What Happens When You Invite a Booklist Editor to Your Book Launch
Posted by: Daniel Kraus
Being celebrated by the literati as the most venerable of critics, we editors are inevitably invited to stand before the assembled gala crowd, looking smashing in our tuxes and holding our martinis, to give our opinion of the about-to-be-published book. Sometimes this goes well. Other times it goes really, really, really badly. To give you an idea, take this scene from the 1964 film Youngblood Hawke, based on the excellent Herman Wouk novel, which is itself loosely based on the life of Thomas Wolfe.
OK, so this never happens. Booklist is a recommended-only journal, after all, so if we don’t think libraries should acquire your book, well, we know how to gracefully defer giving speeches by heading back over to the bar.
