Joe Ponepinto on LAR reviews and reviewers

The changes we’re planning for our Book Review section (details coming soon) meant we needed to recruit a few additional reviewers, so we placed an ad on CRWROPPS. Although the position doesn’t pay, within six hours we had received more than thirty responses, most including CVs or samples of published reviews, and most from writers who would be well qualified for the job, even if it paid.

To those who applied, thank you, and we’ll review the applications within a few days.

The overwhelming response for these unpaid positions sheds, in its way, some light on the literary profession. I know of no industry outside the arts where an advertisement for a volunteer position would bring so many applications. This result, and the fact that CRWROPPS, a simple online posting service, reports a membership of nearly 6,000 writers, indicates the still large, and I believe growing, community of writers, despite an almost complete disregard of the literary world by mainstream media. It means also there are far too few publishing opportunities, especially for those who believe criticism is an important a part of the literary world as the more creative endeavors.

This is not a surprise, but it is a bit of an eye-opener regarding how the cramped literary field has forced writers to jump at even the slightest opportunity for publishing credits.

For us at the Los Angeles Review, it means we will do our part to improve opportunities in this important area. Without divulging too many details I can report we are looking to review more books by more writers, particularly those who are published by smaller presses, which are more geared towards promoting artistic quality than the large, sales-driven publishing houses and booksellers.

We’ll update our progress in this area as we work towards our next issue.

Joe Ponepinto is the Book Reviews Editor of The Los Angeles Review. Read more from Joe at http://joeponepinto.com/