HT to Bookninja reader CS for this interview that should be encouraging but just makes me sad. I have seen first hand the death of book coverage. My fourth book back in 2007 got 17 reviews/interviews/profiles; my fifth in 2010 got 12; my sixth in 2012 got 8; seventh in 2015 got 6; and eighth in 2017 got 4.
Now an assistant professor of sociology at McMaster University in Ontario, Chong researches how fiction book reviews come to fruition, trying to solve the puzzle of why some books get reviewed and why so many more are ignored. Her new book, Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times makes the case for the persistence of old-guard professional criticism even in the Internet age.
Now, in fairness, there are probably some extenuating circumstances for my diminishing returns, chief among them that I’m now a straight, old, white guy and people are finally and properly interested in perspectives other than mine.
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