Thursday, 7 December 2017
Drowning in Q4 releases - Perhaps it's time to reassess the release schedules? A ReadItTorial
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| No kid, don't open the window...no don't AAARGH! |
We're musing over release schedules this week, and this is one of the areas where videogames and books seem to cross over.
When I used to write about games (that is, when I was still passionate enough about them to bore on and on and on at length) I always bemoaned the fact that as soon as the calendar flicked over to September, the games industry seemed to go into overdrive, pouring out game after game until my wallet lay in tatters trying to keep up with the annual slew of Q4 (fourth quarter of the year) releases.
Exactly the same thing seems to happen in books. There's a smattering of titles that are appropriately set for release to 'welcome' kids back to school in September, but from them on it's a full on assault as each and every week that passes, tons and tons of new books all fight for the same release days.
There is an oddity too. Release days always seem to be set for a Thursday and I've often wondered whether this is some traditional method of racking up a ton of sales before the next monday's sales charts - or indeed the weekend newspaper sales charts hit the stands.
Obviously we're not working in publishing so have no insider knowledge on this mysterious phenomenon (but I bet one of you lovely folk out there would spill the beans for us?) As the calendar flicks over into October (which for us this year has seen an avalanche of releases) and November (when the Christmas books hit our doormat as regularly as snowflakes in a blizzard, excuse all the festive analogies) we begin to struggle with the review schedule, cramming multiple reviews in each day to keep up with the numbers.
Because...well, because we bloody love it of course - but it does mean that we really struggle to choose our Book of the Week winners, purely because so many amazing books are fighting for those honoured slots that some will inevitably miss out.
It's even trickier when we start to put together our Book of the Year winners, again because books that are released early on in Q1 (the first quarter of the year) become a dim and distant memory for us both and though we always have a bit of a run through all the book of the week winners to refresh our memories, it often feels like the quality just gets better for books as the year progresses, almost as if the industry is saving its very best to tempt your Christmas money out of your wallet.
"Cluster release days" are very tough though, as are the timings of reviews. We have heard from a few folk who are sad that big budget releases get tons of press and attention, while their own books don't even get sent out to reviewers. Obviously we're sad about this for lots of reasons but mostly because fantastic creative folk deserve all the trumpeting around their 'book birthdays' and sometimes it can feel like we're playing a bit of a hollow tune on a sad little flute if we cover something late, either through crazy schedules or because the book has arrived with us too late to review before its release. That raises another question: Are folk interested in reading reviews long after a book has been released? I mean we're always interested in recommendations from other folk, even if (sometimes) that book is out of print or hard to get hold of - we will still try and track down a copy, but does that hold out for books that have slid from "This week's most wanted" to "Likely to be found in your local garden centre for a couple of quid?
Thought provoking stuff I hope. Celebrate a golden age of children's books because now, more than ever in the entire history of this blog, there really are so many amazing and glorious kids books out there - get out and read them!
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