The other day Gwenda included links to several recent entries on reviewing all of which covered the many things that reviewers should be thinking and doing while reviewing. As usual, all of this as news to me. I just don't think about the process of writing about books the way a lot of other people do. The likely conclusion from this is that I'm grossly unprofessional but I never sought a job as literary critic. My thought has always been that lots of readers are just like me - looking for an idea as to what a book is about so they can make a more informed decision about reading it. That's what I try to do and only what I try to do - I leave the deep thoughts on method and process to others and I certainly wish them well what they do.

What I found missing in the recent discussions though (and I often find this missing) is the books themselves. It took me a little while to navigate the world of book marketing when I first started out with Bookslut so that I could request actual titles I wanted to review and not just be stuck with what is mass mailed to a million bloggers ever day. Now I receive catalogs from a dozen or more publishers (large and small) at least twice a year. The idea is that I'm supposed to mark the enclosed checklists with the titles I'm interested in, fax them in and ultimately receive those books so that I can review them. The checklist seems like the best system to me - reviewers request books they are likely to enjoy (which is good for the authors) and it saves publishers from sending out books that reviewers don't want (and thus won't read) and thus wasting the book and the shipping dollars.

If only the system worked.

I don't understand - I will never understand - why publishers go to the bother to send out catalogs when they have no interest in paying attention to reviewer requests. I wonder if authors are aware of this - of how many reviewers might like to write about their books and try to get their books publishers just won't send them out. What's really frustrating is that at the same time they send out dozens and dozens (and dozens) of books the reviewers did not request and will not read. It's just a big waste and the end result is that good books don't get read.

Case in point: Harper Collins. I've written before about how Harper Collins does not allow reviewers to request titles from the catalog and instead sends out the catalog with a promise to "send titles appropriate to your audience". (This is the Harper children's and teen catalogs - I don't know if it carries over to adult titles as well.) The end result is that I never have a clue what HC titles I will receive. From this year alone I have already missed both The Diary of Pelly D by LJ Adlington and Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole. Last year, I received sixteen titles from Harper Collins that I did not request and did not review. I requested eight titles that I have received (and have either reviewed or will review all of them). There were twelve other books that I requested that were not sent to me including I'll Ask You Three Times Are You Okay by Naomi Shihab Nye, The Tallest Tree by Sandra Belton, (a title about Paul Robeson) My Mother the Cheerleader by Robert Sharenow and The Chaos King by Laura Ruby. These were all books I was specifically looking forward to and had planned to include in certain columns but the PR folks never sent them my way.

Honestly, I wonder if the books I did email HC and request after reading their catalog were sent to me because I requested them or were just part of their scattershot approach. I'm not complaining - those eight books are ones I was looking forward to, but I'm not confident at all that they came my way due to a request. The same thing happens with other publishers. Tor Books has accepted my review copy requests for the past couple of years but only sometimes sends me books I'm looking for. Between 2007 and 2008 I've received sixteen books (again) from Tor that I did not request and as they were not books I'm interested in, I did not review. I have received six books I requested but five I requested last year never arrived, including Waking Brigid by Francis Clark and Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. I recently sent a second request for Cory's book as well as Jack: Secret Histories by F. Paul Wilson, Escapement by Jay Lake and The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt.

Since I've sent the follow-up email, I've received yet another book from Tor that I never requested. Sigh.

It's really frustrating how you try to get books that you know you will connect with and thus likely review and help spread the word on but it doesn't happen. It's even more annoying when the books aren't widely reviewed elsewhere so I know how much my review might have mattered. (I realize this is not the case with Cory Doctorow's new book.) Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad by James Rumford and Keepers: Treasure Hunt Poems by John Frank and Gods of Manhattan by Scott Mebus were also all requested last year (from Roaring Brook and Dutton) but never arrived. They might show up eventually and I hope they do. Gods of Manhattan in particular would fit great in a column on hidden worlds I've been putting together.

I also didn't receive Chasing Tail Lights and Outside Inside Woolly Mammoths from Bloomsbury, Old Penn Station from Henry Holt, Real Food, Real Fast from Candlewick. I completely and totally understand that not every book requested is going to come my way but I have to wonder just how many reviewers period were interested in that woolly mammoth book - I might have given it some coverage it didn't receive otherwise. (And then there's FSG that sent out none of the dozen or so books I requested last year - I was lost in a PR shakeup in the department. Again, I understand how things like happen but authors need to aware that the end result is their books don't get as much coverage as they could have.)

While I understand that the internet is still not the most established aspect of the reviewing world, I also know that books get covered a lot more online then they do elsewhere. That's especially true of MG and YA titles, which I specialize in at Bookslut. I don't think authors realize how much they need to be proactive in getting their books out to interested reviewers. If the PR department is going through a shakeup the odds are good that review copy requests will be ignored. The best thing an author can do is keep track of reviewers who read their books and let them know when they have a new title due out. (That's what Bennett Madison is doing right now.)

DK sends me a catalog and review copy request list twice a year - and then never sends me a single book. Today I received an email from them asking if I wanted to review a new release. I emailed back that yes I do - which is why I requested the book a couple of months ago. We'll see if it actually shows up this time.