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Q: Do reviewers review original paperbacks? Coverage of original paperbacks varies depending on the type of book and the specific publication. The children’s book editors at Booklist, School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly all review original paperbacks. According to Ilene Cooper, children’s book editor for Booklist, “We try to treat original paperbacks as we do original fiction, but they tend to be more ephemeral, so we don’t do as many. However most original paperbacks are looked at by a reviewer and considered.” Trevelyn Jones, Book Review Editor for School Library Journal agreed, saying “If individual titles are submitted, we’ll consider them as we would hardcovers, but if it’s yet another book in a series, we most likely wouldn’t do it.” Diane Roback, children’s book editor for Publishers Weekly stressed that they don’t base the decision to review on whether the book is a hardcover or paperback. “We do make an effort to review a lot of the paperbacks we’re sent because we don’t see a lot of paperback reviews elsewhere,” she said. She added that Publishers Weekly does not review a lot of young adult horror novels or subsequent books in a series. None of these publications will accept direct submissions from authors, so review copies are sent by the publisher. Judith Haut, Associate Director of Media Relations at Bantam Doubleday Dell, said that authors can be assured that publishing houses do pay attention to the original paperbacks they publish and will promote them with the rest of the season’s list. Authors who want to invest time publicizing their original paperbacks should focus on consumer media. Newspapers, regional parenting papers and radio shows are often particularly receptive to paperbacks because the cover prices are lower than for hardcovers and books are often more widely available in stores. 6:7/96 |