As I mentioned back in August, Publishers Weekly decided to create a sort of Who's Who of Self-Publishing, charging self-published writers $149 for a listing in their supplement and the chance to be reviewed. Well, that supplement has been released:
This, our first PW Select supplement, received approximately 200 books for us to announce to the industry. From among these submissions we committed to reviewing at least 25. Although these authors paid a fee to be listed in print (and in an online database), we reserved the right to decide which books we would review, and we vowed to review them with our customary standards. As is the case with the output from general trade publishers, we do not (and cannot) review everything—38 titles get that treatment here (beginning on page 23)—and we found some gems: Tim Anderson's marvelous memoir-cum-travel tale, Tune In Tokyo; Dorothy Dierk Hourihan's sweet, sepia-toned portrait in 1919: A Kansas Tale; and William Bennett's resonant allegory for children, The Christmas Gift, among others.
"Approximately 200 books" at $149 a pop comes in at just under $30,000 in PW's pocket. Honestly, I'd expected a lot more self-published writers to list themselves, but I'm glad there wasn't. Maybe if fewer and fewer self-published writers buy into this scam, PW will see the error of their ways and discontinue with this ridiculous idea. Then again, maybe not. After all, they do want to remind you of the few self-published writers who have hit it big. So maybe, just maybe, you will too. With a fee of $149, of course.