do they need, what they want? we have to provide an actual service. that's all i have to say. >> no it isn't. we'll get back to you. katharine. >> i'm just feeling that much more privileged that might not always reviewed by the "washington post" given those numbers. i feel as if most the critics i know are true citizens of literature and a certain way, good citizens of literature and that it's this peculiar intersection of citizenship, sort of community service and connoisseurship. and i agree that there are times when book reviewers are just too disconnected and they're too personal and they're not universal enough to do anything for the reader. but i think really, really took levering the word about a wonderful book is, you know, a

tremendous service to our culture. and i think people are starved for a weigh-in, a way of finding what's good in ways of thinking about it. in the right sort of criticism really, really enhances the reading experience and leads people to books they wouldn't otherwise find on their own, especially not with all the placement. you know, if you walk into a barnes & noble and you see books in certain locations, that's because of the planet graham that has received every day by the manager of the store and those folks are on the table for the same reason that the cornflakes are at the end cap displayed in your supermarket. it's all paid real estate. and i find it amazing that people are cynical about the cornflakes, but then they don't get that about books. and i do think the right kind of reviews by the good assignment, the right sort of review, the right sort of critic can really make a difference for the books that are not the cornflakes of the bookstore. >> and will tabloid type more about that because figuring out

how to make that assignment is something that's really challenging for everyone. but david, how about you? especially with doing thrillers, suspense, the stuff that people really are buying unlike some of the books that i review. >> well, ideally what i tried to do in my role as a critic is to direct readers to the best of what is available out there. i review a lot of books that are popular. in some cases a lot of bestsellers, but all bestsellers are not created equal and what i try to do as i try to say that these are the people who even if they are popular they're worth reading. ..

as critics our audience is shrinking now because so many people are so busy with all of the different forms of media in their lives that books tend to get shoved to the side and would hopefully we can do is direct

people towards the kind of reading the will of choice of a will be willing to do it more often because they think it's more -- i love to watch tv but it's not as satisfying as reading a good book and i think there's a lot of people who would be willing to read if we can remind them of that. >> if we can find them the right books. this comes to me a plot review and a part of the problem with criticism in the sense that sometimes it's hard to tell which reviews are actually saying by this book versus the review that is just -- and there is maybe too much but i just wanted to add that from the perspective of the writer this isn't my first book, never been on the receiving end of reviews before but have been reviewing for a long time and was on the national book critic circle for a year and talked about people read these reviews? what impact do these people actually have on people so i

left my house january 2019 but literally been talking about the book every day since and i am not going home until june. it's ridiculous. one of the things that has been utterly astonishing is everything i do people walk up holding copies of book reviews that came out on a month ago saying i read this and i had to go by the book and this is why -- i've had people ask me to sign copies of book reviews and as a critic i've been like -- [laughter] it is so refreshing and a relief to know people out there do still read the book reviews and take them seriously. in this world of shrinking sections it's an important thing to know and some of them printed them offline and some of them were reviews i know there's a lot of controversy about who is doing reviews on blogs but some of them are amazingly complex smart refuse so i just think it is great for me to see the

people are really reading this stuff. >> there are so many different issues being brought up and i want to get back to something david started coming and it goes with your point, too, rebecca about the difference of a review in a book report. because as you pointed out, i started as a book blocker. i will give you a quick background and and then let the panelists talked but when i started blogging it was for aol. we have a book channel that is no longer active. i was not allowed to join with mr. freeman and other colleagues because i was a corporate lawyer. i might have been a shill for shame and things changed and i've always been a blogger for someone. i went from aol to publishers weekly. i went from publishers weekly to pbs, where i am now blogging and twisting the site so the perceptions have changed but what i haven't seen discussed enough and i will bring my own thing to the table, nbc group is

that not everything that is labeled a book review is a book review. let's talk about that because that's one of the problems about getting readers to know whether it is encouraging you to buy the book or not. there's other things to bring up. so, speed, what is a review versus something that is a summary or just a quick report? >> is an interesting question. a lot of book reviews are just reports, and i've never even thought about making that distinction it's not a book review largest thought it was a bad book review. [laughter] >> those were the ones i turned it. [laughter] >> yeah, do we as a presumption the audience wants book reviews or -- >> i don't think we have a presumption. i think some people are wanting to write reviews but a show of hands, who is interested in writing a book review?

