How the NYTimes Book Review selects books to review

In a post on the blog Book Publishing News, publicist Scott Lorenz distills a recent speech by New York Times Book Review Editor Barry Gewen and accounts from other sources to form a picture of how the NYTBR — probably the most influential and widely-read book review in the country — actually chooses which books to review. Basically:

  • Up to 1000 books are submitted by publishers each week. About 5 are chosen.
  • If it’s a self-help book, reference manual, or travel guide, forget it. Also, no self-published books.
  • Books must offer something truly new. Books which are “workmanlike” or which don’t “bring something new to the conversation” are likely to be rejected.
  • First novel? “It has to be strikingly good.”

The brutal process of selection is described in some detail, bearing out a quotation from Gewen: “One has to have a hard heart at the Book Review.”

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Mark Pritchard is the author of the novel How They Scored and the collections of sex stories "Too Beautiful" and "How I Adore You." He lives in San Francisco.

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