Will you please help me find bloggers to review books?

September 5, 2006 11:06 AM

Let's say I want to take blogs and bloggers seriously as tastemakers and critics. Let's say in doing so I want to actively pursue sending them books from my publishing house for review (literary, political and social non-fiction, left progressive with a decent amount of non-partisan policy and historical work as well). What are some blogs you like that review books in any of these fields?

I already know and love bookslut and the wider range of purely lefty blogs, Kos, Bradblog, etc. What are some others? I'm not so much interested in their "reach", as I am in the quality of their thought and ability to express themselves. Thanks.

posted by Divine_Wino to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Michael Bérubé
He definitely fits into the literary-political parameters of your books. Also, check out his blogroll for other blogs. You are going to have to skim through a ton of blogs.
posted by mattbucher at 11:18 AM on September 5, 2006

Crooked Timber runs thoughtful book reviews quite often, especially on social science topics.
posted by escabeche at 11:19 AM on September 5, 2006

I used to read litblog quite a lot but forgot about it - thanks for reminding me.
posted by einekleine at 1:50 PM on September 5, 2006

I second Litblog.
posted by mattbucher at 1:51 PM on September 5, 2006

Mumpsimus.
Moorish Girl.
These are both probably more on the literary side but seem to feature news or nonfic.
posted by shownomercy at 2:14 PM on September 5, 2006

Dan Green comes to mind (almost entirely literary).
posted by thomas j wise at 2:44 PM on September 5, 2006

Just email bloggers you like the writing of and ask them. Chances are they'll take the freebie and if it's good, you'll get a good review from it.
posted by mathowie at 2:56 PM on September 5, 2006

I find that to be a really interesting idea. one of the blog-like newsleters I subscribe to is boldtype but to be honest, the evaluation from bloggers who are just great writers is far more interesting to me. just offer it to people whose writing you find interesting and see what happens. look around via technorati to identify a couple big-hitters among the blogosphere (or go to federated media, which work with a lot of the biggest blogs)...

talk to anil dash, he's on metafilter, too.
posted by krautland at 3:51 PM on September 5, 2006

I second mathowie. I've now been on both sides of this exchange and know that if you're patient and send the books out to people you like and honestly read, you'll get results.
posted by rodz at 3:52 PM on September 5, 2006

Me, if you want to send books to Korea. Me like books, me talk pretty.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:58 PM on September 5, 2006

Response by poster: Thank you all. Any more suggestions for specific places?
posted by Divine_Wino at 5:26 PM on September 5, 2006

A few more...

African Update (for writing on current African politics and American foreign policy)
Cup O'Books
Stephen Schenkenberg
posted by mattbucher at 6:15 PM on September 5, 2006