anyone? >> plus we all read book reviews. people of the book. >> i'm talking about how to know as a reader if someone says here is a book review but all you get is a summary that is different than eight ron charles bouck reef you if you ask me. >> you have to have plots of course because it is an awful. but what should happen is if the summary of the plot should be and he is with critiques of the success of that book and themes of the book and the way it affected you and the way it's written it's that critical voice that falls away and all you are given are a summary and a long quote and then some sort of concluding -- >> you forgot the plot spoiler. >> for we've been getting lots of hate mail lately about pilafs whalers. i think the readers have had it or are not editing carefully enough. readers hate that. >> at least you are getting mail. [laughter] >> if it is an awful what else does it have? except the way the plot can

influence you in and change your feelings. so that is a terrible thing to do on a review. >> i would say adding to that, i think one thing that is often maybe not clear is what we mean by critical. critical doesn't necessarily mean it negative and i think there are two extremes of sort of these tendencies and refuse and one is to do a report, a summary. this is what the book is about, period. and others feel obligated to see something that regard was and is the sort of the obligatory here's the summary, here's the good thing, here's the bad thing and the good reviews are the ones that we've all of that together and our analytic and they don't -- >> practical criticism. >> i think just the term criticism often confuses people that it can be positively critical. >> that's why i like to use the word review rather than criticism, but criticism has its role to play and i guess i want to let katharine and david respond to this question, too, but i also want to talk about

the fact people will say who cares if i learn about a book if i really like it? the thing is the criticism, any kind of criticism, art, film, etc. has a role in our discourse in life and academia beyond just getting someone to buy the newest novel. but let's talk about that, katharine. >> i walked both sides of the street and i feel in fact the internet has now started to blur the boundary more and more between reading and writing so that for many people to read a book is to go -- i think amazon started but i think they've gone away from amazon. i think they are at good grades, library, places like that. and to express some credit in opinion about the book that actually is often quite infuriating to the author -- [laughter] it becomes a consumer evaluation

, and they are reviewing the book they would review a toaster. it's a consumer decision or i like the shiny buttons but i didn't like there were not enough settings. only they are saying that about books. >> like 1945. >> exactly. i like this part but i didn't like that part as if that is how we read a book to decide use lot into this part i like this part i didn't like it becomes a consumer evaluation of a product which i think is really a pretty thin way to read any kind of book with very is a mall for a biography or anything else because it becomes this consumer evaluation that's not really all there is. but fighting for many people it has become the frontline of what they read about the books that other people in their social network have been reading. so it is now part of a conversation, part of buying a

book and reading a book is then writing about it and then you read about what your friends or acquaintances have said about it and it's this whole conversation that's going on that has nothing to do with book reviews as they exist say ten years ago. >> it's a very valid point. it's a problem that we have with authority. we want to break some of the barriers down but breaking them all down leaves us with a real mess. >> some of these evaluations are brilliant, sensitive and thoughtful and nuanced. but it is this jumping in and it's almost like a metafiction the way you read a book you are evaluating. and i go back to the way that you would small kitchen appliances. that seems like a loss of something. >> it does seem like a loss of something. what do you think david? >> it is interesting but katharine said. i never thought of it in those terms before.

i wonder why people find so interesting. how do you suppose it is because they are able to be part of it? >> because i think most people some direction with the culture consists of being a consumer. >> it's one of the things that i think is that we are losing with, with the contraction of professional criticism. i always think that the best way to really study the critical aspect of whether it is still more literature, however, is to find those critics who may in your view are the best. they have the smartest things to say, the most interesting things, the most thought-provoking to you, and then you follow them over time. uae dee dee to read what they write, learn their tastes and policies. so that you can really understand their review as opposed to a few just come across a review cold you don't know who the reaper is and you don't know what to think about what they are saying. maybe the person is a maniac. maybe the person is the author's

best friend or the guy who hated him since the seventh great. >> you do know it is in the "washington post" said the arcuri did refuse. making assignments. >> let's talk about that because i see daily ron scribbling note. and when you do have money to spend whether it's three and $50, $50, whatever. trying to get the right book to the right reviewer is a big challenge, and this matters to the consumer because the end product hopefully is going to be helpful to you. i'm not sure if that is what you're scribbling about. >> i think that is one of the great loss is what katharine and it mentioned. the newspaper ceased to have their own book critics if you could plot your reaction to a book according to that person that you do like we did with the towns restaurant critic and tonnes movie predict who was wrong. [laughter] but that's helpful, isn't it? because you knew where they are.

