If you’re one of the many authors, publishers or readers concerned that your favorite newspaper is eliminating or cutting its book review section, you aren’t alone.
Trade associations, book clubs and other groups, including the academic press, are petitioning newspaper publishers who have decided to eliminate or shrink their book review sections because they can’t generate revenue to pay their own way.
I doubt publishers care, and the protests won’t do much good. The entire newspaper industry is in such dire straits right now, with circulation and ad revenues sliding, that publishers are looking every place they can to save money.
When I saw an article on this at the Inside Higher Ed website, I responded with these suggestions:
—Instead of concentrating on reviews in the printed paper (which costs money to produce), concentrate instead on getting reviews into the newspaper’s online edition. Many papers use their website for articles that didn’t fit into the newspaper. Some of the bigger dailies have online versions of the paper that are very different than the printed versions. Ask for a meeting with your local editor. Volunteer to recruit book reviewers and provide one or more reviews every week or month to the newspaper. Make it easy for them to say yes. (See “Special Report #34: Secrets to Becoming a Columnist in Newspapers & Magazines.” This report refers only to unpaid columnists.)
—Craigslist is one of the top 10 most popular websites. Why not post information about your book at Craigslist in the city nearest to where you live? I’ll bet more people in your city read Craigslist than read the local papers. (See “Craigslist: A Valuable Publicity Tool.”)
—Authors, or anyone for that matter, can also review books, CDs and anything else at Amazon.com. People reading those reviews might be curious about what you’ve written and visit your website. (See “How to Turn Amazon into a River of Gold.”)
—Pitch bloggers and ask them to review your book. Getting in front of just one influential blogger can often result in catching the attention of even more bloggers.
Certainly, authors and publishers like book reviews in newspapers because they validate their work. But they’d do better concentrating their time and efforts on building the buzz for their books online.
Some of my fellow writers and I organized a Writers Guild. We have been looking for ways to promote the local authors in (Evansville, IN) our community. We approached the local paper and asked to write a real book review once each mo. (not taken from the flyleaf of the book). They agreed, no pay, but will publish our picture. Good enough for me.
Cora
If your PHs are suffering from lack of book reviews, I have two suggestions:
1. Today’s Zaman in Turkey publishes lengthy book reviews and short captions at least weekly. They have been open to submissions if it also has some interest related to their expat readers. Usually multi-cultural, expat-oriented, current issues on religion or struggles of people, or political books. Check them out online.
2. On my Turkey blog, I have given publicity to books which I believe readers would find useful. I write something on the topic related to the book and give examples from the book and include details to buy the book. I am open to finding more books which could be related to issues on Turkey or helpful to expats.