(no subject)

[james_davis_nicoll]

"Beginning March 24, 2025, Publishers Weekly charges $25 for every book submitted for PW review consideration."

Comments

[movingfinger]

"Book publishers that have a PW site license subscription do not pay the processing fee. Site licenses are available to any book publisher, and pricing starts at $950. Anyone within a book publisher with a site license can submit a title for review consideration without paying the $25 fee.*** "

=

"spam us if you pay for it"

[jhetley]

"Money flows *to* the author."

[ariaflame]

So you are saying that James should pay the authors he reviews for doing a review about them?

[wild_patience]

Did Trump buy PW?

[jessie_c]

I guess that they're feeling like not publishing much of anything this year.

[violsva]

I'm wondering if they've gotten swamped by AI-generated material.

[jessie_c]

Still makes no sense to punish the real authors.

[violsva]

Absolutely. Authors and small-press publishers, who you'd think are already dealing with enough.

[dsrtao]

Obvious method: "if the author has ever been reviewed in PW, they get free submissions for their work, cancellable if it turns out to be AI spew".

But this is also obviously a badly thought out attempt to make money by burning the last of PW's reputation.

[ariaflame]

The slush pile has always been a thing. It's just lately that it has turned into an actual swamp.
And PW isn't a publisher, but a review magazine. I am wondering what their ratio of actual books to review to AI slop is now. If it's as bad as I suspect then it would be costing time and hence money to try and differentiate.

[glaurung]

All true, but: this new policy is in no way a solution to the problem of AI submissions. It's a doomed to fail solution to the problem of PW not being profitable enough.

[ariaflame]

OK, so what should they charge for then?

[jreynoldsward]

Huh. Cheap compared to what the PW BookLife reviews for selfpub start at.

Details here. Only difference is that the review is guaranteed. With prices starting at $399 US, darn well better be.

https://booklife.com/about-us/booklife-reviews.html

[(Anonymous)]

An attempt to turn a fire hose into a garden hose.

-Awesome Aud

[rosefox]

I've never been so glad to have left that job. WOW.