The challenge of getting reviewed
When we authors build our promotion plan for a new book, reviews are always a part of that strategy. With a new novel (The Piranha Assignment) coming out October 1 I have been chasing reviews for months. Getting a book reviewed not only helps to raise awareness of your work, it also legitimizes you as a published author. In some ways it doesn’t seem like a real book until some objective outsider comments on it.
At one time you could gather some reviews by simply mailing copies of your book to several newspapers around the country. However, in the last five or six years book reviews have been fading from the news stands. Financially weak newspapers have been eliminating their book review sections. In some cases book review space shrank and got tucked into the culture or entertainment section. Book editors and critics have also been cut from the payroll. And hundreds of newspapers folded completely.
“The key word for the changes afoot is proliferation. The number of books being published has ballooned from some fifty thousand books published annually in the 1970s to more than three million in 2010 and climbing."
The good news is that reading hasn’t gone away. I see a lot of book discussion on the internet and I have visited several reading groups. People in both camps complain that they have few guides leading them to the best reading. A lot of bloggers are reviewing books, and many of them have large followings. So reviews haven’t disappeared, we just have to look in different places.
On the other hand, thanks to print-on-demand and the rise of self-publishing, there are about 60 times as many books going into print every year than there were 40 years ago. Books do still get reviewed in newspapers, magazines, radio and television shows, but now you are just as likely to find reviews on social media sites like Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter and Library-Thing, on Amazon.com and a variety of podcasts. However, most of these reviews are written by fellow readers, not literary professionals. Writers wanting to promote their work want it reviewed by people readers trust. I thought I’d list those I think have the most clout.
At the top of the list, in my opinion, are those well established publications that do prepublication reviews. Publishers Weekly , Booklist , Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews are examples of magazines that preview books in advance. Their target audience includes librarians, editors and broadcast producers – the people you most want to know that your book is coming out. Booklist covers about 8,000 books a year. Kirkus Reviews is broader in scope and reviews some self-published books. Library Journal publishes more than 6,000 reviews a year. They sift through thousands of galleys every week and write about books 6 months in advance of publication. And before you decide that librarians are old fashioned, note that Library Journal 18,000 subscribers but about a 150,000 Twitter followers.
Publisher’s Weekly sends a daily newsletter to about 37,000 people, and about 100,000 follow them on Twitter. So while their target group is publishers, editors, publicists, booksellers, and authors, lots of readers read them too. Every week PW’s reviewers editors consider between 300 and 600 books. They publish 150 reviews in the magazine, and another 20 or so on line. They are focusing more and more on small presses.
I’ve got more to say about places to get reviewed, but I’ll save it for next time.
At one time you could gather some reviews by simply mailing copies of your book to several newspapers around the country. However, in the last five or six years book reviews have been fading from the news stands. Financially weak newspapers have been eliminating their book review sections. In some cases book review space shrank and got tucked into the culture or entertainment section. Book editors and critics have also been cut from the payroll. And hundreds of newspapers folded completely.
“The key word for the changes afoot is proliferation. The number of books being published has ballooned from some fifty thousand books published annually in the 1970s to more than three million in 2010 and climbing."
The good news is that reading hasn’t gone away. I see a lot of book discussion on the internet and I have visited several reading groups. People in both camps complain that they have few guides leading them to the best reading. A lot of bloggers are reviewing books, and many of them have large followings. So reviews haven’t disappeared, we just have to look in different places.
On the other hand, thanks to print-on-demand and the rise of self-publishing, there are about 60 times as many books going into print every year than there were 40 years ago. Books do still get reviewed in newspapers, magazines, radio and television shows, but now you are just as likely to find reviews on social media sites like Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter and Library-Thing, on Amazon.com and a variety of podcasts. However, most of these reviews are written by fellow readers, not literary professionals. Writers wanting to promote their work want it reviewed by people readers trust. I thought I’d list those I think have the most clout.
At the top of the list, in my opinion, are those well established publications that do prepublication reviews. Publishers Weekly , Booklist , Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews are examples of magazines that preview books in advance. Their target audience includes librarians, editors and broadcast producers – the people you most want to know that your book is coming out. Booklist covers about 8,000 books a year. Kirkus Reviews is broader in scope and reviews some self-published books. Library Journal publishes more than 6,000 reviews a year. They sift through thousands of galleys every week and write about books 6 months in advance of publication. And before you decide that librarians are old fashioned, note that Library Journal 18,000 subscribers but about a 150,000 Twitter followers.
Publisher’s Weekly sends a daily newsletter to about 37,000 people, and about 100,000 follow them on Twitter. So while their target group is publishers, editors, publicists, booksellers, and authors, lots of readers read them too. Every week PW’s reviewers editors consider between 300 and 600 books. They publish 150 reviews in the magazine, and another 20 or so on line. They are focusing more and more on small presses.
I’ve got more to say about places to get reviewed, but I’ll save it for next time.
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