>> so and so doesn't like this if he does the mauney will go. but now all of the book critics are gone except a few to the and so every book review you are reading of the paper has been freelance or syndicated. you don't know who that person is so you don't develop that relationship and that is a loss. we know from these polls and expensive interviews we do with our readers most people are getting recommendations about books from their friends and family. that's where they go first. and then far below that comes book critics and npr. that is why the social network book review sites are taking off because that is what people have always used but now have a larger internet circle. you asked about assignments. >> talking about making that match and how much of the time set that can be. >> we spent a lot of our time doing that. first trying to find the books to review.

we are always looking for a and i think what katharine was talking about before we begin, what we're looking for is someone who will read this book sympathetically. not that they will like it but they will read it with the understanding of what this book is about and trying to do. they may not do it and that credit should tell us what we never want, wickliffe a set up. this comes all the time. we get together once we did bring a were piles of books and say this book about this and it should go to these people and we then say no, sheets that kind of book that wouldn't be fair. we never, ever do that. what we are always looking for is that kind of sympathy or empathy before the subject or expertise if it is a nonfiction book particular but for section we don't want someone that's written about that subject exactly because that would an overlap but we do what a kind of critical knowledge of that book. >> and that is the fighting that doesn't happen. the good reads, amazon, everything. there is so many weird vested interests in things it's unbelievable what people pullout of a book. i had one guy write me an e-mail

just really angry because i just literally one word in my book which was totally irrelevant to the whole book and it's just because he had a personal relationship to this thing. and these things come out, and as all the time and people reading a lot of these reviews, it's not always clear and there is in that vetting going on but i have to say i actually think the social networking think is pretty great when it comes to the good reads and all of that even though i also agree writers should not be reading most of these things because there are some just bizarre and infuriating crazy people things going on where people just completely don't understand what they are reading. but what i think is happening is people would respond and that is the duty of social networking is someone will post a review that says i hated this book because the character's name were stupid and then someone else will say what kind of -- when would you rate review a book -- what are you saying that for? or something deeper --

>> or my name is when a friend, what do you mean? [laughter] >> for science books people with various agendas will post a certain thing and someone else with a different set of knowledge will say wait a minute, what you end up getting when you read all of these reviews as a big lump sum is you often will get a card pretty clear picture. >> the trick is figuring out how to read all that stuff and weed out the things the aarsele and tracie, and i think it's just it's not going away. this is when to be part of our culture and there's a side of me that thinks that's great people are talking about books online and are doing. that's awesome. >> that's what i want to talk about next -- no, go ahead. >> i agree. >> one of the things i've noticed is people are constantly, as ron said earlier, asking what shall i read next? what is the best book? what would you recommend i read after this one?

>> i would say "twilight." [laughter] >> so you're responsible? [laughter] >> you know, a classic. [laughter] >> you can't go wrong. >> my most popular review on the books we get so much traffic from is one where i do a feature called "read this, not that." and i did one about "the time travelers wife," i don't want to bring the seven again because we could go to blows verses the new one called "her fearful symmetry." some of us didn't like it at all and some people respond. i get wonderful -- >> that is a great feature. >> thank you. but i was going to say about that is it clearly shows me as an online editor and reviewer that people really do need to know i can't buy books. i can't spend $25 twice. i need to know which one to bother with. and we touched on this. but i think it's something with

the social media aspect that rebecca and ron brought up that we should talk about a little bit more. how do we get to the mid last, what do we get the people books people want to read but ever hear about lifted up when we can publish 15 were one or ten refuse a week? >> what we would like to do is read the books and pick the best one to review. we can't begin to do that. so all the time we have to pick books, a sign them and run the reviews that come in and sometimes it is a mid negative book and we get a middling review and it seems like wasted space but we don't have the money to throw the review out. that's what i would like to do. >> it's true. it's hard to choose even with the science books if you have a book as you were saying, rebecca, that's really strong and has truth how do you pick that one instead of the 20 others? >> and this is one of the places

