Some observations about PW Select

      PW Select, for those of you not familiar with it, is a quarterly feature within Publisher's Weekly that is devoted to  the world of self publishing.   Initiated at the end of 2010, I was glad to see that PW was finally going to give some recognition to  worthy authors who were, for whatever reason, being ignored by mainstream publishing and  who  had  therefore decided to take matters into their own hands to get their books into print.  I was excited by the prospect of being able to add all sorts of interesting self published titles to my library's collection.  Unfortunately,   PW Select  has not lived up to my expectations and perusing it has generally been  a pretty depressing experience.

       According to the  inaugural issue  of December 20, 2010, PW Select  will provide reviews for at least 25 of the approximately 200 self-published submissions it receives for listing each quarter; each issue will also include several feature articles  covering various aspects of  self  publishing.  For a fee of $149, the self published author can buy a  bare bones listing that includes author, title, publisher, medium, page count, ISBN and a one or two sentence description of the book; these listings provide PW with approximately  $120,000 in additional revenue over the course of a year.  The most recent issue of  PW Select  in the January 2, 2012 issue of Publisher's Weekly contains  listings for 193 self published titles, 37 of which are given full reviews similar in style to those found in the main portion of PW.     Unfortunately, no criteria are provided that would explain the decision making process used to determine which of the listed books get reviewed.  There is also no way to determine if all of the revenue collected for PW Select is being used to support the operations associated with PW Select or if the real purpose of PW Select is to serve as a cash cow for its parent publication.  I  therefore decided to do some basic quantitative analysis to see if I could  get a better handle on what is actually going on with PW Select.   Here's what I found:

1.    Of the 193 self published books that people submitted for the listing, the largest category by far was adult fiction, with 102 titles, followed by the category autobiography/biography (which included memoir) with 21 titles; the 18 books which fell into the juvenile fiction category made it the third largest category.   The next largest categories were self help with 7 titles and poetry with 5.  After that, the subject matter of the remaining non-fiction titles was fairly evenly distributed over a variety of other subjects.

2.    Of the titles selected for review, 25 were adult fiction, 7 adult non-fiction, and 5 were children's titles.  For those authors hoping to score an actual PW review, clearly it helped to be writing for children; nearly 28% of the submitted children's books received reviews, compared with 24.5% for the writers of adult fiction and only 9.6% for the non-fiction authors.

3.       I then looked at the reviews for each book to determine if each was positive, negative or mixed.  While this is admittedly somewhat subjective, I came up with the following breakdowns:

Adult fiction:    8 positive, 12 negative, 5 mixed

Adult non-fiction:  5 positive, 1 negative, 1 mixed

Children's books:  3 positive, 1 negative, 1 mixed

        There was something distasteful in all of this and it took me a while to put my finger on it.   In that same issue of PW, there were also  93 regular  reviews of adult fiction and non-fiction titles, the vast majority of which could be considered favorable.   This makes sense; with the large number of books that are being published, there   are enough good ones out there to obviate the need to waste valuable reviewing space on poorly written books.   Generally, the only negative reviews I see in PW are of works by popular or otherwise prominent authors whose current work, in the opinion of the reviewer, does not live up to the author's previous high standards.  This also makes sense:  In instances such as these, it is only  fair to warn an author's loyal fans that they will be headed down a path to certain disappointment.

        And then I figured it out.  In the search for the next undiscovered literary superstar, PW Select  serves as a sort of American Idol venue for librarians and  readers.  ( I disclose here that I have never watched an episode of American Idol and what I know about the show I have learned primarily from reading about it.)    What I find distasteful about  the American Idol  concept is the fact that ordinary people who are painfully deluded into thinking that they have talent  are paraded before millions of viewers and subject to mass ridicule, all  in the name of good clean fun.    We consider that these people are fair game for our ridicule not only because they have overly inflated opinions of themselves but also because they have  volunteered themselves for the experience.   This  makes me uncomfortable in the same way  that I was made uncomfortable  as a young child  watching a mentally challenged teen willingly do something that was humiliating to himself because it was requested of him by the neighborhood "cool" kids and he was looking for their acceptance.

        And it's the same thing with PW Select.  Obviously, anybody who goes to the trouble of having their book self published and then paying $149 for a listing in PW Select believes that his or her work has merit and deserves a wide audience.    But if a book that has been self published is poorly written and would not otherwise cross the radar of librarians or booksellers, what purpose does it serve, other than to feed  a taste for snark, to waste the space  - and my time -  on  reviews that are negative?   

    I wonder if the purpose of the bad reviews isn't to serve as  a comeuppance  of sorts to those who dare to put themselves out there as legitimate writers in defiance of the collective wisdom of the people  in the publishing industry who have rejected them.  No matter what, the  vast majority of self published authors  are  going to end up with boxes and boxes of their books sitting in basements, garages, or attics.   Isn't that punishment enough?

    

Comments

[twitter.com/trow125]

I concede the rest of your points, but the advantage of Print On Demand technology is that you DON'T need to wind up with boxes and boxes of unsold books -- you can have the books printed one copy at a time if you want.

[Mike]

Aren't the majority of books released not for children? Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Robyn]

Not every self-published author
has been rejected by mainstream
publishing. Many prefer the speed,
the higher royalties and most
importantly the control they can
exercise over their own work.

[Nicole Grotepas]

I'm with Robyn. I picked self-publishing because I'd rather have control. I worked in the publishing industry and during the five years that I was there, I saw budgets dwindle and copy-editing departments shrink. Not every book that's picked by a publisher is AMAZING. Most of them aren't. These people get midlisted and make no money. So I picked self-publishing--I hardly even tried to get a publishing deal. I sent out five query letters and hated the process. It's basically groveling and agents eat it up. Go peruse Twitter and see how many followers agents have. They're all aspiring writers, hoping to get attention.

I do thank for this insightful review. It helped me decide not to pay for a Publisher's Weekly spot. :)

[Marie Flanigan]

If PW had any interest in furthering the role of self-publishing, they wouldn't put self-published titles in a separate publication.

[Deanna]

I submitted a book for the Dec. issue that won a legitimate award, was nominated for several other awards, and received many positive reviews from other review publications. PW Select did not review it, but most of the books they did review received negative reviews. They are not following their mission statement of finding "the undiscovered gems out there." Here is the note I sent them today:

I received the PW Select supplement. I have some feedback that I'd like you to please pass on to the people in charge of PW Select.

I first contacted you to ask if a book that had been published in paperback a number of years ago, before PW considered self-published books, could still be considered for a review if the Kindle version had just come out. You said yes. So, I thought my book had a good chance of being reviewed because it had won an award and received many positive reviews. Otherwise, I would not have taken the $149 gamble. It was all for the possible review, not the listing. Your site says your "mission is to find the undiscovered gems out there." I read all the reviews in the December PW Select, and most of them were negative. It seems to me that if the editors were really trying to find the undiscovered gems, they would have reviewed a book that had indications of being an undiscovered gem---a book that had won an award and received many positive reviews from other review publications but was still undiscovered because the author/publisher had next to no marketing budget. Instead, it seems that the editors chose to review mostly books that they did not consider to be gems. I will not be recommending your service to fellow authors, as it appears that in most cases one pays $149 for either no review or a negative review. I have to agree with the following article that it's a waste of money:

http://www.msauret.com/pw-select-book-listing-another-waste-of-money/

Thanks.

[Ronaldpage]

After reading the mostly negative reviews about PW Select, I will spend my money elsewhere.