Do NY Times Reviews Matter?

by Erin Mitchell

When I was a kid living in Seattle, my dad subscribed to the New York Times Review of Books. It arrived a week late in the mail, and I remember reading it when I was as young as six or seven. My biggest takeaway was big words. I learned a lot of 3+ syllable words that way. And I was always surprised that the books I enjoyed reading were never reviewed. (Today, more of the books I read are reviewed there, but I still don’t agree with their bias against Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie.)

I spend a lot of time thinking about what makes people buy books. I read studies. I combine and examine data. I ask people. Recently, I’ve been wondering about whether NY Times book reviews actually impact sales, and so I decided to gather up some new data.

VERY IMPORTANT CAVEAT: This is in no way, shape, or form a scientific study. I’m going to tell you a bit about 95 people who responded, but I want to be super clear that I’m not presenting this as quantitative, statistically significant data. It is qualitative. It is anecdotal. I still find it informative, but I don’t give it any more weight than it’s due.

This is the question I asked on Facebook and Twitter: Have you ever bought (or not bought) a specific book because of a New York Times review?

The people in the sample pool are, by definition, bookish because they’re either friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and I talk about books a lot in both places. Here’s the world cloud of my Facebook posts:

They’re geographically biased toward the US and toward cities:

My Twitter followers are similarly biased toward cities (although they’re more country-diverse):

The nature of social media is such that it encourages comment (beyond just yes-or-no), and some of the comments I saw repeatedly were:

• It matters who wrote the review. People trust some reviewers more than others.
• People in New York and those who subscribe to the Times are more inclined to base purchases on their reviews.
• All the Non-Americans who responded said yes.
• Sometimes reviews seem designed to incite controversy, rather than review the book in question.

And the results? Here you go:

I was surprised…I expected, given the biases in the sample group explained above, that it would end up a more dramatic yes vote. But given the tiny sample size and built-in bias of the sample group, this can be considered a statistical tie.

So what does it mean?

• The New York Times is and will remain—through our lifetimes, at least—a recognizable brand that carries with it a degree of authority both within and outside the United States.
• Bookish people (authors and those who work in and around books) do give NYT reviews weight, even when they don’t influence purchasing decisions.
• NYT is no longer the only place to get reviews (like it was when my dad subscribed back in the day), nor is it necessarily the most trusted for many people.

I didn’t count myself in the survey results, but I would have been a No. I buy books for lots of different reasons, but I’ve never bought—or not bought—a book (or anything else, for that matter) based on a review in the New York Times.

How about you?

 

Comments

[Dru]

I never bought a book based on a New York Times review. I know what I like and that's what I buy.

[Jeff Cohen]

I have decided that I have never bought a book because of an NYT review. That's because they've never reviewed one of my books, so I'm holding a grudge.

[Mario in DC]

Very seldom even read the NYT book reviews -- I read that paper (electronically) for the news and commentary, only.

My weakness, when it comes to published professional book reviews, is NPR.

[Erin Alford]

I've never made a decision to buy or not buy a book based on a review. Reviews are something I've never really paid much attention to. I buy books based on if the description on the back sounds like I would like. :)

[Patti Abbott]

I am very influenced by reviews. With movies, with books, with TV, with products. I don't like to waste my time and money and reviews are about the only way I know to find out if a book or movie is good. The NYT is the best place for reviews but I also read THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, THE LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS, EW, NEW YORK MAGAZINE, and whatever else crosses my path. Sometimes I think I liked to read reviews more than books.

[Kathy Reel]

I'm with Mario. If any professional reviewing influences me it would be NPR, not in a negative way, as it wouldn't stop me from reading a book I'm interested in if NPR panned it. It's more likely that I might hear of a book from NPR or my daughter who listens to NPR all the time.

[Lynne Patrick]

I was going to add myself to the No camp, because the New York Times doesn't often - or ever - reach my neck of the woods. But the Guardian Review, which I read every Saturday, is probably the closest UK equivalent, and if that counts, the answer is yes, two books which I wouldn't have encountered otherwise, but I'm glad I did. The reviewer made them sound interesting, which is surely part of a reviewer's job.