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Thursday, 3 October 2019

Awards, awards, applause. The whole "Book of the Week" thing got kinda crazy as soon as Autumn arrived - This Week's ReadItTorial

Posted by ReadItDaddy at October 03, 2019 Labels:

Regular blog followers will already have noticed just how utterly chaotic our "Book of the Week" slots on Friday have been over the past few weeks. I'd like to think that things will eventually calm down, and that we'll be able to get back to our normal "1-2 BOTW plus a chapter book winner" format, but September and October's scheduling has been a real challenge, and we're also faced with the prospect of November being quite a squeeze too!

It's a fantastic and enviable position to be in, don't get me wrong - and it's fair to say that it definitely has been becoming more and more the case that at this time of the year, the industry really does pull out all the stops and has done ever since we started blogging back in 2010.

I like pattern analysis - and for us the blogging year always seems to stack up like this:

Q1 seems to be for book releases that somehow 'slipped the net' and missed out on the pre-christmas build-up. There are loads of good reasons to launch a book in Q1, not least of all to cash in on all those folk who (quite sensibly) get book tokens for Christmas!

Q2 is all about books that are out to win the annual awards, or be highly prominent at the early-in-the-year / spring bookfairs. The books that will make reading programme lists, and of course the books that will be vying for your attention as the nicer weather begins.

Q3 is, oddly, a bit of a desert. There are releases to cash in on the long summer holidays, and various reading programmes that exist or are prominent during this time, but release-wise it goes fairly quiet in the summer compared to the rest of the year. Summer is of course the time for the great Book Festivals, and many titles will launch off the back of exposure at those.

Q4 is an absolute avalanche as book releases try to catch the 'back to school' trade, and of course the inevitable "September onwards" build up to Christmas, and of course lots of author / illustrator school visits.

It's a comfortable pattern and it seems to work for the industry, but sometimes Q4 really plays merry hell with our usual sane and sensible review schedules meaning that:

  • The Book of the Week days are crazy. We write the blog 1-2 months ahead, which means if we get copy 'late' (ie either a day or two before a book is set to be released, or long after it's hit the shelves) the "blogger impetus" has slowed down, and interest in those titles will have waned slightly. 
  • We try to be timely but sometimes find it impossible. We don't want to try and cram more than 2-3 reviews onto the blog for any given day (considering also articles such as these ReadItTorials or other bits and bobs) so books end up being moved towards the next month's (or more likely the 'next-but-one' month's) review schedule
  • Chapter books are all out of kilter. In fact in the chapter book roundups we end up at least a month out from most books' official release dates, preferring to cover stuff we've actually *properly* sat down and read that month rather than trying to be bang on time. 

This September has been particularly crazy. At time of writing the September AND October schedules are all but done, with the last few books for this month's reviews either crammed into 'two a day' for weekdays, or "up to 5-6 reviews" now fetching top honours in our Book of the Week fridays. November is already shaping up to be the same and we're already nearly at capacity in the November schedule just to try and ensure we cover as much as possible.

So to another matter - this business about using the word "Churn" for what we do.

Do you realise how offensive it sounds to someone who pours a lot of their free time into a book blog, to have someone tell them that they 'churn out reviews' ?

People assume book blogging is a doddle, a doss, a breeze, something twee and frivolous. After all, you're under no pressure (hah) to review (heh) anything for anyone (hah again) and though we always try to accommodate folk, there is a line that some PRs cross where we have no choice but to push back and say no.

If you do want to maintain a relatively successful book blog (at least one that a few folk might have heard of) this is how it is, and it's no one's fault but our own really. There's just two of us, covering (at the bare minimum average) 700 books a year and considering, thinking about, and trying our level best to put together honest, passionate and sometimes completely gushing reviews of amazing books, as timely as we can. This inevitably leads to those moments where you look at some books, desperately want to cover them, but can't offer much more than a brief opinion that may read exactly like the book's blurb anyway. It's horrible to have to do that, but quite honestly these books do deserve coverage and it's very very rare that we opt not to cover books we're sent, purely because it feels 'rude' somehow. 

I sometimes wonder if anyone actually genuinely cares about 'timely' reviews - We usually read a fair few other book blogs, some do the same as us and try to feature books in or near their release date weeks, some others review anything at any time and I think secretly I'm envious of those blogs, they still seem to do OK (mostly because they're way better at 'networking' with their audience than us).

Ultimately, writing for me is...hmm...what's a good way to phrase it. It's a bit like a weird mental itch. Writing reviews scratches that itch a fair bit, whether it's reviewing books, games, TV shows, coffee shops I've visited - you name it and I'll probably offer up an opinion on it. Book blogging is the most luxurious exercise in reviewing though, and thankfully one that seems to have worked out OK so far. But sometimes when words like 'churn' are used you really do feel like chucking it all in. 

So a final plea from a hard working book blogger. Next time you think we're all in this for the 'free' books (and 'free' is a rather ironic use of the word there, if you consider a human being's time not worthy as a commodity, you and I are never going to see eye to eye), please consider also that at the end of the blog, at the sharp end of the computer keyboard, is a bleary eyed human trying to keep up, and keep everyone slightly more well informed about gorgeous, gorgeous books and comics. To those many, many hard working publishers, PR folk, authors and illustrators who DO get what we're trying to do (and believe me, your fabulous notes and observances of how hard we work definitely do not go unnoticed), a jaunty salute and a whopping great big THANK YOU!

(oh and if you really do want to show me your direct appreciation, retweets of reviews are always welcome, but a quick couple of quid in my ko-fi account is even sweeter x)