Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Books

A slightly edited e-mail exchange:

“I am surprised that the Life section of the Freeman does not have a book review section. I believe it would be interest to your readers.”
— Joe Vadalma, Saugerties

I agree. But we don't have the manpower we'd like to in order to do that.
Instead, what we have is a book page every Thursday, featuring a book and its author.

We do write stories about area books and events, and we run the Top 10 Most Requested books at Mid-Hudson area libraries and the best-sellers from independent bookstores every Thursday as well — all new features within the last few years.

And the first Thursday of every month, we have Book Notes, featuring all area book events, who's getting published, getting awards, etc.

Having reviews would require us to use one of the two Life reporters reading the submissions — and we get dozens and dozens — and I just can't have her do that if she (Bonnie Langston) is to write other stories for the Life section.

“Curiously, how do you choose which authors you highlight in your Thursday feature?”

We put all book submissions together and, depending on newsworthiness, choose the ones that have more local hooks (author's town, relevance to the Hudson Valley, timeliness, etc).
Not every book makes it into a story, but all make it into book notes, if we get all the relevant information.

Send us the book, with a small bio and contact information, and we'll take it from there.