Meet Editor in Chief
Clay Smith
1. Clay, what road did you take to rise to editor in chief of
Kirkus? My first journalism job
was at the Austin Chronicle, the alt weekly in Austin, and I
immediately gravitated to the books department there. An alt weekly is a great
place to start in journalism. I found the editors there really receptive to
writing for them, even if I didn’t directly work for them. I eventually became
a senior editor there, leaving in 2002 to attend NYU’s Cultural Reporting and
Criticism graduate program. My timing was all off when I graduated, and I
realized that I had only interviewed people who wanted to be interviewed by me:
writers, musicians, filmmakers. So I did a six–month investigative journalism
fellowship at the Dallas Observer and interviewed some people
who didn't really want me poking around. I’m very glad I did it, but I’d
rather stick with covering writers. At the end of that fellowship, I began
working seasonally for Sundance Film Festival, interviewing their filmmakers
for their website, which is also when the Texas Book Festival called me,
because their literary director position was open. I was the literary director
of that festival from 2005-2012, doing freelance journalism when I could, and I
joined Kirkus as features editor in November of 2012.
2. What changes, if any, do you plan to make to the book review
magazine? If you compare an issue
of the magazine from as recently as December of 2010 to now, you will
notice vast, vast changes in the ways we think about the
magazine – the old design didn’t allow for any images whatsoever
and there was less features coverage of writers. Now the magazine
reads more vibrantly, while maintaining the integrity of our reviews.
One change that will be immediately evident is that I will
be interviewing a writer or writers in each issue of
the magazine starting in 2014, but beyond
that, I’m going to be most involved in maintaining and strengthening the
magazine’s voice. I’m biased, but I think our reviews, as
short as they are, have a more informed voice, are more literary, thoughtful
and have more of an iconoclastic verve to them than the reviews
in other industry magazines. We don’t run dry book reports in Kirkus.
3. Many authors tell me even when they get a positive review from
Kirkus they feel there is a stinging criticism or two included. Would you
agree? Our reviews may be
honest and tough, but they aren’t needlessly spiteful. How many perfect
books are published every year? Our critics have an obligation, first of all,
to the truth. I think we actually have a good track record nowadays
of giving praise where praise is due. Because we are more honest in our
reviews, when we do give a star to a book, the star matters.
4. How is Kirkus capitalizing on the ongoing technological changes
in publishing today?
The
growth of ebook sales and the
continuing increase of online book buying means a
greater need for online book discovery. Book discovery has always been the heart of what we do, ever since Virginia Kirkus
founded what she called the “Service” in 1933, so it’s a natural fit for Kirkus to fill this need online. The site the company launched in 2011 is a
consumer-facing site rather than an insider, purely industry site (the site was
redesigned in early 2013 to make it even more consumer friendly). We run quite
a few reviews now of children’s book apps, we have a robust network of book
bloggers who contribute daily to the site and we’ve seen our digital subscriptions
grow as a result of those changes.
5. Self-publishing’s growth outpaces that of traditional
publishers. How will this trend impact your coverage of books? Indie is our fastest-growing section. In 2012, we reviewed 172%
more books than we did in 2011, so the trend affects us, because
it’s broadened the scope of our coverage. It has also enhanced our value
to publishers and other industry insiders looking for content to
acquire. In response to authors receiving queries from agents and
publishers after getting reviewed by Kirkus, we launched Pro Connect, a service for industry
professionals to find new indie talent. Self-published writers create a
profile on Pro Connect and editors and agents can scroll through those
profiles in a number of ways: by genre, for example, or by targeting the
writers our editors have tagged as “authors to
watch.” Acquisitions editors and agents can correspond with those writers
through the site, so Pro Connect serves a need the industry hadn't
found a way to address well before now.
6. What do you love most about being in the publishing industry? That really nice feeling of connecting readers
with a talented writer they may not have otherwise discovered.
7. What advice do you have for struggling authors seeking to catch
a break? If you’re having a hard
time getting traction with a traditional publisher, consider
publishing yourself. There are so many more options for
self-published writers now. You have to do your homework and be honest with
yourself about which parts of publishing your own book you
aren’t going to be good at, but the opportunities for indie writers
nowadays are refreshing.
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Brian
Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and
not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter.
You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when
discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©
2013
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