Vanishing Book Reviews

by Charlotte Hinger

The mother of all book reviews is the New York Times. The lucky author whose book is reviewed by this prestigious publication will see sales leap. We should all be this fortunate. The other "best" places to be reviewed are Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Booklist.

Kirkus Reviews gives a prize of $50,000 to the best fiction book, the best non-fiction, and young reader's literature. Wow!

But here's the rub when it comes to reviews. Library Journal gets more than 60,000 requests a year. So does Booklist. That's 5000 a month, 1200 a week, 250 books a day. Kirkus Reviews receives 200 submissions per day.

My Recent historical novel, Mary's Place, did not get reviewed by any of these publications. Previously, two of my mysteries received starred reviews from Kirkus, and all of my other historical novels had been received by at least one of the magazines.

I was disappointed. Dumb me, I had not realized how much the publishing world had changed. Review sections are much smaller. Magazines are thinner because of the price of paper and because of the decrease in advertising revenue.

All of the places which grant reviews have guidelines. Following guidelines is crucial. One of the most constant "rules" is to submit a book about four months ahead of publication.

Here are the guidelines from Kirkus Reviews:

The following guidelines are intended to help publishers get the right titles into the right hands at the right time so they can receive consideration.

WHEN TO SUBMIT Kirkus will consider titles that are submitted as digital galleys or e-books at least 4-5 months before publication date. As soon as a book is reviewed—usually 2-3 months before its publication date—the publisher is notified of the review rundate.

WHAT TO SUBMIT We consider all new adult hardcover or original trade-paperback fiction, general-audience nonfiction, and children’s and teen books. Editors make individual judgments about coverage based on merit or potential interest.

Kirkus does not review books in the categories listed below in its traditional program. (Kirkus Indie does not put genre or publication date limits on submissions; see more information about that program here.)

—already published books
—reprints of books that Kirkus has previously reviewed
—self-published titles
—print-on-demand titles
—poetry (except children’s and teen)
—cookbooks
—crafting books
—guidebooks, including travel guides
—personal finance
—textbooks
—specialized technical or professional works
—any work intended primarily for an academic audience
—reference books
—instruction or how-to manuals
—screenplays or other dramatic scripts
—computer and technology handbooks
—books of regional interest

Fortunately, there are oodles of websites created by book bloggers who might give your book the attention it deserves.

Fried Chicken

 by Charlotte Hinger

 I found this really great cartoon in The New Yorker. It was perfect for my Type M post. I really wanted to use it. It featured this chicken and the ridiculous efforts a certain social media company  (you can bet it will remain nameless) uses to win users to their network

I can't use it. People who know what they are doing (not me) say that nothing will get one sued faster than copying images without permission. What's really sad is after many years I have mastered the knock of inserting pictures into blogs. Some of my friends mastered the art at the very beginning. They just went plink with their index finger and voila--witty entries appeared that were illustrated.

The cartoon was so applicable to what's on my mind: marketing. I can't use the cartoon, but I can tell you what it was about. A guy is walking down a hotel corridor carrying a chicken, knocking on each door, telling each occupant that he would like like for them to join his professional network.

I thought it was hilarious because it summed up the sheer looniness of much of today's marketing efforts. The number of books being published every year is astronomical. Far too many for the market to absorb. The industry counts as a book a work that has an International Standard Book Number. No doubt there are many more that do not have this number. 

The whole purpose of marketing is to get a book into the hands of persons who might want to read it. One of the surest ways to do this is to win an award given to writers in that genre. I always read the Edgar winners and the finalists. I read the winners of Western Writers of America Spur Award. I read the Pulitzer prize winners for fiction and some of the finalists. There are many other contests that interest me.

Another sure way to focus attention on a book is through reviews. Unfortunately, the publications with the most influence (New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and BookList) receive so many books in a week that it's difficult to make the cut. The New York Times receives about 1000 books a week. Of course, there's a substanial increase in sales of a title when it's featured. 

Sadly, with the winnowing of small town or regional newspapers there are fewer publications that try to call attention to local authors or novels that have something to say about issues in that locale. 

Marketing is an important part of the business. I've always thought those of us who have had the good fortune to be traditionally published have a duty to our publishers to do our best to sell our books. 

There's always someone waiting in the wings who would be tickled plumb to death to take our place!

 

A Bad Writing Day and a Good Review

I had a good writing day yesterday. Today, not so much. To begin with, I awoke to an infestation of ants in my kitchen. There are very few things more disgusting that finding ants all over everything in your sparkling clean kitchen. It’s a little bit cooler today*, and overcast, so I’m thinking the ants are taking advantage of the fact that they can emerge from their den in the daytime and not be instantly crisp fried.

So I spent half an hour or so moving all my utensils and spraying the little buggers with fruit wash, which is lemony and kills them dead while making my kitchen smell lovely and not poisoning me at the same time. Then I have fifteen minutes of cleaning up the carnage with disinfecting wipes, after which the toaster oven, can opener, and their friends go back into their places. The fruit wash is used up, so I’m off to the store to buy more, and for good measure, some ant traps for the window sill.

I have two blog entries due over the next two days, so after fixing a bit of lunch for my better half and myself, I spent an hour on the computer writing up one post, followed by finally checking my email and social media and responding to everyone who needs a response. By this time I have become stiff and sore from standing in one place (not to be left off the latest health fad bandwagon, I’ve been writing standing up). I took some time to pay bills, and noticed that one long-standing bill has gone up for some reason not explained. Like an idiot, I called the billing department to find out why.

Forty-five minutes later, I am informed that this is an across-the-board rate hike for everyone in Arizona, and she’s so sorry that I didn’t receive a notification.

It is now 4:30 p.m. I still have to finish this entry before Don gets home and supper needs to be made. I’m almost done! I may have an hour to get some work done on the WIP!

So, to end on a high note, I’m appending an excerpt of the first review of my November release, All Men Fear Me, from the August edition of Kirkus Reviews. It was a very good review, much to my pleasure and satisfaction. I hope this is a harbinger of things to come.

“When the U.S. enters World War I, hate and suspicion triumph over rational thought…Naturally, Alafair is worried about her sons being drafted, but she never suspects that a visit from her brother, Rob Gunn, will cause problems with people she’s known for years. Rob is a union organizer who’s lying low after his release from an internment camp for his involvement in an Arizona miners’ strike. While everyone waits to hear whose number has come up in the draft, strife breaks out between the pro-war patriots, who think anyone with a foreign-sounding name is a spy, and the anti-war socialists, some of whom want to march on Washington and take over the government… Casey’s skill at making you care about the injustices of a time and place not often covered in history books is second to none. The admirable mystery is the cherry on top.” Kirkus Reviews, August 17, 2015

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*“Cooler” is 102º. I live in Arizona.