Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 7

Reviewers Reviewed
Second to acceptance of a naanuscript, possibly nothing in the life
of a book is more important than a review. A bad review can be the
kiss of death for a book; a good one can launch an author on his way to
the Best Seller list and a Pulitzer Prize. Everyone in the industry
reads reviews, and their impact often dictates the life expectancy of
a book and forces nw keting decisions about a work, even when it's in
galley form. The first four or five published opinions on a new book
can sometimes determine whether or not the publishing house will
promote it or simply put it out and let it stand or fall on its corporal
merits. One publisher reportedly requires a minimum of one-hundred
reviews~of which no more than twenty-five may be negative—of a
first novel to prevent it from being remaindered at the first
opportunity. A writer's second or third title will be harder to sell on
the heels of a book that failed to attract the positive notice of a wide
range of book review editors across the country.
The average first novel is printed in numbers ranging around 7,500
hardback copies. But a sell-out of the first printing is unlikely to
yield sufficient figures to justify a reprint or a genuine push for
paperback, overseas, book club, or film sales; not without something
else. The something else that is most effective is the review. One
paperback editor from Dell explained his decision not to offer a
paperback deal on a hard cover book with only respectable sales
figures this way:
It doesn't matter how well the book reads or how well
we think it might sell. Reader's reports don't matter,
and hardback sales figures usually don't count unless
they're astronomical. What makes a difference is
how many "kick-ass" reviews a writer has to his
credit. That's what sells for us. That's what sells for
the industry. If you aren't a "brand name," you'd
better have a portfolio of hot reviews. They don't all
have to be favorable—nothing sells like controversy—
but they have to be strong.