When is the best time to run a book review?
A couple bloggers emailed this weekend letting me know about reviews for a book on which I’m working. Great news — except the book isn’t on sale for a month. Grrr. Then again, in book publicity (or any publicity, really) we’re always seeking to generate early buzz. And isn’t this early buzz? Hmmm.
If you enjoy overanalyzing book publishing issues — as you well know I do — here are a few to consider. Once upon a time, before the Internet, publishers always wanted book reviews to run on or after the publication dates of books, since early reviews only frustrated eager readers unable to find books in stores. That’s changed a little since most readers are now well-versed in the practice of preordering books from online booksellers. Nevertheless, many of us still tend to prefer reviews run on or around the publication dates of books since it seems that many consumers prefer items to be shipped on or around the time they click “Buy.” Or do they?
Publishing trade publications are one obvious exception to this pub-date rule, primarily because readers are not ordinary consumers but bookstore buyers, journalists covering the book industry and others who must plan their purchases / coverage weeks or months ahead of time. Quarterly or bi-annual publications are another exception for obvious reasons.
Another issue for journalists and bloggers to consider when publishing reviews is that publishers receive finished books about six weeks before they go on sale, so just because you’re looking at a book (and not a galley / ARC) doesn’t mean books are available for sale. Check the press material (or online) for the publication date so if you do run the review early, you can at least make readers aware of that fact.
A third publication date-related issue that can get confusing is when books go on sale in different countries on different dates (a somewhat common occurrence). The safest tactic is to request a book from the publishing house in the country where most of the blog’s readers live and use that book’s pub date — if a blog is popular in the UK, for example, request a book from the UK publisher and use the British book’s publication date.
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So I’m wondering: as a reader, do you preorder books about which you’ve read a week — or a month — ahead of time regardless of the on-sale date? Or given a choice between a book that’s available now and one available at some point in the future, would you buy the book currently on sale (assuming both appear to be equally enticing)?
The end of the Book World as we know it … or not
Many have bemoaned the end of the Washington Post’s stand-alone book section, and as a book publicist, my initial reaction was angst suitable for the approaching apocalypse. Bloggers, not surprisingly, reacted with rather more equanimity. Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind’s Sarah Weinman pointed out that the book section will continue to exist online (as well as split between the Outlook and Style sections in the print edition) with a large complement of editors, writers and freelancers. Terry Teachout of About Last Night said the lack of a print edition is insignificant since he reads all newspapers online anyway.
Mark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation declared that the future of book reviewing is on the web, and indeed, several book sections / book editors / former book editors maintain book blogs including Jerome Weeks (formerly of The Dallas Morning News), Frank Wilson (formerly of The Philadelphia Inquirer), The Boston Globe, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel and The Washington Post itself.
So then I came to my senses. Is this really the end of book reviewing or is it the start of something new? After all, virtually all online book reviews boast buy links for books — forget about having to remember or look up an author’s name or a book title. It’s true that listenership dropped for radio stations when the television was invented, but entertainment endured (as did radio stations, for that matter). Likewise, while the format of reviews (and books) may change, reading — and writing – will continue. Gutenberg was an innovator 500 years ago — we need to continue his tradition. Those professing sentimentality for their book pages trudging around with reviews clipped from book sections will lose out. The rest of us don’t have to miss this boat.
Morning Brief — Thursday, November 20
Pretty much everyone working in publishing has heard of The Four-Hour Work Week, the catchily-titled book that made it to The New York Times bestseller list. Some of you may also have heard that the book (and author Timothy Ferriss) made waves online. Mashable talks with Ferriss about his online marketing efforts, which included reaching out bloggers as far as a year in advance of publication. (I’ve sometimes been told not to contact bloggers too far ahead of time, I guess because bloggers and people who read blogs, well, just DON’T know how to preorder books online. Or something.)
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If you need to send large files (Powerpoint presentations or JPEGs, for example), Mashable reminds us we can use You Send It.
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It seems we’re reading about layoffs in the newspaper / magazine business every day now. Even Lucky, one of the most successful magazine debuts in recent years, has met its match.
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Over in New Jersey, as I’m sure everyone has heard, the Newark Star-Ledger has been busy slashing its staff. Editor & Publisher lists the names of journalists *not* taking buy outs. Book editor Deborah Jerome-Cohen’s name was not on the list, so this may not bode well for us.
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Not surprisingly, book coverage has really suffered from the downturn in the print business. My company subscribes to Nexis / Lexis and our librarian has set up daily searches of reviews / mentions of all our imprints’ books. I used to scroll through maybe 50 stories a day that mentioned our books. For the past month or so, I don’t think I’ve seen more than 10 a day.
Morning Brief — Thursday, September 25
Stacey J. Miller of The Book Promotion Blog links to a podcast with All Things Considered producer Carol Klinger, who talks about how she picks guests for the show.
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The Publicity Hound reminds us not to neglect outreach to weekly newspapers (alternative papers, ethnic publications, trade journals, etc.)
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Short Stack, the Washington Post’s book blog, apologizes for not reviewing a lot of good books. They list several books they thought should have been reviewed but weren’t, pretty much because there are too many books and too little space. Really now. This reminds me of a column I read years ago by the Rocky Mountain News’ book editor Patti Thorn — knowing that she would never be able to review all the books she wanted to, Thorn wrote “reviews” of the half dozen books she was in the middle of reading. (She made it clear that she had not finished the books so the piece wasn’t misleading in any way.) It was one of the most fun, clever book columns I’ve read (albeit not one in the running for a Pulitzer for criticism).
Morning Brief — Friday, June 27
RIP Newark Star-Ledger book section. Ben from Viking Penguin reports the paper is ending its Sunday Perspectives section (editorial, opinion and books) as of this Sunday and replacing it with a brief section at the back of the features section (if space allows).
Reviews of translations
Three Percent, a blog that covers translations, just posted a piece about whether the NYTBR is covering more or less works in translation.
