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Re: reviewing books...
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From: Diane Foote <dianebfoote_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:45:24 -0600
As a former marketing director for an independent (not small necessarily) publisher, a veteran of journal editorial staff, and a reviewer, I would like to offer some advice for publishers concerned about lack of review coverage. I know many publishers already know the following, so just delete if I'm speaking to the choir. But for those who don't know, and are truly perplexed about how to get coverage, here you go:
-Jonathan is right. Review editors' offices are flooded with materials submitted for review. For this reason, if you expect your titles to be reviewed, you must adhere to the guidelines for submitting materials established by each editorial office.
-The guidelines are set separately by each journal, but they don't differ too much. Look them up, and see which journals need 1 or 2 copies (ARCs or finished books), where to send them, and WHEN they need them.
-WHEN they need them is one of the most significant things to pay attention to. Monthly journals need several months' lead time. Bimonthly or weekly publications MAY need less time; check each journal's Web site.
-Journals do not want to review books after publication date. This is because the journals' readers want to get book orders placed before, or just around the time, a book is released.
-For this reason, it is not always practical to wait until a book is in finished format to submit it for review. Yes, ARCs and f&gs are expensive to produce. You do not need to produce hundreds of them. If you produce twenty, you can cover the major journals. A positive review in one or more of these journals guarantees hundreds, sometimes thousands, of sales. The expense is worth it.
-You do NOT need "Big Public Relations firms" to get review coverage in the journals. For feature coverage in consumer magazines, yes. For industry journal reviews, the most important thing you can do is adhere to the journals' guidelines regarding how many copies to send, WHEN they're needed, and to whom they should be sent.
-I'd suggest starting with Booklist, Kirkus, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, the Horn Book, VOYA, and the New York Times Book Review.
Good luck, everyone!! Foote
On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 7:00 PM, wrote:
On Nov 9, 2009, at 4:25 PM, csg wrote:
|| What have been the experiences of otherrs here? ||
Small presses (BalonaBooks has a catalog of 15 items, one more coming in May 2010) must rely on favorable reviews from the few large review journals for any response from the market. My friends in the industry tell me that their mailrooms are flooded with books offered for review. It is a crapshoot for a new book even to get noticed. On another hand, if your publisher is one of the Big Ones, your chance of being noticed is markedly improved.
We have been lucky with good reviews from Biggies for four or five of our YAs, but we cannot afford one of the Big Public Relations firms to frost the cake, so we rely on buzz created on the Web (mail list buzz). This, too, is a crapshoot, for librarians (I'm told) rely on the review journals and do not want to chance their hard-earned budgets on Nobodys.
To save a dollar or two, we now eschew ARCs and instead send (to those who request) a text-only .PDF of one or another of our newest. We have had very good response to this practice. We even receive occasional thanks from .pdf recipients, although it is we who should do the thanking.
Jonathan Pearce (Publisher, BalonaBooks) see
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:45:24 -0600
As a former marketing director for an independent (not small necessarily) publisher, a veteran of journal editorial staff, and a reviewer, I would like to offer some advice for publishers concerned about lack of review coverage. I know many publishers already know the following, so just delete if I'm speaking to the choir. But for those who don't know, and are truly perplexed about how to get coverage, here you go:
-Jonathan is right. Review editors' offices are flooded with materials submitted for review. For this reason, if you expect your titles to be reviewed, you must adhere to the guidelines for submitting materials established by each editorial office.
-The guidelines are set separately by each journal, but they don't differ too much. Look them up, and see which journals need 1 or 2 copies (ARCs or finished books), where to send them, and WHEN they need them.
-WHEN they need them is one of the most significant things to pay attention to. Monthly journals need several months' lead time. Bimonthly or weekly publications MAY need less time; check each journal's Web site.
-Journals do not want to review books after publication date. This is because the journals' readers want to get book orders placed before, or just around the time, a book is released.
-For this reason, it is not always practical to wait until a book is in finished format to submit it for review. Yes, ARCs and f&gs are expensive to produce. You do not need to produce hundreds of them. If you produce twenty, you can cover the major journals. A positive review in one or more of these journals guarantees hundreds, sometimes thousands, of sales. The expense is worth it.
-You do NOT need "Big Public Relations firms" to get review coverage in the journals. For feature coverage in consumer magazines, yes. For industry journal reviews, the most important thing you can do is adhere to the journals' guidelines regarding how many copies to send, WHEN they're needed, and to whom they should be sent.
-I'd suggest starting with Booklist, Kirkus, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, the Horn Book, VOYA, and the New York Times Book Review.
Good luck, everyone!! Foote
On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 7:00 PM, wrote:
On Nov 9, 2009, at 4:25 PM, csg wrote:
|| What have been the experiences of otherrs here? ||
Small presses (BalonaBooks has a catalog of 15 items, one more coming in May 2010) must rely on favorable reviews from the few large review journals for any response from the market. My friends in the industry tell me that their mailrooms are flooded with books offered for review. It is a crapshoot for a new book even to get noticed. On another hand, if your publisher is one of the Big Ones, your chance of being noticed is markedly improved.
We have been lucky with good reviews from Biggies for four or five of our YAs, but we cannot afford one of the Big Public Relations firms to frost the cake, so we rely on buzz created on the Web (mail list buzz). This, too, is a crapshoot, for librarians (I'm told) rely on the review journals and do not want to chance their hard-earned budgets on Nobodys.
To save a dollar or two, we now eschew ARCs and instead send (to those who request) a text-only .PDF of one or another of our newest. We have had very good response to this practice. We even receive occasional thanks from .pdf recipients, although it is we who should do the thanking.
Jonathan Pearce (Publisher, BalonaBooks) see
---Received on Tue 10 Nov 2009 12:45:24 PM CST