Book Reviewing

The Association of American University Presses(AAUP) has partnered with NetGalley, a Web-based service that has tools for publishers to share digital galleys and press kits.

AAUP members can use NetGalley to reach reviewers, as well as share digital galleys with the international rights market, librarians, booksellers and retailers, bloggers and professors requesting desk copies.

The cost will be determined by the number of titles hosted by the member each month. AAUP members get a 10% discount off the normal NetGalley monthly subscription rate.

NetGalley is free for readers and users can set preferences for the types of books they’d like to read. Members can view title information in the NetGalley Catalog, where they can request galleys from the publisher and view galleys they’ve been approved to access within their account.

AAUP Electronic & Strategic Initiatives Director Brenna McLaughlin had this to say, “Digital galleys are an important new tool for university presses and NetGalley’s elegant solution can offer our members savings in both time and money along with the chance for their books to reach a wider array of reviewers and buyers.”

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NetGalley’s getting ready for BEA. To push both the NetGalley service and a number of upcoming books from participating publishers, Firebrand, the company behind NetGalley, is sponsoring a number of events at its booth where publicists or the NetGalley staff will talk about the books and offer the chance to download a copy of the eGalley.

Here’s more from NetGalley:

You’ll either meet the publicist for that title or hear from us about why this book is a potential breakout release. It’s your chance to get the scoop and see the galley live!

Plus, if you watch our demo, you’ll be among the first to view the galley on NetGalley after the show — with an invite from the publisher to download and read it in full. Plus, select titles are available to request on NetGalley NOW if you’d like to get a jump-start on your reading!

Here’s NetGalley’s official BEA page for more info.

Publishing Perspectives conducted the above interview with George Slowik Jr., who bought Publishers Weekly recently. As he says in this short video, he plans to use Google’s translation tools to expand the international reach of the magazine, and also hopes to use both digital and print to grow the American audience.

Salon.com is having a big week for content partnerships. In addition to the recently announced partnership with McSweeney’s, Salon and the BN Review (the book review published by Barnes & Noble) have announced a content-sharing agreement.

BN Review and Salon.com will swap content–reviews from BN will appear on Salon and pieces from Salon will appear on BN Review. Each site will select the shared content from the other. Salon will also include links to Bares & Noble, pointing readers to B&N to purchase books. The content-swapping has already begun, though the partnership was officially announced today.

BN Review contributors include notable reviewers like John Freeman, Ward Sutton, and Sarah Weinman. Laura Miller, as well as other Salon writers, will also appear on BN Review.

LeVar Burton, longtime host of Reading Rainbow, which ran from 1983-2006, has been stirring up rumors about a new version of the show, according to GalleyCat. First, he told his 1.6 million Twitter followers, in this tweet, that “Want y’all to know that I’m seriously moving forward with an idea for a new version of a Reading Rainbow like show. Webisodes for adults.”

More recently, he wrote another cryptic but exciting tweet suggesting Reading Rainbow might return in a form more akin to its previous incarnation: “You heard it here first… Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in the works! Stay tuned for more info. But, you don’t have to…”

Maybe he’ll cover eBooks…he’ll have to mention them, won’t he?

All this talk about eBooks, but, really, what the hell is an eBook? The Oxford Companion to the Book, perhaps the quintessential reference book for our times (it’s everything you ever wanted to know about the history and culture of books), which was published in January, takes a rather thorough stab at an answer, and The Wall Street Journal excerpted that answer in full.

The excerpt includes everything from the earliest inklings of the possibility that print books might be digitized through CD-Roms (‘member those) up through Project Gutenberg, stopping a bit short of where we are now.

Oddly, perhaps, The Oxford Companion to the Book is not available in eBook format, and carries a hefty $275 list price. So read the free excerpt…

NetGalley, the online electronic galley service operated by Firebrand Technologies, announced a partnership today with the Evengelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), offering a discounted rate on NetGalley’s services to ECPA member publishers. NetGalley, a rapidly growing service whose clients include publishers such as Little, Brown, Harlequin, and Milkweed Editions, enables publishers to electronically send and monitor galleys of their books.

The ECPA agreement will make NetGalley a member benefit for ECPA members. The cost of NetGalley’s services will depend on the number of titles each publisher has on NetGalley, but ECPA publishers will receive a 10% discount on normal NetGalley rates. Two ECPA member publishers, Moody and Barbour, have already signed on with the service.

For book reviewers, eGalleys are the wave of the future, whether they like it or not, and large-scale agreements like this will speed the transition. Look out for more agreements like this.

Following the announcement of the divestiture of Library Journal and School Library Journal, staff changes at Publishers Weekly were announced via an internal memo at Reed Business Information. PW, LJ and SLJ were all part of Reed’s Publishing Group, whose editor and publisher are going with LJ and SLJ, so PW staffers have been promoted to fill those roles.

Cevin Bryerman, formerly associate publisher of PW, will now take on the role of Publisher. Jim Milliot, business and news director, and Michael Coffey, executive managing editor, will jointly have overall editorial control of the magazine.

Presumably Reed is still trying to sell PW. We’ll keep you posted as the story unfolds.

Library Journal and School Library Journal, two of the many, many publications Reed Business Information has been trying to divest itself of over the past several months have been sold to Ohio-based Media Source, according to an announcement just released today. Media Source owns Junior Library Guild and The Horn Book, so the addition of LJ and SLJ strengthens the company’s library offerings significantly.

Here’s more from Media Source: “Library Journal and School Library Journal are valuable magazines that deserve a corporate home focused on libraries,” said Randall Asmo, CEO of Media Source. “We respect the history and contribution of LJ and SLJ. Our goal is to build upon those strengths to provide a vital and comprehensive service to the librarian community.” Editor Brian Kenny and Publisher Ron Shank will retain their current roles, and the editorial staffs of both magazines will remain in New York.

At the same time, according to Paid Content, the staff of Publishers Weekly is currently in a meeting at which they may be learning that magazine’s fate. PW, LJ and SLJ were all part of Reed’s Publishing Group, which has now obviously been dissolved. We’ll have more on this story as the day progresses.

It’s been a whole month since our older sibling GalleyCat launched its online book review, GalleyCat Reviews, and to celebrate the occasion, they’ve put together the first in a monthly series of print editions, rounding up the previous month’s reviews using Scribd. In this first issue, you get 31 pages of fresh book coverage.

Here’s what GalleyCat has to say about it: “With this special monthly edition, you can read GCR, print GCR, or download GCR to your favorite reading device. If you enjoy reading GalleyCat Reviews in this new format, please leave us a comment–how can we make this printed copy better for you?”

This is a very cool idea, and GalleyCat is helping to fill a yawning gap in book coverage. So, this weekend, instead of doing anything else, read GalleyCat Reviews, and we’ll see you Monday.