At Work with Pamela Paul: New York Times Book Review Editor

Have you ever wondered who is behind the steering wheel of The New York Times's Book Review? This newest installment of Times Insider introduces readers to the editor of NYT's Book Review section, Pamela Paul. From Times Insider:

“It feels terrible when it’s happening to you,” Pamela Paul, editor of The Book Review said when asked about the purpose of negative reviews in a conversation with C-Span’s Book TV. “But, you know what I remind myself when we have negative reviews is that we’re not a service arm for the publishing industry,” she said. “We’re here for the readers. And readers are trying to make a decision about what they should spend their time reading and their money buying if they’re buying a book.”

Ms. Paul and other Review editors discussed how and why they turn books down, reviewing books by Times journalists, whether some authors get automatic reviews, and why The Times doesn’t review self-published work.

“We review about 1 percent of the books that come out in print from a publisher every year. So 99 percent of those books are being discarded. At some point you kind of have to say, ‘O.K., we’re just going to look at these books,’ otherwise we would be here 24 hours,” Ms. Paul said.

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As for the $1 million question — Digital or print books? — here’s how Ms. Paul does her reading:

“I’m old school. I read 100 percent in print. I love the book as a physical object; I have thousands and thousands of books — I collect them. I am constantly building new bookshelves in my house,” she said. And she keeps records too. [...]

Learn more at Times Insider.