Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 11

Reviewers Reviewed

much as a year following the publication date, their impact on the
life of a book in the conunerdal market is usually small.
New and relatively unknown writers' works are rarely reviewed
in the slicks; thus the most important of these periodicals for first or
second books are the pulp reviews. A review in a daily paper,
particularly one with a prominent book page or regular columnists, is
more important than a review in a weekly, unless it is a weekly that
offers a separate arts supplement or magazine directed toward local
interests. Large city dailies are more important than small city
dailies not only because of a difference in circulation, but also because
they tend to review several times a week, not just on Sunday.
The trades tend to review almost all new books, at least briefly.
Librarians and other reviewers read the trades to select what to order
or what to review; so they are important for initial sales if the
review is good, and less so if the review is bad. A quick survey of
several of the trades over the past two years reveals that they tend
to give about 60% bad reviews, about 10% raves, and the remainder
fall into the plot-summary and the ho-hum class: reviews published
with no specific recommendation one way or the other.
The process of assigning books from publishers to reviewer outlets
follows a fairly consistent pattern. About three months before
publication of a new book, an author is asked to supply the publisher
with a list of newspapers, magazines, or individuals who might be
interested in reviewing his/her book. This list is merged with a
master list the publisher uses for all books of a particular type or
genre. Galleys of the book are then mailed out to these book review
editors and to any other editors who are believed to be receptive
either to a particular sort of book or to a particular author. Just before
the publication date, fiiushed copies are furnished to the rest of the
combined lists, particularly to individual writers or freelance
reviewers who might be willing to try to place a review on their own.
The timing of this process of sending galleys to reviewers is
crucial and can have a profound effect on advance sales and
promotion, particularly since publishers’ sales representatives and
large book distribution companies' salesmen also read book reviews to
learn what's hot and what's not. I was told, for example, that in the
case of C. W. Smith's novel, Buffalo Nickel (Poseidon, 1989), galleys
were not sent to the trades on schedule, so the book's publication date