where online reviewing is actually useful and i feel it gives life to books that wouldn't be designated as, you know, sort of worth the print space as you can do great complex reviews online and the sites and then if you are lucky able to one twitter and facebook and spread around. in some cases a lot more widely than they would in print. so i think the upside of this online shift is that at the downside is they often don't pay. >> hours do what we can only publish for a month. so that is nothing. katharine? >> longline reviews are a huge category because there are assigned and attitude reviews and then there are people who have their own blogs which is almost like a column, their own work they published in their self selected, self editing it they are very good. and then there are other people who are also online publishing opinions about books that are not very thoughtful.

there are people who just go for quantity had seemed to cling to have read books very quickly and we know people -- >> 500 year. [laughter] >> there is a big range and i'm not sure that is fully appreciated that there is a world of difference between online reviews and all mine refused. there are treated edited publications that are on line which is i think what you're describing about what you do versus someone who has a personal blog and then just rights whatever he or she feels like which could be anything. it could be anything. >> i think the word -- we are not supposed to use the word treated any more in the online world that's out. >> i didn't get that minow. >> it's chartered now. i'm trying to remember what we are supposed to use, not curated but something that's gone by the wayside but it is a useful word because that is what we are talking about. it doesn't matter if it is on a

newsprint or glossy magazine paper if it is on a blog if something is to read it and edited it says so. you get something you can trust. part of the problem to go back to something you talked about, katharine, the lines are blurring in on just between offline and online but also between the eastern journalism and commercial. so it's not just a matter of a bad blogger were lazy. there is paid place and it's hard for consumers to tell the difference sometimes and no on veracious bloggers work for the amazon. it's like what i said before about myself being a corporate person. it's very tough to tell who the sources are. "washington post" book world we know those are journalists. >> we spend a lot of time need sure there are no conflicts of interest and the person we assign the book too. they should not have worked

together. they should not be teaching each other at princeton. they shouldn't have been arguments in public or the terrible case. [laughter] >> look it up on google. >> how do you to read the book studio? >> this something i am actively working on. the studio has been life a year, another couple weeks ago and we are excited about the fact we reached the anniversary and i do hire free-lance critics, and i do try very hard to make sure they don't have conflicts when i iceland in a book and i have an associate editor who is doing the assigning and i have had to because she is a book blocker be careful to say you can't simply

not blonder x read you something because they met the author and they really like her and went out for team. that's not the reason. i will not saying that hasn't happened more than once. these are the things i think about, the professional issues i feel about because i think it's important for all of us to keep those standards going and would be a disservice to the readers and authors if we didn't. that's what i think -- but it takes so much time and again we are not particularly well compensated but we are trying and i sure david, the daily beast has a good book section, another piece of jargon that by using and yet it's hard like he said they are in flux right now. >> yeah, it's difficult because it doesn't bring in a much in the way of advertising and it's difficult to bring in the number

of hits a website is looking for because unfortunately book coverage does not seem to attract as much attention as we wish it would. i am sure at book world, it's not even called -- >> we still call it that. [laughter] [inaudible] stat that's the challenge that everybody is facing is to build the audience to bring in their readers. i don't with the solution is. i'm not sure there is a solution to read you talked about how to get more attention from the authors. it is agreed to happen in print. there isn't remotely feasible at this point. not because print audience is many times are larger than online. >> definitely. but there's not great to be more space to talk about blogs. >> i know we want to leave time for questions as well, so i definitely want to give everyone a chance to sum up so what is the future?

what happens to the book review? >> you're asking me? >> come on, rebecca. [laughter] >> i think you get a sort of separate business from the potential to get this point in some ways it obviously doesn't really make any sense but i think is a right to the fact that we do have in a lot of ways there is a lot of hope for different ways books can get out to people now. >> and more places to write about them. >> the business side of that is really donner but i don't think people are going to stop reviewing books and in some ways there is hope for these things kind together. i'm not sure what it would be. >> that is a good point about the things being separate. ron, what do you see especially with the print audience being larger than the online audience and now you are online solely.

