Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Too Many Kidlit Blogs?

A recent post at Chicken Spaghetti pointed out that more than 700 children's literature blogs are enrolled with Jacket Flap and asked if that means there are too many. One commenter said:

"Yes, I think there is a glut on the blogosphere (not just kid-lit blogs but all kinds...although there is certainly a wealth of kid-lit blogs). I am discovering, though, that the cream is rising to the top.

The problem as I see it, and this is strictly my opinion, is that everyone wants to review books now. One week at my job (I'm a book publicist), I received no fewer than seven requests from brand new blogs who wanted me to send them free books to review. We used to love getting these requests; it meant someone was interested in our books. Now, we've had to come up with guidelines on who to send to because we've become overwhelmed by people who fancy themselves book reviewers."
Meanwhile, publishers themselves are proactively soliciting reviews from bloggers. Jen Robinson has posted her own review policy to manage the expectations of authors and publishers who may send her materials for her Book Page blog. So have the writers of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

Which blogs make up that "cream on top?" What makes a blogger "qualified" to write reviews? How do they compare to traditional print review sources? Finally, how can school library media specialists use online review sources to make collection decisions?

3 comments:

Jules at 7-Imp said...

I have to quickly add: We've had that review copy policy since Day One (almost). I felt like it was really important, even back when we were getting, say, one book every couple months!

I'm just a nerd, I guess.

Susan T. said...

Thanks for continuing this discussion. You're bringing up more interesting points, like considering a reviewer's qualifications.

700 is a heck of a lot of blogs, and I'm sorry that I can't keep up with as many as I'd like to.

Susan T.
Chicken Spaghetti

MM said...

Hey! Thanks for commenting. I'm taking a class on Digital Resouces for Children and Teens, and this blog is my term project. I'll be putting up more stuff over the next couple of weeks. Please feel free to share any other thoughts on the print journal v. blogger issue.

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