Babbling About Books and other blogs
http://kbgbabbles.blogspot.com/
ran a very interesting post about the end of Kirkus. She asks some very significant questions - “So, this brings up an interesting point. Does this mean the book review blogs and websites are gaining power? And if so, who will hold all the power, the go to people that readers, publishers and authors go to for great reviews and publishing industry information?”
To quote the LA Times regarding Kirkus - “It was purportedly read by every Hollywood exec — or more likely their underlings - looking for literary properties,” writes Nick Kaufman at LiveJournal. He adds that its reviewers were “impossible to please. . . . If your book got a good review from Kirkus, that really meant something.” Boris Kachka at New York Magazine calls Kirkus “the Pepsi to Publishers Weekly’s Coke when it comes to prepub press.”
Apparently, the announcement came and went with barely a murmur of protest. Hmm. As an author, how do I feel about this event? A little conflicted. To be honest, I never really paid much attention to Kirkus, however, I do know that reviewers will be out of a job and big publishing houses and their authors will miss a premier review site. Of course, there’s still the NY Times and their best seller list and review section. But I surmise that the NY Times may not exist for all that much longer.
The printed word is sublime. There is nothing that moves me quite as much as the feel of a book in my hands. I would miss the heft of a book, the weight, the smell of new ink. A virgin book whose pages haven’t been spread until I spread them - these are things I will miss if the printed word becomes a rarity.
I’ve never been one to buy what the reviewers tell me to buy, in fact, when I’ve followed their advice, I’ve very often been disappointed. When I buy a book, it’s because I’ve held it, turned it over and over, perused the front blurb, the back blurb, the author’s bio and skimmed a few pages. In other words, I’ve grokked it.
Will I miss Kirkus? Or the NY Times book section? Probably not. Sorry. But would I miss books? Oh. Hell. Yes. So to answer the question: Who will hold the power? I suspect there will continue to be a proliferation of online review sites and the best and the brightest will survive. Bob Dylan is as apropos today as he was forty years ago. The times they are a-changin’.
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