How many book reviews should you expect for your book? Not many, it seems. Publisher’s Marketplace Lunch Deluxe reports in today’s newsletter that the top books receive only about 20 reviews:
Here is our annual proprietary tabulation of the most reviewed books and imprints of the year (based on full-length reviews in the nation’s top circulation newspapers.) Cutbacks on review space and the closing of a few prominent papers are clear in the statistics–full-length newspaper reviews declined more than 14 percent last year, as we tabulated 6,725 reviews in all (compared to 7,855 in 2008, and 8,465 in 2007).
The top 10 books received about 20 reviews (19-23) and number 50 on the list received about a dozen reviews. So, if you’re getting about a dozen reviews in newspapers, you can count yourself lucky.
Interesting that they’re only looking at newspapers … it seems to me most of the book reviewing going on these days (not to mention much of the discussion that leads to book buying in general) is happening online, and there are some rather well-written book review blogs out there.
I know hearing friends chatting about their reading online is one of the main factors that influences me …
I think the Publisher’s Marketplace is just looking at the traditional means of book reviewing because, well, it’s traditional. Besides, who can keep track of all the online book review sites, it’s a moving target. But you’re right: they should make attempts to do more. Do you know of any online lists of book review sites, blogs, etc?
Darcy
You know, I don’t know of any lists, though I wonder if the folks who organize the kidlitosphere conferences might have one …