>> now we are not -- >> dysart, the entire section is all mine. or in print on a daily basis. >> the up side might be the few surviving newspapers that from the book reviews will syndicate around the country to small newspapers and the people in small towns will be able to recycle the ebit reviews as they were not in the past and that is a good thing. >> very interesting. >> and the internet also means yesterday's news isn't yesterday's news, it isn't just the bottom of the parity cage if something linen newspaper it can be linked everywhere, it gets everywhere. the text remains available to people for a long time. but as a novelist seen for years writing is an art, publishing is a business. so, add to that for the criticism publishing is in a state of flux so what is the criticism following along with this terrible business that is

changing before our eyes and a certain way. i think a book revealing is a cross between a public service and entertainment. >> why is words. david? >> the migration of reviews online, and that is an irreversible trend i think as rebecca said it has really exciting aspects to it. we are going to get a diversity of voices talking about books. we are going to get a lot of people hopefully reading and participating in the discussion about books and we are going to see more books cover all of which is good, all of which is positive and it's good for books and it's good for the conversation about books. the challenge i think is that it's been to become even tougher to find the quality book reviewing. it's going to be tougher to find the legitimate book reviewing. it's going to be there, but it's quite to be just a small part of a loud diversity of ways is --

voices and it's going to be difficult for the readers to find the good stuff. and i think that's going to be hard. that will be a challenge because we wouldn't want people to number one get taken on by this book reviewing which is huckster of one way or another before we wouldn't want people to give up, because they get tired of reading garbage all the time. so it has great deal of potential but also has challenges. >> am i on time to start the questions? okay. i want to definitely throwing out. what i want to do is i will point to you and then you will have a microphone brought to you. so this gentleman right here, second row with a blue shirt. >> question for ron charles are starting with you. a world of fiction use it 1500 books come in per de -- >> 150 a day.

>> and 15 get reviewed. describe the process of the world of fiction who wins that our? what is the influence that determine which book gets the big paper book reviews and appears on the cover and which one doesn't get her voice that decision made? >> the books come in huge parts and there is a gentleman whose job is to open those and sort them by subject and shawn russ. three editors, nonfiction editor and then our boss. we go and look at the books and sort them and instantly make for a quick decision is what we think is interesting and what we think is not. most we think is not to read in the quick decisions almost everything is thrown out. that leaves us with ten or 15 bucks a day. we go back once a day and look at them more carefully. we read about them. we go on line and read about them. we try to make decisions about -- some of the decisions are not based on quality. they are based on whether we've reviewed the subject or author before. sometimes it is not reviewed because we did that kind of a

book six weeks ago and there isn't the space to do it again. sometimes books are missed for reasons nothing to do with politics. >> and favoritism on in prince to read you don't want to only review knopff books as the data. >> some times there are holidays or political issues will want to address. those are external to the quality. then we start to think about who could review it and we did it because we have a perfect reviewer for it. sometimes it doesn't get assigned because we just can't find anyone who will write for it. sometimes books are as light and the reviewer does not submit and the book dot -- donner is because we don't have time to reassign it. once again to review and we read them over and decide which are best and compelling and interesting and then we make choices about place and whether the we in the paper, which ones will be full page in short it which ones will be inside. >> to add to that and i know we've got other questions the editors that i work with often -- sometimes you get an

assignment and other times they will say pitch me three or four titles and say that one sounds like you are really passionate about it, let's get that review. and that has so many ineffable qualities about it it's hard to say, you know, how it depends on what i've got in my gal closet. really tough. question right here. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> we are recorded. we've got to get the microphone. >> my question is about the relationship between the author and the vv were. reviewer to read specifically thank you notes. i was lucky enough to have a review in the washington post. >> who are you? >> miners kristen swanson and my book is bible babble. it was reviewed wonderfully. >> you've been pitched for the

book studio. >> so i read this review and i thought this is amazing and he got the books i rode my publicist and said can i thank him and she said well, that's not usually done, yet i feel my mother raised me to write thank you who notes. [laughter] i thought this is so nice, so there is this all coarseness of a feel and i wonder if that -- another publicist said know it's a really nice thing to do. so i don't know where we are with that. >> i want to start with rebecca because she has had so many wonderful reviews she's probably wanted to write some thank you nodes. >> i've been in that quandary with one particular review which we probably all know which one it was. and i have not written a thank you note but i was actually think about this today. in part because as a reviewer i have gotten thank you notes from people, and i think the key is

