The NetGalley Scoop: All About Our Members

We interrupt this public service blog for an announcement from our sponsor, NetGalley… When I recently announced that NetGalley had reached the milestone of 5,000 registered members, I promised more info about our community of professional readers – who they are, how they read, etc. The data below was drawn from internal statistics on our [...]

Read Full Post »

How to Elevate Women Writers? A #FollowReader #FemBook Recap

The long-simmering question of how to elevate the status of women writers when it comes to major review coverage and awards drew scores of smart comments and many new faces in a rousing discussion on November 13, 2009, with the #followreader and #fembook hashtags on Twitter. Intially prompted by the sidelining of important books by women from various year-end “best books” [...]

Read Full Post »

This Friday, #FollowReader Stands Up for Women Writers

Last Monday’s news that Publishers Weekly had excluded women from its Top Ten Best Books of 2009, and included only 29 women in its list of top 100 books of the year, met with incredulity, groans and outrage. On Twitter, the conversation quickly morphed into the #fembook hashtag, where participants suggested ways to challenge what some called a pervasive bias against women when it comes to major reviews [...]

Read Full Post »

‘I Want to Be the Online Charlie Rose’: A Chat with Bethanne Patrick

An important part of Follow the Reader’s mission is to connect book reviewers, book bloggers, media people, booksellers and librarians on the Web. We chose Bethanne Patrick for our first profile because she’s an avid bridge-builder between print journalism, online book programming and TV, who is currently launching a pioneering blend of the three at The Book Studio on WETA.com, the website for the Washington D.C. area PBS/NPR affiliate.

Read Full Post »