Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 12

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Popular Culture Review

was set back in order to give Publisher's Weekly, among others, a shot
at it.
In addition to the book or galleys, the book editors often receive a
"poop sheet" with a mini-biography of the author, a brief synopsis of
the book, "blurbs" by well known authors who recommend the book,
and, in some cases, copies of positive advance reviews from the
trades, and any pertinent information about the book which will help
publicize it. TTie author's photograph is sometimes included as well.
Once the book arrives, there is no standardized method of
distributing books for review for a newspaper's book page. If there is
a regular or at least a part time book editor, however, he ordinarily
selects from the six or seven those he wants to review personally, then
exercises one or more of the following options with regard to the rest:
1. The book is assigned to a publication staff writer to review for a
specific deadline; 2. The book is assigned to an outside, freelance
writer who has expressed an interest in reviewing for the paper; 3.
The book is reviewed by a freelancer or a staff member who has
written or called the book editor and requested the chance to review
it; 4. The book is selected from "the table," or "the cabinet," a
repository for unreviewed books somewhere in the paper's offices by
someone-sometimes anyone-who might want to review it.
Although this system may seem capricious or even irresponsible,
it is important to bear in mind that on average, and at any given time
during the year, a book editor of a large city daily can expect to
receive between fifty and a hundred bool» a week on topics ranging
from house repairs to horror, from science fiction to scientific sex, from
espionage to eating habits, from politics to pulp westerns, from
contemporary romance to car mainten ance. It is impossible for even a
fraction of these books to be reviewed. Some editors try to "group"
books by these themes for a particular edition. Regardless, a review
may not be published if advertising demands on a particular day
commands the book review sp>ace or if a big news story concerning an
author or book breaks before deadline. (Remember, book reviews are
filler.) Even when a review is finally published, it is sometimes cut
for length, sometimes without regard for logic or content; once in a
while a review that was meant to be a bull turns into a steer under the
copy-editor's knife.
Sometimes a p>ersonal call from the author or publisher can
stimulate my editor friend to retrieve a discarded volume from the