to say i know -- because authors and reviewers, there is a sort of boundary bay stay separate from each other. but after they have reviewed your book i think there is a way that you can do it and say i totally understand that you may not be -- it's fine to not reply to this, i just need you to know that this was a hugely important to me or whatever to say what you need to say and say if you're not comfortable replying that's fine i don't expect anything i just wanted you to know. i have got an e-mails like that in the past and it does mean something to the reviewers to hear that. and i've heard from i'm sure other reviewers have different opinions about it, and i have often not replied to those e-mails because i do feel like i shouldn't. but i appreciate hearing at and i've heard that from other people, to back. >> david, have you gotten thank you notes? >> i would like to answer this one, too. >> my opinion is the notes are appropriate and very welcome to

it i have no problem. >> thank you notes technically do not require any response. so i think that miss manners would agree so let's not go to -- >> i think having been a review were you right into a void. you know that the review is good because you saw it in print and you know it must have been very good if you didn't get changes made to it and then a month later you get a letter from an editor offering another assignment so you say i guess i'm okay. so the few times i've gotten notes from authors i cherish them. it's wonderful to get the confirmation. but all the other hand you don't want somebody that you wrote a bad review to through your mind in the face when you run into them. >> i've got an those, too. >> a wendi to say i've written -- i like to think that i'm particularly good at being gently critical. several times i would say five or seven times i've written a review and said something and, critical, and gotten a response from the author who said thank

you for pointing that out in such a constructive way and i've learned something from that. and that was really amazing. that felt fantastic. so even if i shouldn't technically have gotten that it lets hear from mr. charles. >> you should not thank a book reviewer. there should not be any contact between you and to review works. it contaminates your relationship. if you get a negative review you should make it public death threat. [laughter] because what you want to do is contaminate the public atmosphere that he can never leave you you again. [laughter] but as a book reviewer loves your book just stay in silence and cherish that and tell your friends and have your publicist thank him. >> that is always -- having your publicist thank the review were that is absolutely the best. >> i would say there is i don't know if you are on twitter or that sort of thing, every posting a review of your book and saying something positive about the review, i don't know

whether that crosses the line, i haven't thought much about that but riders are not going to disseminate lng to the person who is probably online somewhere. that's one way to acknowledge the fact they've done something you appreciate. obviously you would not be disseminating to read >> a message we send on twitter. no, i'm just kidding. but i want to get onto the next question is, and i know we had one. she's gone. okay right here. >> wait for the mic. sorry about that. >> we are pretending to be deaf until the microphone comes. >> can you give us a few on-line book reviewer sites that you consider to be vetted, reliable, curated? >> the "washington post"'s book world is one.

i would say that is the first go to. negative curated but let's all share one or two so that we don't take up too much time. by sure -- especially i want to hear from rebecca because you have some nonfiction or paper cut blog the l.a. times is a good one. >> for me i don't know that i made the right person to answer that. i have very specific people who are often scientists who blogger and do book reviews and i tend to read their stat so my stuff is stuff most people probably wouldn't be interested in. and i do read of the sites for the big remaining book review outlets. >> and by sorry, jacket copy of the l.a. times. >> the guardian has a wonderful book signing. >> there are lots of individuals who publish something on one and that's a blog that has refused and links to lots of other refuse so they put function.

