Splat

[rolanni]

...also?

Oww.

So! Kirkus Reviews sees Harlequin's vanity publishing plan and realizes, ohmighod, those books will never get reviewed in a traditional venue, like, say Kirkus, and! there's money in them thar hills.

Announcing Kirkus Discoveries, where "independently published authors" can, for a mere $400 purchase a review*.

I think we're moving toward a business model here where only the wealthy can afford to publish. Maybe I'd better start a bookstore for "independently published authors" and sell shelf-space by the per-foot.

going to go bang my head against my desk now

Edited to add: OK; Kirkus was more forward-looking than Harlequin; here's a 2004 opinion piece on the Discoveries program, from the Christian Science Monitor. Thanks to slrose and janni for the heads-up.


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*Just in case someone doesn't know -- No, here in Genre Fiction Land we don't pay for reviews, either.

Comments

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

its bad enough you have to pay for an obit too.

[shana.livejournal.com]

As I recall, Kirkus Discoveries has been around for a couple of years. Not that I actually ever look at those reviews. I do read the dead tree edition (the fiction half) for my job, though.

[1crowdedhour.livejournal.com]

Starred reviews would run you more, right?

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Gaaah -- maybe I should offer to sell cover blurbs? Write them for a fee?

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

I thought this was going to be a joke. I can't believe it even though there it is on my screen.

[schulman.livejournal.com]

The next logical step is to pay for readers. At minimum hourly wage, I suppose it would be just as soul-crushing as working fast food or retail, but without the polyester uniform.

[dqg-neal.livejournal.com]

I was shocked when I first heard about Kirkus Discoveries... but then I realized that even they didn't really make it visible. I think they have it as a throwback option, mainly to stop themselves from being overrun even Tom,Dick, and Harry self-published author.

[hapaxnym.livejournal.com]

Oy vey, Kirkus Discoveries, the great embarrassing blot on an otherwise premiere review journal...

FWIW, it's published as a glossy pullout insert, and everyone I knows does just that -- pulls and throws out, unread, like any other ad. (And remember, unlike most review journals, Kirkus doesn't take ads, publisher or otherwise, so they really do have to do *something* to keep the journal running. I wish they had come up with something else, though.)

Also, I know a fair number of Kirkus reviewers, and not one would write for Discoveries -- not one would be anything but insulted to be ASKED to write for discoveries -- even though the pay is significantly better than for regular reviews.

Not that it makes it any less disgusting.

[hapaxnym.livejournal.com]

@kinzel : "Maybe I need to start a monthly review pub .."

I wouldn't recommend it. I can't think of one that isn't hemorrhaging money.

This is actually one of the many facets of the ongoing slow-motion trainwreck that is the Traditional Publishing Business.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

When they started this, I joked that I'd pay them extra not to review me -- horrible Kirkus, they always hate my books.

[hapaxnym.livejournal.com]

I know the discussion has moved on, but I made a couple of errors in my comments above, on which I have been gently corrected. So please indulge me as I copy the relevant apologies from a much longer posting about How Publishing Has All Gone Kerflooey:

"The glossy paper supplements included in the main Kirkus Reviews are NOT Kirkus Discoveries, but a separate publication, including ads, intended to highlight particular genres and topics in a more "light-hearted" way. My time-constrained perusal led me to conflate "Kirkus + Ads" with "Kirkus Discoveries", which was utterly unfair to the people who put these supplements together.

Worse, I had two reviewers who do write for Discoveries contact me privately and tell me that they were NOT insulted to do so, it was honest professional work, and they gave their Discoveries reviews the same objective and careful consideration they gave all their work. Indeed, it was not difficult at all (once I thought to look for it) to find a Web filled with complaints by Discoveries authors who felt that Kirkus gave only cruel, mean, unfair reviews in return for their investment, which testifies that at least these are in fact NOT "the best reviews that money can buy."

So apologies to those reviewers, and to all who I unfairly characterized."

Thanks.

So much for Kirkus

[johnhawkinson.livejournal.com]

Well, today's New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/business/media/11nielsen.html) reports that Kirkus Reviews shuts down at the end of the year. So...