Thursday, December 10, 2009

No more Kirkus Reviews

Drat! Now I'll never get a starred Kirkus review. Nielson announced today that it's shutting down the prepublication-review journal Kirkus Reviews.
The Pepsi to Publishers Weekly's Coke when it comes to prepub press, Kirkus was always known, to the booksellers and industry reporters who relied on its write ups of forthcoming titles, as the cranky one. Where PW went soft for a big name or a fresh face, Kirkus could usually be counted on to demolish the overblown writers, and to be unsparing when it came to first novels by photogenic young things. A rave in Kirkus was truly a prize; a hatchet job was an easy enough excuse for a bookstore owner, besieged by the sheer volume of books being flogged, to move on.

Read more: First They Came for the Trade Publication: Kirkus Closes -- Vulture

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