I've gotten a few questions about this, so let me clarify and provide as much helpful information as this medium will allow.

To begin, both of my parents are MBA's and are assertive. They taught us four kids to be assertive. 1/x

Honestly, what's the worst a publisher can do, say no? If the worst that can happen is a rejection email (and believe me I've gotten ALOT), then it's pretty "safe" to at least ask.

But there were tricks that I learned about getting books from publishers. 2/x
The 1st was to request exam copies. I was a very part-time adjunct faculty for an online-only seminary in the UK. I designed two classes for them and requested books to consider as assigned reading for the classes. I still do this, since I'm full-time teaching/administrating. 3/x
The second was to become an approved/recognized reviewer for journals--it doesn't matter which ones. Thanks to a previous professor I'm a reviewer at the website for a research center. And through nothing but email, I'm a frequent reviewer for 3 journals (JESOT, JHS, RRT). 4/x
This is a helpful approach. When you know exactly where the review is going to be submitted and you know that the journal's review editor wants the review, then (in most cases) the review editor's job is to contact the publisher and make sure you get the book. That's it. 5/x
So...sometimes the work is focussed on finding the right journal, one that wants to publish your review. An easy entry might be to reach out to Reviews in Religion and Theology. 6/x
If you're a PhD student in Religion/Theology, and you want to review, send an email (attach a book review you've already written) to the ed. at RRT ([email protected]). They send a list to the reviewers every couple months with a long list of books to choose from. 7/x
What are journals looking for? It depends, but they'll tell you (usually on their websites). Usually 800-1000 words.

Some (like JHS) have no word limits, b/c they're online.

Some (like Vetus Testamentum) will happily publish 100 word reviews and 2,500 word review essays. 8/x
It's also very helpful to know a bit about the publishers. (I'm bound to leave some out, sorry.) Some are very generous, and some are not. Some will make you work for it, others don't ask for anything in return. Some need email, and others have an online form. 9/x
Zondervan: This one is easy. They've never, never turned me down. I think you could ask to get a book because you want to review it for your grandmother's Facebook page and she has 84 friends, and they'd say, "yes." 10/x
Crossway: Also very generous. But they want to know where the review will be published. Fair enough.

Fortress: Don't bother unless you get a review editor to get the book for you.

Routledge: I'm still waiting on them to reply to an email from 4 years ago. So I don't try. 11/x
Brill: Hahaha. Don't make me laugh. They won't toss a penny to a beggar. But maybe if your review editor contacts them. I once talked them into giving me a digital copy.

Yale: They've made me jump through some crazy hoops to get books. I've had luck getting exam copies. 12/x
Bloomsbury: I've had no luck getting review books or exam copies from them. They expect you to have a class with huge amounts of students before they'll send a copy.

IVP: Not sure. They don't publish in Germany, so I've been able to get some ebooks, but nothing in print. 13/x
Princeton UP: They are very generous. I like working with them.

Westminster/John Knox: Not generous. You can sometimes convince them to give you a temporary digital copy.

OUP/CUP: You better know where the review will be published. If you do, then you have a good chance. 14/x
Baker Academic: Very generous. They'll send you stuff with almost no questions asked as long as you know where the review will publish or be submitted.

Eerdmans: They are generous, but their generosity has limits of how many exam copies you can get in a year. 15/x
St. Vlad: Generous, but I've had to pay for shipping. They're more likely to send exam copies than review copies.

Lexham: Very generous.

SBL: haven't tried.

Eisenbrauns: They are a very small press and not super generous. You have to be submitting to a high level journal. 16/x
Gorgias: They are a very small press and not super generous. You have to be submitting to a high level journal. I've had luck with them, though.

Peter Lang: I don't bother asking anymore. They've always said no, unless it was the journal asking for me. 17/x
DeGruyter: They are soo generous. I've never been turned down.

Mohr Siebeck: Also VERY generous. I've never been denied a request.

V&R: Less generous, but I've had recent luck since my PhD was completed. I told them exactly where the review will go. 18/x
Harvard UP: I stopped trying.

Notre Dame UP: I stopped trying. I had luck once. But as I recall, they work very slowly.

Baylor Press: They are another small press that has to be careful with how many books they give away. Best to go through your review editor. 19/x
SUNY: Never had luck with them.

JPS: Never had luck with them either, unless the journal already had received the book from the publisher and the journal sent it to me.

