I've started getting requests to review small press books here. I've given it some thought and my decision is somewhat mixed.
When I started this blog, I decided to focus it on major press debuts because my time is so limited. Even so, there are many debuts that I simply do not get to. One debut that I never got to despite wanting to review, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, is actually on the bestseller lists.
Therefore, for the most part, I will not make any attempt to keep up with all the debuts from small presses. It would take way too much time. This week alone, I have five books that I'm preparing for my weekly debut round-up. However, if a small press author contacts me about his or her book, I will include it in the weekly round-up on the week it is released. If it is not available on the bookshelves of bricks-and-mortar stores, I will say so. If I start getting a lot of such tips, I'll put then in a separate post.
As for actual reviews, I'll decide on a case-by-case basis. In keeping with my usual practice, I won't let the author know about my decision to review until after I have already started reviewing it.
What do you think?
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Small Press - What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
The way I see it, indie publishers probably need more help getting their material promoted than the major ones, and I would love to hear more about lesser-known debuts. I think pretty much any debut through a large publisher will get plenty of press and you'll probably see it covered on a variety of blogs.
As you said though, time is limited and you probably can't review everything out there you would want to...I know I can't ;) But even if you just mention a book, along with the publisher, release date & synopsis, that's promotion right there. Every little bit counts, and who knows, maybe someone who is reading your website will like some indie publisher release that you mentioned and review it on their own blog. That's helping to spread the word...
Thanks for the support! I know a lot of major authors got their start with small presses, so I didn't want to ignore them. And besides, its nice to be asked.
I'll review any book I love, everything from bestsellers to debut authors, Bantam to Lulu.com (P.O.D.), Middle Grade Fantasy to adult Science Fiction. To quote, "The play's the thing."
I like your attitude! That was the sort of approach I was thinking of when I said I would decide about reviews on a case-by-case basis.
Small press? Absolutely. Pay-to-publish? Not so fast.
Not that they're not as good, but that too many of them would have been better had they gone through the editing process. And if time's tight, you're better off with something that's been vetted.
Of course, there are plenty of poorly written books published by royalty-paying publishers, so it's not a fail-safe, by any means.
Good points!
I'm not sure if I had pay-to-publish in mind. That would just blow the scope of this blog beyond anything I can possibly manage.
Post a Comment