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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily roundup of literary titles at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
A “review-based” book is not a thing
There are a lot of reasons to worry about The Washington Post Close the book section, but the impact on book sales should be low on the list (if it’s on the list at all, okay). Kathleen Schmidt, the book’s longtime publicist, explains the book’s “review-driven” review and points to newsletters and podcasts as essential components of publicity campaigns and word-of-mouth recommendations in the new media landscape. Some additional thoughts on this:
- Authors and publishers’ involvement with reviews is not just about sales. It may not be primarily about sales; It’s about prestige and author patronage. Historically, positive reviews in major mainstream outlets have provided authors with ego boosts and publishers with a piece of evidence to show their authors that they are actually working to get their books published.
- Currently, newsletters and podcasts do not have an aura of prestige And Abu Review, but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t or shouldn’t. Publishers and publishers would be wise to invest in reframing and redefining the niche and high-value positions of their authors.
- Email and podcasts are the last remaining forms of media that allow consumers direct access to content that is not mediated by algorithms. You can sign up for a newsletter or click “follow” on a podcast, and you’ll see everything he posts. This is important.
- Web traffic is declining and will continue to decline. Having run a media company that produces web content, newsletters, and podcasts for about 15 years, I can tell you that if you want a piece of web content to be high-value, broad-spectrum, you have to support it with newsletter distribution.
- Likewise, a podcast conversation about an idea or issue is more likely to reach thousands (more likely, tens of thousands) of audience members than a standalone piece of web content.
In fact, Book Riot views our content primarily as a newsletter and podcast; What you see on the website flows from those sources because they are where the largest and most reliable audiences are.
This will leave a mark
I weighed in on the work done by Emerald Fennell “Wuthering Heights” It’s “cold, wet, and surprisingly sexy,” and I stand by all the sentiments in Constance Grady’s review Foxwhich resembles the film more like a Nicholas Sparks book than Emily Brontë’s beloved novel. Here’s the money shot, pun totally intended:
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“An adaptation doesn’t have to be completely faithful to its original text to be good, but it has to do something. It has to have energy, a source of tension, a reason to exist. But having excised the tension of Brontë’s novel from her film, Fennell has replaced it with nothing at all. Instead, you’re just being asked to watch beautiful people doing mild BDSM playing on beautiful moors, and then die through no fault of their own.”
Written for fans of Toni Morrison
There are multiple reasons to celebrate Toni Morrison this week, as she was born 95 years ago today, and Nimali Serpell’s excellent book of criticism, On Morrison, was published yesterday. Whatever your approach to fandom, we have a book for you about Morrison’s work.
