Please, help....the New York Times book review editors

by Libby Sternberg

This week, the Public Editor at the New York Times has addressed a question about why the paper publishes several reviews and/or stories about a single book when there are so many "deserving writers out there" (to quote the Times's theater and books editor, Scott Heller, interviewed in the Public Editor post). The question came up recently, apparently after the Times had reviewed a book by Nathaniel Rich twice in April and also published an essay by the author and other related pieces.

But in 2010, the same question was raised  by authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner when the Gray Lady ended up giving similar treatment -- several reviews, at least -- to Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom.

Said Picoult at that time:

"When in today's market you only have a limited review space for books, I wonder what the rationale is for the New York Times to review the same book twice, sometimes in the same week."

Picoult and Weiner had more expansive complaints about how commercial fiction is generally ignored by the Times and how women writers of commercial fiction don't get much coverage at all there. Said Weiner in the 2010 piece:

 

"I think I remember seeing one review of (romance author) Nora Roberts once, whereas (thriller writer) Lee Child can count on all of his books getting reviewed. This strikes me as fundamentally unfair."

That women's issue aside, the Times's public editor addressed the duplicative reviews a few days ago. And...the reason might surprise you:
 

(Books Editor Scott Heller) explained that The Times’s three staff book critics — Michiko Kakutani, Janet Maslin and Dwight Garner — make their own decisions about what to review. They do so without regard to, or knowledge of, what the editors of the Sunday Book Review, a separate entity, may have assigned or have planned. The Book Review has its own editor and staff.

Holy Intraoffice Memo, Batman! The book critics are monks who've taken a vow of silence? They can't talk with each other? 

Perhaps a rare photo of a NYT book review editor?

This is a problem that the best minds in America surely can resolve. I have some suggestions (cough:: whiteboard::cough cough:: email::Morse Code...), but would welcome others. In fact, I'm particularly fond of any steampunkish ideas, so please feel free to comment with those types of suggestions (mechanical pigeons with messages in their claws? Yeah, I'm feelin' it.)  And to ignite your inner creative fire, here's some fuel: By the end of Friday, April 26, 2013 (Eastern time), I'll choose at random a winner from comments, and you'll get a free digital copy of any Istoria book of your choosing...as long as you promise to review it (honestly, of course) on Amazon, Goodreads, BN.com or elsewhere!

Please, the New York Times needs your suggestions--how can its book reviewers avoid reviewing the same book multiple times?

___
Libby Sternberg is editor-in-chief of Istoria Books.

 

PRESS RELEASE: Two Russian-Themed Novels Acquired!

January 31, 2012

ISTORIA BOOKS ACQUIRES DIGITAL RIGHTS

TO TWO RUSSIAN-THEMED NOVELS:

Joyce Yarrow’s mystery: The Last Matryoshka

and

Russian native Mary Fisherov's historical love story: Love’s Destiny Foretold

Istoria Books, a digital publisher dedicated to releasing “eBooks You Want to Read at Prices You Want to Pay” ™ has recently acquired digital rights to two novels, both with Russian elements.

Istoria will publish Joyce Yarrow’s mystery, The Last Matryoshka, in early March 2012. The Last Matryoshka was released in hardcover by Five Star/Cengage in December 2010. A mystery as layered as the Russian nesting doll of its title, The Last Matryoshka follows a poetry-writing P.I. as she attempts to keep her Russian émigré stepfather from being fingered for murder. Action in the book takes place in both Brooklyn and Moscow. Library Journal has praised The Last Matryoshka, calling it an “intricately layered tale of vengeance and hatred flavored with a Russian cultural backdrop…”

Yarrow is a Pushcart nominee, whose stories and poems have been widely published. Her first book, Ask the Dead (Martin Brown 2005) was selected by The Poisoned Pen as a Recommended First Novel and hailed as “Bronx noir.” A Bronx native, she now lives in Seattle and gives regular workshops on the use of place in novels. Yarrow is represented by Stephanie Rostan of Levine and Greenberg Literary Agency. 

In May 2012, Istoria will release Love’s Destiny Foretold by Russian native Mary Fisherov. A sweeping historical love story that brings together an exiled Russian countess, an opera singer, and a world-traveling playboy in the slums and mansions of late nineteenth-century New York City, Love’s Destiny Foretold is a combination of delicious action and witty surprises, for fans of larger-than-life storytelling, epic romance, and some sly satires of contemporary Russian government. Fisherov lampoons Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev through two Russian agents in her novel.

Fisherov is an internationally published writer of literary fiction whose novels have been translated into German, Spanish, and French. She has been awarded several literary prizes in her native Russia. Love’s Destiny Foretold is her first work in English.

