Her work focuses on eighteenth-century literature and culture, the British novel, book history, textual studies, Jane Austen, and early fiction by women. Barchas' first book, Graphic Design, Print Culture, and the Eighteenth-Century Novel (Cambridge UP, 2003), won the SHARP book prize for best work in the field of book history. In addition to several editing projects, Barchas has published articles on writers from "the long eighteenth century" in journals such as ELH, Review of English Studies, Eighteenth-Century Life, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Nineteenth-Century Literature, and Persuasions. Her most recent book is Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012).