newbooks is one of the few British independent book magazines. It is "glossy", with many full colour photographs and illustrations, and in appearance would be more in the style of Waterstone's Books Quarterly rather than say London Review of Books or Times Literary Supplement. It covers a wide range of books, mostly from the popular end of the market, perhaps catering to the Richard and Judy book club audience, although more serious historical books are also covered.
Its publisher, Guy Pringle, was HarperCollins Publisher's Retail Marketing Manager before branching out to start Newbooks and other ventures, and has a wide and deep knowledge of the publishing industry (as a quick Google of his name will reveal). Guy is very committed to promoting reading and has worked with libraries to set up reading days up and down the country. His knowledge of the industry has enabled him to market newbooks with a unique selling point - free books. Every month, five books are featured and readers can select one to be sent to them, for £2.95 to cover postage and packing. The selection is quite broad - the current issue is offering:
- A Golden Age - Tahmima Anam
- South of the River - Blake Morrison
- Radiance - Shaena Lambert
- Can Any Mother Help Me? - Jeanna Bailey
- Secret - Philippe Grimbert
(OK, so nothing there for me, but 10 out of 10 for trying).
The magazine itself offers a mix of author interviews (current issue: Sebastan Faulkes, Jonathan Coe, Sue Gee), lengthy extracts from current books, features on authors and books (Barbara Kingsolver, William Trevor) more general articles, and many reviews.
newbooks is aimed at members of book groups and seems to be more popular with women than men, despite attempts to broaden its appeal to men. OK, so we know that women read more than men, and that women are far more likely to join book groups than are men. But not all book groups focus on "womens interest" books, even when their membership is predominately female. However, I understand that Newbooks has to live with market realities and on the whole it manages to maintain a general appeal.
The weakest section of the magazine, which extends to 10 pages is the section of "readers reviews". Each review has been written by "a reader like yourself who is also a member of a reading group". These reviewers give the usual star rating, but in Newbooks, they also rate the books for "reading group suitability". As an amateur reviewer myself I know the pitfalls, but it seems in this section of the magazine that editorial control is set to one side and the reviewer reigns. Unfortunately, as soon as a challenging read comes along the reviewers tend to go to pieces, awarding highly acclaimed books the most bizarre ratings. Just to pick out a couple of examples (linked titles to my own reviews) from the current edition:
Peeling the Onion by Gunther Grass
Personal read 1 star, reading group read 5 stars
"Although
the author has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature I have to
admit that I have never heard of him, so a great deal of the book was
over my head . . ."
The Boy Who Loved Books by John Sutherland
Personal read 0 star, reading group read 1 star
"After 150 pages I'm afraid I gave up"
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Monefiore
Personal read 2 stars, reading group read 1 star
"not an enjoyable read but I'm glad I got to the end but it did take a lot of perseverance"
I would not be alone in rating all three of these books very highly indeed, the Gunter Grass book being a particularly important publishing event (and an excellent book for all that!). I personally find the whole reader review section fairly dreadful and see little point in the editor allowing reviewers to mislead readers to quite this extent. Most buyers of literary magazines expect the review sections to be a useful guide but Newbooks unfortunately fails to achieve this.
Having said all that, one can only compliment Guy Pringle (and his editor in chief, Elizabeth Lindner) on producing such an attractive and professional-looking publication. It can't be easy to start up a new magazine and see it thrive, and if compromises have to be made along the way, then so be it. There is a real gap in the market for a magazine to appeal to the general reader and Newbooks goes a long way towards filling it.
One small point - although the magaine has a website, it doesn't have a forum and there are no email links anywhere on the site or in the magazine itself. The only way to correspond is snail mail. Strange for these days.