Fisherov, who comes from a literary family, is on the Classics faculty of a California state university.

ABOUT ISTORIA:

Istoria Books, founded in 2010, publishes fiction in a variety of genres: romance, women’s fiction, historical, literary, mystery, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy, young adult. Submission guidelines are available at their website--www.IstoriaBooks.com

Istoria Books releases are available on all major ebook etailers, most notably Amazon’s Kindle store, Smashwords.com and Bn.com, in addition to others.

A humorous piece by Istoria Editor-in-Chief Libby Sternberg about the evolution to the Kindle (“From Papyrus to Gutenberg to Kindle”) was published by the Wall Street Journal on January 5, 2011.

Reviewers interested in Istoria Books offerings should contact Libby Sternberg at LibbyMalinSternberg@gmail.com or IstoriaBks@gmail.com

###

An Open Letter to Book Review Editors

Dear Book Review Editor:

As an author myself, and now as a publisher, I'm a big fan of book blogs that review books and allow authors to interact with readers.

However, authors and publishers alike know that print reviews are crucial, as well. If you work for one of the big print reviewers--at Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, national magazines or city newspapers --you already know you have a great deal of influence on what books will sell well.

In fact, a small print publisher I know, who--like all small presses--struggles to get attention for his quality offerings, told me he can count on a several-thousand-copies sales jump if one of his books manages to snag a review in one of your publications. Several thousand is often a small press's full print run for an offering.

Through tradition and quality reviewing, your publications have built reputations that readers rely on.

Time marches on, though, and now you have to confront the reality of e-books. While many book blogs have embraced digital books and review them on an equal footing with print books, many of you print reviewers are still wrestling with your e-book review policy. A quick email survey of print pubication reviewers revealed to me that most of you aren't reviewing e-books yet and many of you haven't thought about how you'll handle them if you do decide to review them.

The questions you probably face are:

• Should we only review e-book editions of print books we previously failed to review?
• Should we only review e-books by print-published authors, especially well-known authors?
• Should we only review e-books offered by the e-book arms of the big print publishing companies?
• Should we review e-books by independent, unknown authors and from e-publishers not affiliated with big print publishing houses?
  

I would suggest that if you answer yes to the first three questions, thus restricting your e-book reviews to well-knowns, your reviews will have limited value. Readers of e-books don't need guidance on authors they already know or have heard of, so much as they need counsel on and exposure to digital authors they don't know or haven't heard of.

Because e-publishing allows authors to go directly to reading consumers -- bypassing print publishing and bookstore "gatekeepers" -- readers confront a vast array of offerings, many of them only available digitally. Some of these books are definitely worthy of attention.

And yes, some of them are not good at all--poorly written, marginally edited, and maybe even incorrectly formatted for digital platforms.

Right now, readers of e-books rely on book blogs, recommendations from friends, email groups devoted to e-book news, and the sampling feature of e-book publishing (where readers can download free samples of books before purchasing) in order to make purchase decisions.

Your reviewers could be providing a tremendous service to these readers by joining the growing conversation.

But here's a change you'll face as you approach this new field. Currently, your reviewers can afford to be reactive. They can sit and wait for publishers to send them ARCs and press releases months before a publishing date. They choose--or you direct them to choose-- from these offerings, delivered to their very cubicle, and decide what to review, with a fairly long lead time to read the book and write the review.

However, many, many e-book authors won't know how to reach you or won't be able to grab your attention (even small publishers such as ours might find this a challenge, as well!).

And, because e-publishing is faster than print publishing, with only a few months between signing of a contract and "publication," long lead times between receipt of an e-ARC and the release of the actual e-book disappear.

Therefore, your e-book reviewers will have to be more proactive if they're going to identify worthy offerings for their readers.

And they're either going to have to be faster or rethink the "rules" about posting reviews immediately before publication of a book.

In the e-book world, after all, books won't vanish from shelves before you have a chance to review them. In other words, if an e-book comes out in March, and you don't write your review until April or May or even later, the review still matters.

It may seem counterintuitive to suggest you expand your book review coverage to include e-books when many of you are facing shrinking column inches for book reviews at all. But the e-book market is rapidly expanding. You've read the stories yourself, I'm sure. A larger and larger percentage of publishers' revenues are coming from e-book sales.

You ignore that growing market at your peril. Start the conversation now about how you'll handle e-book reviews, keeping in mind that this is a whole new world. The e-book market is different--it's faster, it's more varied, it contains fewer guideposts, and it requires nimble and proactive review policies.

Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,
Libby Sternberg
Editor-in-Chief
Istoria Books
eBooks You Want to Read at Prices You Want to Pay
www.IstoriaBooks.com