How to Submit a Book Excerpt

1. Pick a published book

Books should reflect the various social, economic, and cultural backgrounds and various lifestyles, experiences and interests of our diverse communities. Contemporary books are better choices than classic books, simply because classic books are already widely available.

      • Check some out from the library
      • Go to a bookstore
      • Find online

Check out We Need Diverse Books Lists for ideas.

2. Check the title for an existing submission using the search field below. If the title appears while typing, please select another book.

3. Log in, then click on Submission Form from the Submit a Book Excerpt menu

4. Find the Lexile Level or use the Analyzer

Finding the Lexile Level is pretty easy, just go to the Lexile Hub Book Finder, type in the title of the book, and make note of the numeric Lexile Level.

If the book you selected is not in the Book Finder, you can use the Lexile Analyzer. The analyzer requires you to login, but the account is free for educators. Enter up to 500 words to get a Lexile Level. Your excerpt can be longer than 500 words, its just the analyzer that has a limit.

5. Pick an excerpt following Fair Use Legal Doctrine, summarized below

    • small percentage of the total work
    • excerpt does not include most important part (no plot spoilers!)

Anything that risks the publisher’s ability to sell the book could be in violation of Fair Use. Selecting from the first few pages/chapters is a good way to stay within the Fair Use doctrine. Amazon, Google Book Finder, and Book Browse all post book excerpts within Fair Use, so explore those sites to get a stronger sense of what is allowed. 

Excerpts should be interesting on their own as we aim to “hook” readers to inspire them to read the rest of the book. Thus, the length is variable. Sometimes a few paragraphs are enough. Other times, an entire chapter is needed. 

How to use your phone’s Optical Character Reader

Although book excerpts found digitally and copied into the submission form is the easiest way to go, there is a way to submit passages from paperbound books. Open the camera on you smartphone and focus it on the page. On iPhones, the Optical Character Reader (OCR) will automatically appear in the lower corner. It looks like the outline of a square with 3 horizontal lines inside. Tap on that and then you will be able to drag your finger to copy text from the image. Paste the text into an email to yourself so that when you get to a computer, you can copy from your email into the submission form and correct any formatting issues. Most Android phones also have a built in OCR with the camera, but each varies a little. You can look up how to use the OCR for your specific phone.

6. Enter Comprehension Questions

The submission form also includes 2 comprehension questions. The first question should be a “who” or “what” question that can be answered directly from the excerpt. The second question should require a little more thinking, such as a “how” or “why” question, or a question that requires inference.

 7. Click Submit!

8. Check your email for confirmation, it may be in your SPAM or Promotions folder