# How can I find out the month and year of a book's publication? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447 "2007-03-25T19:41:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/1 "2007-03-25T19:41:22Z")
Wikipedia will tell me the year, but for my purpose I need to know the month as well. Any ideas? I don’t so much need to know the time of a specific book as I need to be able to have a character explain a trip to a bookstore in November 1987 as being occasioned by a desire to read a recently-published novel. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/2 "2007-03-25T20:07:23Z")
Ummm…open the front page, & read the publication date? It’s printed inside the book… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/3 "2007-03-25T20:13:23Z")
Better to look for what books were out at the time and pick one. New York Times Best Sellers, November 1, 1987: Fiction: 1. Kaleidoscope by Danielle Steele 2. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow 3. Leaving Home by Garrison Keillor 4. Heaven and Hell by John Jakes 5. Patriot Games by Tom Clancy 6. Beloved by Toni Morrison 7. A Southern Family by Gail Godwin 8. Hot Flashes by Barbara Raskin 9. Sarum by Edward Rutherford 10. Legacy by James Mitchener 11. Misery by Stephen King 12. The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy 13. Freedom by William Safire 14. Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut 15. Team Yankee by Harold Coyle Nonfiction: 1. Veil by Bob Woodward 2. Time Flies by Bill Cosby 3. Spycatcher by Peter Wright 4. Man of the House by Tip O’Neill **Bluebeard** was on the list for the first time, so it would have been new. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/4 "2007-03-25T20:40:48Z")
Amazon gives the pub month. So do at least some entries in _Publisher’s Weekly._ ---
**Author:** ![ShiefferSaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@ShiefferSaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShiefferSaw)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/5 "2007-03-25T20:45:09Z")
I dont know if all books publish the month along with the year. I know they all should have a year, but I’ve rarely ever seen them publish the month as well. try and look up the title of the book on a publishers website. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/6 "2007-03-25T21:00:42Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] Amazon gives the pub month. So do at least some entries in _Publisher’s Weekly._ [/QUOTE] Maybe I’m stupid, but where? I’m looking at the [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) entry for _The Secret History_, for instance, but I don’t see month & year publication info, only year. Of course, I could just get over myself and pick something random, since it’s a throwaway line of dialog and the scene in question takes place in the next-to-last month of the year. I’m thinking I should add “be less anal” in my new year’s resolution. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/7 "2007-03-25T21:03:38Z")
For most but not all books, the month and year first issued, often along with additional printings, is imprinted on the verso of the title page. I’m quite sure the Bowker people have a database that would retrieve the information of what books were released in a given month, but having been out of the book industry for close to 30 years, I have no clue where or how to access it. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/8 "2007-03-25T21:16:46Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] Wikipedia will tell me the year, but for my purpose I need to know the month as well. Any ideas? I don’t so much need to know the time of a specific book as I need to be able to have a character explain a trip to a bookstore in November 1987 as being occasioned by a desire to read a recently-published novel. Any ideas? [/QUOTE] You are too hung up on this. You’re writing fiction, aren’t you? The only way I can see how just making something up would NOT work, is if the character who is explaining the trip to the bookstore is actually LYING about the trip to the bookstore, and doesn’t want to get caught out by naming a book that came out later. Whew. Now I’m overthinking this. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/9 "2007-03-26T01:55:30Z")
Hm. For example, [this](http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Harry-Potter-Unauthorized-Examination/dp/1932100881/ref=sr_1_1/102-1926742-3163319?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174874100&sr=1-1) forthcoming book shows month and year. For Donna Tartt’s _The Secret History,_ be sure you’re at the hardback first edition page, which does show a month and year (September 5, 1992). ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/10 "2007-03-26T02:17:21Z")
Just to throw another monkey wrench into the equation: Aren’t many books released well in advance of their ‘publication dates’? I seem to recall reading this somewhere (sorry, don’t recall. It may have been a newspaper gossip column). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/11 "2007-03-26T10:54:16Z")
[QUOTE=postcards] Just to throw another monkey wrench into the equation: Aren’t many books released well in advance of their ‘publication dates’? I seem to recall reading this somewhere (sorry, don’t recall. It may have been a newspaper gossip column). [/QUOTE] Not really – review copies might be floating around, but released to the public, no. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/12 "2007-03-26T15:10:03Z")
Okay. Go to Amazon, pull up the Advance Search function, and enter only November in the Month field and 1987 in the year field. It pulls up a large set of books. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-month-and-year-of-a-books-publication/397447/13 "2007-03-26T15:41:35Z")
Some publishers include both month and year of publication; other publishers use the year only. It’s only become the custom for most publishers to include both month and year relatively recently. In the past only a tiny handful did. And those often hid the information behind a code. Books are often made available earlier than the official date of publication. Publication dates are loose slots in a schedule for most books. Some notable books have very firm dates because they will make news, but the other 99.9% don’t. Copyright date is not necessarily the date of publication. It’s common to see, say, a 2007 copyright on a book in your hands in December of 2006. That’s because of the looseness of actual publication and the general habit of publishers to make their books seem as fresh and hot as Krispy Kreme donuts. The publishing business is not rational, and never has been.