US Authors Need Not Apply...

[lagilman]

Got this info via a former author of mine:

"I just recieved a very polite email from Ian Berriman of SFX magazine in the UK informing me that they don't review any novels published in the US.
Well, I guess that I can understand their reasonings on this, but it certainly would have been nice if they had mentioned it in their review guidelines before I sent them half-a-dozen of my novels.
Just spreading the word for other folks won't waste their time there.
Nick"



*shrug* SFX reviewed me once, and it was nice, but didn't make or break my career, to put it mildly. But I do wonder, if any US magazine had announced this, how much yowling would have been heard from the other English-speaking markets...

Comments

[greeneyedkzin.livejournal.com]

I would love to see who advertises with them. If it's a U.S.-based publisher and I had the buy/no-buy decision, I'd pull my ads.

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

Well, this explains the longstanding dearth of Trek novel reviews. We'd been wondering about that around here.

*shrug* I've honestly gotten more mileage out of the review I got in TV Zone than anything I could have gotten in SFX, so no skin off my nose. It could be worse. They could do what happened to Keith, have a review begin with "I'm not a fan of Klingons, but..." and then review one of his Gorkon books.

But, yeah, I agree. I wonder what would happen if this were a U.S.-based magazine.

[havocthecat]

Which reminds me--in a totally weird and tangential way--before I go and order an advance copy of Curse the Dark, are you and Keith going to be doing a book-promotion tour again (or are you going to do some solo trips, as I don't know when Keith's next book is due out)? Because I want to get another autographed copy (one for me and one for Phil and Judy again), and I thought I'd see about that first before I pre-ordered. :)

[girasole.livejournal.com]

I am thinking this might be standard practice. Booklist and Kirkus, for example, only review materials published in the U.S. They always wait for the American edition of titles published in both places.

[djonn]

I rather hope that what was actually meant was that the magazine doesn't review novels published in the US but not in the UK -- otherwise, according to what's reported, they're going to have to stop reviewing, say, the Harry Potter and Discworld novels. (If the editor didn't make this clearer in the original than it is in the secondary source, this is another argument for not sending review copies -- one prefers to be reviewed in publications whose management can write clearly.)

[debg.livejournal.com]

But I do wonder, if any US magazine had announced this, how much yowling would have been heard from the other English-speaking markets...

Two words: Booker. Awards.

Buggers.

[lagilman]

This is a Booker discussion-free zone, Deb!

[lagilman]

I'm still hoping to get out Somewhere (was looking at Chicago or Arizona) to do a signing or three, but July is just going to suck for travelling, especially since I'll be heading to Scotland in early August. But we can Arrange something...

[debg.livejournal.com]

(scurries off to wash own mouth out with soap)

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Someone has just steered me over here.

SFX don't review anything published in the US regardless of the nationality of the author. I only started getting reviewed there regularly when Macmillan published me: SFX wouldn't review the Bantam editions. The BSFA have a similar policy with its in-house magazine and in both cases (when I whinged) I was told that it's for reasons of space. There's enough SF and F published in SFX per month to fill the review columns (as thr rather, er, weighted Hugo novels shortlist shows). Because they're a British magazine, they prefer to give prominence to home grown product, which they couldn't fit in if they reviewed the enormous amount of US SF as well. InterZone made exceptions, but only when I snuck reviews of US literature (including some of Roc's) in under the radar.

What really annoyed me about SFX (which loves to think it's the genre equivalent of LOADED) is that they used to have a policy of deliberately sending out books to reviewers whom they knew would be dismissive (soft fantasy to hard SF reviewers e.g.), in order to be contentious.

And they've only just realised that girls read their magazine too. Sigh. Personally, I'd swap a few naked genre blokes for more reviews of other people's fiction...or I'd like to think I would.

(And they should mention it in the guidelines - would have saved me a fortune on postage as well.)

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Sorry, meant 'published in Britain.' I've only just got up.