PW Booklife Reviews: Catching The Indie-Publisher, A Little, As They Fall
- The difference between Publishers Weekly Reviews and Publishers Weekly Booklife Reviews.
- A publishing timeline for independent publishers and author-publishers.
- Finding comparable titles for your books (modest mention).
This morning, I attended an IBPA virtual session about getting the most out of Publishers Weekly Reviews and Publishers Weekly Booklife reviews (while enjoying a Chick-fil-A breakfast in my car). The presenter was Carl Pritzkat, PW Booklife’s President and COO.
For context, there are PW Reviews and PW Booklife Reviews. PW Reviews are not guaranteed; they are free reviews selected and written at the discretion of the Publishers Weekly editor based on which books she/he/they think will be commercially important, whereas Booklife reviews are paid and therefore guaranteed reviews that publishers and author-publishers alike can avail. Both appear (or can appear) in Publishers Weekly magazine and both are (or can be) syndicated.
Pritzkat advised that indie publishers (indie houses publishing other authors) submit for both the PW Review and also purchase the Booklife review for their titles.
PW Booklife Reviews, on the other hand, are recommended for author-publishers; and they come with a number of benefits, including a “takeaway line” and a list of comparable book titles to be used for marketing. This should come as no surprise as these reviews are “designed to help authors reach the right readers.”
However, I am surprised. My understanding is that if publishers (even author-publishers) have not figured out their market by the time book reviews are coming in, they are doing it wrong, as good publishing workflow suggests that marketing should start once you have a cover, blurb, bio, and other metadata, such as an ISBN.
I presented this question, whether understanding your comp titles at the time reviews are returning, was too late in the workflow to start marketing, but the question seemed to have got dumbed down to one of editing, due to an interloper’s comment, so it was never accurately presented to the speaker to be answered.
It’s clear that PW Booklife understands what author-publishers do not know and are catching them a little as they fall.
SOSOADAE (HOUSE) is not an author-publisher, although its first titles will be my own (who else to introduce SOSOADAE?). We are a royalty press for literary fiction from diverse literary centers.
Here’s the draft publishing timeline we put together:
- 9-12 months — Start marketing with author copy (bio) and cover design
- 9 months — Send manuscript to dev/line editor
- 8 months — Receive edits and revise (get quotes for printer). Get ISBNs, Barcodes, Library of Congress numbers…
- 7 months – Complete edits and send for copyediting, typesetting, and formatting.
- 6 months — Receive digital deliverables and book specs, submit POD copies to SPU, PR solicit for “long lead” interviews (Ex: People, Time, NPR, Oprah Super Soul Sunday).
- 5 months — Receive galleys, ARCs (Advance Reader Copies). Submit to reviewers and to proofreader for final edit.
- 3 months — Send final files to printer (This might need to be pushed back to 4-6 months out to account for delays in printing due to materials and labor shortages).
- 1 month — Inventory must be received by SPU in their Distribution Center.
- 2-4 weeks — early copies arrive [….]
Even though we are an indie press, presumably on our own time, when I set a publication date, have to keep it so that I remain on schedule for subsequent calendar items such as award deadlines.
Getting a list of comp titles with a book review will be too late in the publishing timeline to be learning my market.
I think it would be best for indie publishers and author-publishers alike to start figuring out a title’s keywords and comps before or in the first month of acquisition, which tends to follow a more traditional timeline.
Let your PW book reviews be book reviews.
Resources:
- How To Get The Most Out Of Reviews from PW and BookLife: https://www.ibpa-online.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1663980&group=
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