May 2, 2010 • reading •

Sunday Salon 5/2: The “weekend after the Festival” edition

The Sunday Salon.com

Question of the Week: Does the publisher know you’ve reviewed that?

Do you share links to your reviews with the publishers who provided the books? I usually don’t, and I’m wondering whether I should start doing it.
When I first started receiving review copies, I usually did try to e-mail the publicist who made the book available to me and let her know when I’d posted the review…if I remembered. Things have changed over the last couple of years, though, and that’s much less likely to happen. Most of my review copies these days come directly from publishers – via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program, Shelf Awareness requests, or book tours – and I don’t have a publicist or PR contact. And unless I’ve committed in advance to a specific review date, it may be months (sometimes many months) before I actually get the book read and the review posted. At that point, it’s almost embarrassing to e-mail the contact back – “Hey, sorry it’s been a year and the paperback will be out in three weeks, but my review of XYZ is up – here’s the link!” I’ll acknowledge the source as part of my disclosure in the review itself, but that’s usually the extent of it for me.
If I pursued review books more aggressively, I might be more diligent about sending those links, because I’d see it as part of nurturing my working relationship with the contact – which it is, I guess. But I don’t pursue review copies very aggressively – I very rarely initiate a request – so I really haven’t thought too much about it up till now. I guess I figure that the PR folks should have their Google Alerts set up so they’re notified about new reviews of their titles, or that searching them out is part of the job. 
Perhaps I should make it easier for them, though, and that’s why I’m curious – what do you do?

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report

Book reviews posted since last report:
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, by Kelly O’Connor McNees (TLC Book Tour)
This One is Mine, by Maria Semple

Next review scheduled:
The Danish Girl: A Novel by David Ebershoff (TLC Book Tour, May 13) (currently reading)

I reserve the right to post an “unscheduled” review before that date if I finish something else in the meantime. After this one, I will be reading on my own schedule for several weeks – I have no tour obligations until July.

For review:
A Fierce Radiance: A Novel, by Lauren Belfer (moved from the Wishlist) (June 2010, ARC via publicist)

New to the Wishlist*:
Devotion by Dani Shapiro
Losing My Religion by William Lobdell
Faith, Interrupted: A Spiritual Journey, by Eric Lax

*as previously mentioned in my Festival of Books Report

In other book-related news, the Shelf Discovery Challenge ended on Friday and I totally tanked it. My intentions were good, and I thought six months to read six quick, YA-oriented reads would be plenty. I still think so…but I didn’t manage to read even one of them! A couple of the books I planned to read are out of print, and I stalled over finding substitutes, so I never got any momentum going. Sorry, Julie!

BOOKMARKS: Reading-related Reading

National Poetry Month just ended, but not before my sister celebrated it in her latest post on the LA Moms Blog (in which she included a few original rhymes!). Also: an enlightening Q&A about the appeal of poetry

Unfortunately, not every book is awesome – writing a negative review without being mean (and…well, negative); on the other hand, are you negative about writing negative reviews at all?

Speaking of reviews: I don’t usually link to specific reviews in this feature, but I’m always very pleased to see Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow find an enthusiastic new reader – and no one enthuses quite like Raych (seriously, you need to read this book!)

A quick-reference guide to genre definitions; the appeal of the read-along – somewhere between a reading challenge and a book club

Are any of these “book blogger sins” unforgivable in your book? (And, intentionally or not, have you committed any of them yourself? Be honest, but you don’t have to share your answer unless you really want to.)

Looking for a new bookcase? This one gets around!

Helpful Link of the Week, via Chris: Remember the plot of that book, but not the title? Ask LibraryThing’s “Name That Book” group – they helped her out! (And if you’re not a LibraryThing member, why not? Do I need to do another one of those membership giveaways?)

Have a great reading week! And I hope you’ll listen in to my guest spot on “That’s How I Blog!” Tuesday, May 4, live at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific!

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