GGK on Reviewing

Guy Gavriel Kay’s latest blog post (the Dec 14 one if you are late clicking through, as his web site doesn’t allow deep linking to individual posts) has some interesting thoughts on the changing way in which publishers use reviews. When I was doing Emerald City I tried not to publish reviews too far before the issue date of a book because, as Guy says is the philosophy for print magazines, there’s no point in reviewing a book that people can’t buy. Bloggers, however, appear to compete with each other to see who can be the first to publish a review of a particular book, leading them to publish months before the book is in the shops. I’m pleased to hear that publishers are able to find something useful in this – Guy says that these days they are nimble enough to adjust initial print runs to take account of the level of buzz a book is getting online.

I’m also pleased to hear that at least some publishers are getting better at targeting bloggers with the sort of books they want. (In my day, Guy, it was less a case of “At least read what I blog about before you send me something!” and more a case of “Please do not send me books I specifically said I didn’t want and then follow up with rude emails demanding to know why I haven’t published a review”.)