Martin Chilton – Independent
- Digital only newspaper, not to be confused with the i newspaper
- Martin is a freelancer, but chief book critic
- Media partners of Hay and also involved with Henley Literary Festival
- They don’t have a books team, but Jessie Thompson is their arts editor who is very interested in books
- Jessie is first port of call for interviews / features
- Martin has a monthly column – he only reviews books he actually likes, will never run a negative reviews. Column runs at the start of the month
- Sometimes do bespoke reviews for bigger books
- Martin will look at every book he receives
- His reviews are usually an eclectic mix of history, biography, memoir, fiction etc
Charlotte Northedge – The Guardian
- Joint head of books with Liese (Charlotte Mon – Weds, Liese Weds – Friday)
- Wednesday is their press day
- Most commissioning and editing is either side of a Weds
- Books coverage is in Guardian’s Saturday Magazine
- The books team work closely with the Saturday team
- Interviews, big extracts and essays are wanted for front of Saturday and cover, as are memoir pieces from novelists
- They will flag if they think something works better for G2
- Online is a great opportunity for books coverage
- Authors can also feed into Experience / Lifestyle / G2 (The Moment That Changed Me) slots
- Guardian books work completely separately from Observer books
- They review a wide section of books (SFF, translated fiction, horror & crime, Children’s and poetry all included)
- Justine Jordan is Fiction Editor
- David Shariatmadari is Non Fiction, also looks after Big Idea slot
- Lucy Knight is books news editor (only does online)
- Space in print is limited so for online, the website is a huge resource and gets vast majority of readership
- Best to approach via email, chase after a week
- They work far in advance, mag goes to print 10 days in advance
- They are already thinking about Autumn now
- Like emails and catalogues as early as possible
- Send books to anyone on the books team – they will all end up in the same place, but not 1 each due to lack of books space
- Catalogues are helpful and email a list with new releases
- Non-fiction PDF’s are useful, although PDF’s are not a replacement for proofs
- The Books of my Life in print piece has about a month lead time
- Laura Wilson for Crime
- Lisa Tuttle for SFF
- John Self / Alan Simpson for Translated Fiction
- Imogen Russell Williams for Childrens
- For Poetry, go through Justine
- Someone outside the books team goes through all of the mail for The Guardian, so they really ever see extra material if it’s sent along with a proof
- Homa Khaleeli and Nicole Jackson for Guardian podcasts
Laura Hackett – Sunday Times
- Books desks have recently merged
- Robbie Millen – lit ed of both papers
- Johanna Thomas Corr – chief literary critic
- Laura Hackett / Susie Goldsbrough – deputy literary editors of both papers (Laura mostly on Sunday, Susie on Times Saturday)
- Still have the same amount of space to review
- Review in one paper may allow for an interview in another, rarely will have the same review over both papers
- Sunday goes to press on Tuesday
- Saturday goes to print Thursday evening
- Sunday covers a lot of big history books
- Mainly reviews but also features (rise of Romantasy, bookish trends)
- They work closely with Culture and Saturday reviews, also communicate with the rest of the paper
- Genre roundups in Times & Sunday Times
- Paperback reviews are always books that have already been reviewed in hardback by Times / ST – you can flag this and remind when you get in touch
- Proofs are useful
- Commission 6 weeks in advance – has just wrapped up end of July but always keen to hear about last minute things
- Susannah Butter commissions culture features
- Audrey Ward serial extracts for paper
- Likes meeting publicists where possible
- Each person on the books team does open their own mail, but extra material does not guarantee a review
- Tim Allen for Times Radio author interviews – Tim sits in on books planning meetings, his show is a culture hour
- They’re open to everything – want to cover variety and like the big celeb biogs as much as the histories.
- They mainly do reviews but they’ll also do broader features so if you’re publishing a book into a trend, do flag so they can include in these pieces.
- For Sunday, Nicolette Jones has started doing longer monthly round ups that are themed – mix of new books and classics
- Children’s books covered in both Times and Sunday Times
- They work closely with other sections of the paper
Sandra Parsons – Daily Mail
- Sandra does all serial deals and fields book reviews across Mail and Mail on Sunday
- The books team at DM is made up of 4 people (Sandra, Ciara Dosset, James Carey and Katherine Spurrier
- All books at the Mail go through Sandra – she looks at them all
- They decide on serial with main editor, biggest operation is features throughout the week, reviews take the backseat
- In 2023, they serialised 129 different titles and 64 serialised so far this year
- Serial runs in feature sections, but also Femail and other sections in the newspaper
- Do lots of history and memoir, poetry once in a while
- They review non-fiction books as features
- They aren’t interested in giving bad reviews (unless it’s a huge name that cant be ignored)
- They have set reviewers for almost everything – 3 literary reviewers each week (Clare Allfree, Anthony Cummings etc)
- Childrens is Sally Morris
- Eithne Farry Historical fiction / short stories
- Each week some kind of crime review (Geoffrey Wansell, Sandra will select psychological thrillers, Barry Turner for classic crime etc)
- Email is always best, Sandra prefers when publicists include their phone numbers on releases / in emails, as she often finds it easier to pick up the phone
- DM pages go to press on Thursday evening, but have to be finished and produced by a Tuesday (both review pages for DM & Mos)
- Like PDF’s for non fic whilst fact checking
- Reviews in the Mail are spread across 4 pages and come out on a Friday, 19 titles every week, 12 fiction, 3 PB’s, 1 coffee table book and also non – fic
- They also have the What Book slot
- Mail on Sunday is two pages of fiction and non-fic
- You Mag sit in on discussion RE serial
- Since the pandemic, publicists have stopped sending books to DM office – they are really keen to be sent books, this is vital for DM, as they will physically go through and select which ones to review
- Pitch emails should go to all of the books team
- Hephzibah looks after fiction for Mail on Sunday
- All NF for MoS goes through DM boks team
- They don’t work as far ahead as other papers, currently looking at about 3 / 4 weeks in advance
- Keen to meet in person but v limited on time
Other
- All in agreement that short, sharp and punchy emails are best. Laura said she has about 15 seconds to read each email in an inbox
- Always in include pub date
- Lit eds find showcases and dinners useful