Kirkus Reviews
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| Editor | Virginia Kirkus (1933–July 1962) |
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| Categories | Book reviews |
| Frequency | Semimonthly |
| Publisher | Virginia Kirkus Bookshop Service, Virginia Kirkus Service, Inc. (from 1962), and others Kirkus Media, LLC (from 2010) |
| First issue | January 1933 |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City |
| Language | English |
| Website | kirkusreviews |
| ISSN | 1948-7428 |
Kirkus Reviews (or Kirkus Media) is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City.
Kirkus Reviews, published on the first and 15th of each month, previews books prior to their publication. Kirkus reviews over 7,000 titles per year.
In 2014, Kirkus Reviews started the Kirkus Prize. It is one of the richest literary awards in the world, bestowing $50,000 prizes annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature.
Kirkus operates a number of additional services, including Kirkus Editorial, Kirkus Indie, and Kirkus Marketing.
As Rich Motoko noted in The New York Times on December 11, 2009, Kirkus is "typically not seen by the general public - except in blurbs on books or excerpted on barnesandnoble.com" - Kirkus reviews were often used by librarians and booksellers when deciding how to stock their shelves." However, the publications' influence among in its target audience - which also includes publishers, agents, and authors - is mixed. Target market members who read or value Kirkus reviews have reported also reading Kirkus' "rivals Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal," as well as "talking with publishers’ sales representatives and reading advance galleys, when deciding what to buy." And, Motoko reported: "Authors seemed to have a mixed relationship with Kirkus. Not surprisingly, it had to do with what the reviewers said about their books."
Another factor influencing authors' views is their cost-benefit analysis of the price they pay Kirkus to review their books (which was, as Giacomo Giammetteo noted in his June 13, 2014 report: "Kirkus promises you a review in 7–9 weeks for $425. You can purchase an expedited review for $575, and they will deliver it in 4–6 weeks") versus:
Credibility—a Kirkus review is respected throughout the industry and by media and libraries
Marketing tool—a good Kirkus review is a valuable marketing tool, great for a blurb on a press release, or to be placed on your site, or as an editorial review on retailer sites
Virginia Kirkus was hired by Harper & Brothers to establish a children's book department in 1926. The department was eliminated as an economy measure in 1932 (for about a year), so Kirkus left and soon established her own book review service. Initially, she arranged to get galley proofs of "20 or so" books in advance of their publication; almost 80 years later, the service was receiving hundreds of books weekly and reviewing about 100.
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