rights before the work will be considered for publication on the Victorian Web.
For publishers: If you are a publisher or publicist and would like to submit a book for consideration, please contact diane@victorianweb.org with a press release and/or other pre-publication material. Should we decide to pursue a review, we will request a PDF and make the file available to the eventual reviewer. Once we have a reviewer for a title, a paper galley or finished copy is very much appreciated; we will provide the reviewer's postal address for shipping.
Please do not send physical copies unless we specifically request them. We are keen to avoid having books pile up unread in our offices, and we are mindful of the environmental and financial costs of mailing books around unnecessarily.
Guidelines for book reviewers: We are looking for reviews of 1500-2000 words excluding footnotes and quotations.
We frequently publish reviews of new books, but we are interested in reviews and reassessments of older work as well.
Your review should summarize the main argument of the book, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, including those of argument and evidence. You should also discuss the main sources on which the author relies for evidence and evaluate the author’s use of those sources.
You might also contextualize the book by locating it within a present debate, or by relating it to other books by the same author, and/or to other books recently published on the same topic.
Write your review in clear and concise prose, avoiding specialist jargon as much as possible. Where such jargon cannot be avoided, include an explanation that makes the meaning clear for the general reader.
Quotations should be brief and clearly relevant to the local point you’re making. If the quotation contains a detail that will be unfamiliar to the reader, be sure to explain that detail. This explanation typically should precede the quote.
Do include a bibliography, even if it is just an entry for the work under review.
Do include links to related material on the Victorian Web.
Do not include links to material outside the Victorian Web.
Do not use footnotes. Cite the book under review by page number alone. Cite other books by author, short title and date; for subsequent references, the last name and page number are sufficient.
Reviews will be edited for clarity, concision, length, and possibly other qualities. You should expect to work closely with an editor in preparing the final draft for publication.
For style and other matters, we use Chicago 17. See our general contributors guidelines for more information.
On the use of algorithmic and AI tools: An AI program cannot be an author of anything published on Victorian Web.
Text generated from algorithmic tools such as ChatGPT must not be used in material published on Victorian Web. Submissions making undisclosed use of such tools will be rejected. Material published on Victorian Web and subsequently found to be in violation of this policy will be removed.
Authors using algorithmic tools to create graphics must adhere to the following rules:
- Authors submitting material created with the assistance of algorithmic tools must disclose the use of such tools at the time of submission of the material for publication
- AI-generated material must be clearly marked, accurate, true, and not plagiarized from another source
- The use of AI and the specific tool used must be acknowledged in a separate acknowledgments section
- The author must fully specify the AI used (name, version, model, source) and how the AI-generated material has been used in the submitted material
Created 18 May 2025
Last modified 21 May 2025