she's all for the place and i followed links in the guardian are the independent or seattle -- it is live tv to a lightly. she's built a career from this blog where she gets assignments regularly for traditional newspaper sections. it goes the other recent times. >> david? >> the daily beast runs a lot of really nice reviews and most of them, the major newspapers have on-line only reviews. so they are definitely worth checking out. >> i want to mengin this is difficult because we talk about the difference between journalism and commerce. the barnes and noble review at bn.com, a separate church and state. they do not get supposedly any directives from the sales people about what to review and they've gotten regular features including cergol winans's column

on the criminal mind that are top notch so that's another one. >> and pals.com, and attended bookstore, they have coverage on their site, too. >> right back here. >> as for the viewers and to reduce what in your opinion makes a book a good book of verse is a great book versus so-so? is their common elements you look for no matter what the genre? >> ron? >> i went to be moved and supplies and entertained. i want it explained in the language that is fresh and beautiful. that is a tough question. >> i want a book that tells me a good story since i read and review fiction i want to be told a good story and hopefully with elegant language but in particular i want to feel an emotional connection with the story. i want to be told something that

i haven't heard 100 times before. >> "true confections"? >> i did that ron said it, be moved and entertained, those are too great experiences to have when you are reading a book. >> it really is. and there are so many that we can recommend but looking at our site will give you a little bit of an idea, and i also want to mention one quick thing. how many questions we have time left for? >> you've got another ten minutes but also to answer that. i just the host, but i think i can speak for most reviewers most people think we are jaded and sometimes we get jaded by reading too much but emily's wanting to be thrilled and i've always ready to be in chanced into fall in love with a book, and so i might have read five crabby books and of roe but then when i get one and it takes me away. so for example years ago the

crimson pedal it blew me away because it took me a transported me and i am so ready to fall in love with a buck each time. >> that is so true and we were talking earlier about why we keep doing this. i just talked sara nelson who is the editor at oh magazine about the book we've received from elthon guinn cold play thought you were dead. it is a book with a dog on the cover and has a language that makes you think it is a talking dog book again, the art of racing in the rain. but it's not. it's very different. have you fri yet? it is moved and enchanted. i didn't like the cover, i was kind of like "adolf bouck, barn, "then i had the experience and i blew my journalistic cover. the thing i wanted to mengin after that is david's to work is

with us back here, he's one of our non-fiction authors and is associated with the american independent writers, aiw and he told me this afternoon in a conversation that it is starting in online preview site and i just wanted to mention do you have anything? >> [inaudible] if i can take this opportunity -- >> i'm sorry, yes, please. take the microphone. >> the one question i really am eager to hear from you folks about antithat montgomery mentioned it briefly is the economics of your business has changed. the print world is shrinking and going away, and we need online alternatives. that is one of the things my group is trying to organize.

it seems to me that's got to be the focus is figuring out how to do this as opposed to continuing to deal with what we've done the last 150 years. >> that is like a weeklong conference, david. >> you've got 30 seconds. [laughter] >> okay. >> i think you've got 32 seconds because i don't have anything to say about that. >> i'm going to give the gentleman from washington my seconds. >> i don't want to speak for my publisher but the physical paper will survive a long time to read the physical paper makes an enormous amount of money in comparison to the online section and we are fully committed to the survival of the paper and definitely. i know that runs counter to what we are supposed to say where the current religion but that's what we think. >> i will say something quickly about that and i want to make sure we have time for another

question war two but this is a challenge that we have at wtpbs as well. we know there during a phenomenal job with their book sites, the fall of features back to the question about where to find good information, that is a great place and its three tv to very difficult to get funding and once you've got the money where to put it. i insisted some of the money had to go to the reedy worse, it's not a lot but that is something i feel on principal of a refuse to make people write for free. but you also have to have programmers and designers and producers and all sorts of other things so it's very tough. we will see another panel about this. another festival and i hope we continue the dialogue because too often we forget to keep talking about the nuts and bolts. right up front here.

>> ron, you were looking at so many books and others, too. it seems to be a critical part of your first choice was on the cover. the title, etc.. >> i know. it sounds trite but since we make some unease that influences it does influence. also we are been harassed by the reviews that [inaudible] [laughter] >> we haven't even gotten there. >> pingree person lighting and review for $35. if you get three good trade reviews we will probably look and if you get three bad ones we probably won't look at it. it dies before it gets out of the crib. >> trade meaning like book list, library journal. semidey tremendously influenced and if you think who is writing that it is a really weak link in the critical process. >> but sometimes you don't get a cover, you get a galley that is

