Thanks so much.

Thank you for your very helpful reply.

I did mean book reviewers, yes. I was/am confused because I’ve seen many newly released books that have snippets of reviews on the back cover (e.g. “A triumph”, New York Times). Does this mean the publishers re-issue a new cover to include the review snippet? If not, how did they manage to get that review before the book was released?

I hope I’m making sense! Thanks again for taking the time out to reply. I really appreciate it.

Thanks,

By literary editor, do you mean book review editor? Book editors at newspapers and magazines virtually never review books before their publication dates (the exception being publishing trade magazines like Publishers Weekly or Library Journal). Or sometimes, monthly magazine reviews may come out a couple weeks before the book does because the, say, August issue of a monthly that features an August book will hit stands by mid-July. Those are the reviews we might use ahead of time in publicity materials; otherwise print reporters generally tend to respect on-sale dates of books and schedule their reviews to run when books are available to consumers.

If you’re asking whether book editors consider unsolicited ARCs, the answer is yes (although they no doubt pay more attention to the books they have requested).

And lastly, one never solicits blurbs from editors since it’s a conflict of interest — a book section editor needs to appear unbiased about books covered in their sections, which they can’t do if they’ve blurbed a book.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for this piece. I’m sorry to go off-topic but I was hoping you could clear something up for me.

In general, do literary editors consider unsolicited ARCs asking them for an advance review (so it can be used in publicity materials or in blurbs) or do they only consider those they have agreed to look at beforehand?

Thanks,

Kia

I love promoting children’s book author events on our online calendar and in my weekly e-newsletter; we are pleased to have a vibrant author community in this area. Everything is free to post, whether by the author, by the publicist, or by the organization hosting the event. The KidsOutAndAbout.com online calendar gets between 60,000 and 80,000 user sessions each month for western New York, so it’s the perfect place for promoting family-friendly events. Organizations or individuals post their own events directly to the calendar by completing a form at http://www.kidsoutandabout.com/event-announce.php (it comes to an admin page for me to approve before going live). Authors passing through the Syracuse, Rochester, or Buffalo areas should definitely post their book signings or other events to the KidsOutAndabout.com calendar.

I also love doing kids book reviews and author interviews; contact information is on the KOA web site (look in right-hand column for link).

–Debra Ross