Peeters: No luck there either. I suspect I'd have to go through the review editor. 20/x
What are publishers thinking about? Money mostly. I heard from a UP editor that it costs about $50,000 to publish a single monograph. They have to make that back somehow. To do that requires publicity. That's where we come in with our book reviews or assigned reading. 21/x
Smaller presses may reject you because they reserve their review copies for the top journals, b/c they're out of review copies, they don't ship abroad, they have small publicity budgets, you requested it in the wrong way, or b/c you haven't convinced them that it's worth it. 22/x
Fill out their form online or send a short email saying who you are and where the review will be submitted (or published). If I've gotten a "no" for a book I really needed, I've responded with a request for the best discount they can give me. 23/x
The publisher usually wants a review published within 6-9 months and they want you to send them a pdf of the published review. They send it to the author and may post a blurb to their website. 24/x
Don't get discouraged. Don't feel bad either. They budget for advertising. Some are larger than others and can afford to be generous. You may even begin to feel like you're friends with the publicists. You will definitely feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself.
Let me know if I missed anything. I'm also more than happy to answer questions.

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We had a conversation on the podcast about the racialization of dog breeds, where we talked to @BronwenDickey, the author of Pitbull: The Battle Over an American Icon.


In the 1930s, Pitbulls — which, as Bronwen pointed out to me over and over, don’t constitute a dog breed but a shape — used to be seen as the trusty sidekick of the proletariat, the Honda Civic of canines. (Think of “the Little Rascals” dog.)
.

That began changing in the postwar years and the rise of the suburbs. A pedigreed dog became a status symbol for the burgeoning white middle class. And pitbulls got left behind in the cities.

Aside: USians have flitted between different “dangerous” breeds and media-fueled panics around specific dogs. (anti-German xenophobia in the late 1800s fueled extermination programs of the spitz, a little German dog that newspapers said was vicious and spread disease.)

Some previously “dangerous” dogs get rebranded over the years — German shepherds, Dobermans, Rottweilers. But the thing their respective periods of contempt and concern had to do is that they were associated with some contemporarily undesirable group.
One can make an analysis of how many right wing groups published books before Modi in power and after Modi in power.

Would Akhilesh Mishra, Abhinav Prakash and many others have got a chance to write in an English daily before?

The VC of JNU, IIAS, Nehru center, RRML are all


Right wingers.

This, while some in our own fold were criticizing and backstabbing an excellent book (disagreeable in places) by Harsh Madhusudhan and Rajeev Mantri.

There have been at least 4 lit fests and think tanks developed by right wing in six years. Pondy and +

Mangalore are the prime of them.

There are more media channels and more anchors in neutral channels backing the government then those against in six years.

We have at least three big lawyers: Harish Salve, Mahesh Jethmalani and Mukul Rahotgi fighting cases. We have won

more legal battles than not and are able to get many things done that would look impossible just two years ago.

Yes, textbooks, deregulation, harrasment and cabalism of the left including tech suppression and killing spree of fascistic governments remain and everything is not

a bed of roses. But what was a bed of roses for the opposition is not a bed of roses for them too.
Udhav would have loved to see Republic closed. It hasn't.. Mamata would love to have killed the whose who in BJP - Not possible.. She would not like big wigs of TMC join BJP - Not
People have wondered why I have spent 3 days mostly pushing back on this idea that "defund the police" is bad marketing.

The reason is, it's an example of this magic trick, the oldest trick in the book.

It's a competition between what I call compass statements. And it matters.


There are a lot of people who think "defund the police" is a bad slogan.

But it's a directional intention. A compass statement.

The real effect of calling it a bad slogan, whether or not intentional (but usually intentional), is to reduce a compass statement down to a slogan.

Whenever there is a real problem and a clear solution, there will be people who benefit from the problem and therefore oppose the solution in a variety of ways.

And this is true of any real problem, not just the problem of lawless militarized white supremacist police.

There are people who oppose it directly using a wide variety of tactics, one of which is misconstruing anything—quite literally anything—said by those who propose solutions—any solutions.

They'd appreciate it if you mistake their deliberate misrepresentation for confusion.

The reason they'd appreciate if if you mistake their deliberate misrepresentation for confusion is, it wastes time that could have been spend on the solution trying to persuade them, with different arguments and metaphors or solutions.

Which they intend to misconstrue.

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