The New York Times Book Review

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry.^[1] The New York Times has published a book review section since October 10, 1896. The offices are located near Times Square in New York City. Sam Tanenhaus has been the Senior Editor since 2004.

The target audience is an intelligent, general-interest adult reader. The Times publishes two versions each week, one with a cover price sold via subscription, bookstores and newsstands; the another with no cover price included as an insert in each Sunday edition of the Times (the copies are otherwise identical).

Each week the NYTBR receives 750 to 1000 books from authors and publishers in the mail of which 20 to 30 are chosen for review. The selection process is based on finding books that are important and notable, as well as discovering new authors whose books stand above the crowd. Self published books are generally not reviewed as a matter of policy. Books not selected for review are stored in a "discard room" and then sold. As of 2006, Barnes and Noble arrived about once a month to purchase the contents of the discard room, and the proceeds are then donated by NYTBR to charities. Books that are actually reviewed are usually donated to the reviewer.

There are two types of reviewers, those in-house on staff, and those commissioned by the NYTRB to do the review. For outside reviewers, they are assigned an in-house "preview editor" who works with them in creating the final review. Most reviews are done by outside reviewers. Other duties on staff include a number of Senior Editors and a Chief Editor; a team of Copy Editors; a Letter Pages Editor who reads letters to the editor; columnists who write weekly columns, such as the "Paperback Row" column; a Production Editor; a web and Internet publishing division; and other jobs.

In addition to the magazine there is an Internet site that offers addition content, including audio interviews with authors, called the "Book Review Podcast".

The book review publishes each week the widely cited and influential New York Times' Best Seller list, which is created by the editors of the Times "News Surveys" department.

[edit] References

^ Inside the New York Times Book Review--Editor Sam Tanenhaus and Staff, one-hour documentary from Book TV covers the production of the October 29, 2006 issue with editor Sam Tanenhaus and staff. Unless otherwise noted it is the primary source for this article.