like a light blue cover from the and the house, so it's not just the cover. sprick mother is net to gallegly that delivers to the readers and things like that so we may not get all of the design elements -- a don't want to see we rely on but we are influenced by. >> next question over here since i haven't come to this side very often. the gentleman in the yellow shirt and i think we've got time for two more. >> how does a self published author get their book professionally. >> i was wondering if anyone was going to -- >> that is one of the things that will often get your books greenbelt a lot of places it is self published that is a good question. >> it's a good question there just isn't time. >> i don't want to speak for ron but i'm thinking of the book card and what gets pushed aside immediately and unfortunately is almost always the self published books because i know that they have not gone through the vetting process, that the books

coming from the other houses have gone through. i am responsive to small presses. i know that speed is too. unfortunately we tend to read the same books. fortunately or unfortunately. so i don't have time to worry about the self published once unfortunately. i think this is great to be something we talk about more and more. >> we don't review self published books ever. spec follow-up question is there a process he would recommend to a author? >> the question is there a process he would recommend to a self published author. spec we only have a minute left and i would say definitely just go and get yourself through the traditional publishing process. has anyone got a different opinion? >> if you want reviews. espinel so go to the publishing date panels tomorrow and get advice, too. >> don't say thank to rahm,

katharine, david, and our sponsor and thank you all for coming and we have katharine troup confections and "the immortal life of henrietta lacks" for purchase and signing up here. thank you, everyone. [applause] >> for more information on the virginia festival of the book, district vabook.org. we are here at this year's conservative political action conference talking to radio host jerry doyle. tell us about your new book. >> the title of the book is from two standpoints. have you seen my country lately, have you? and the other is have you seen it because if you see that i think a lot of people would like to go back there. so it was kind of like when i was writing it was hard to keep up with everything as fast as it was changing and we hear about hope and change but of a certain point people say slowdown and i

think a lot of what talk radio has and what we are doing here is we are like speed bumps. i don't care if it is republicans or democrats it is like slow down, let us know what you're doing and why you are doing it and figure out what the unintended consequences of what you are doing might be. >> did you write it for your radio audience or is there a different audience you are trying to reach? >> the radio audience is the book audience and the book is retial and it's just what you and i do. we are in the business of information. we have the luxury of spending the day reading and going through teacher via and the tidbits. most people don't. they are stuck on the freeway back on kids' lunches so we have an opportunity to take all of this information and compress it into a book or a free our radio show for what you guys do on c-span and our job is to just give it to them and say here's

what i saw today. what do you think? notte how to think what would you think and when i was writing the book it was like this catharsis of you look at this mosh pit us political insanity and you are going where is the middle? how do i get my hands on this and it's a way for people to just look at what we do every day and maybe 240 pages or whatever it is, get an idea of what is going on. >> and you are an actor as well how did you get from acting to the essentially political influence in a radio show? >> i have a tv series babylon five and the dying to syndicates my show was a huge science-fiction fan and he continent attacked me for another about putting my series back on the air and he was talking about talk radio and so what you think and i said i will talk review, listen to all the time and he said do you ever think about doing it and i said no. through a process of three or four months we started talking about talk radio and he gave me

a selling slot on saturday and i for one of his hosts and he goes three hours you get to talk to america and i was like okay i'm going to do this. i got to the studio and i was there two hours ahead of time. obviously you're the new guy. like 12:00 rauf, 12:6 you are in. three, two, one, your life and i did my first minutes and then i looked up the clock in front of me and i had two hours and 40 minutes left and i have said everything i ever wanted to say about anything. i started to panic and he backed me off and goes okay you just did like five days of radio. you might want to slow down and expand a little bit. i got done and i was back in bed in the fetal position. i was like the first puppy from the leader, someone told me. and like when i was an actor,

you have to have a therapist, so i used to talk to a stranger about my problems and pay them every hour now get paid every hour to talk about my problems and if you can be that voice for the audience, if you can be the foundation of what they want to say, what they don't have the opportunity to say and i think people like measure because i am an equal opportunity offender. it doesn't matter if it is republic, a democrat if you do something radical, if you do something wrong we are going to talk about it. and people have a place to come by and just be like there is someone that is watching out. someone has negative six and it's interesting to watch the media because it is very agenda whether it is fox, cnn.com msnbc, you pretty much know what they are going to talk about and what they are going to say. what i try to get people is an opportunity to have an exchange of ideas, front porch, stop by,

lights on to make it, cool, if you can hang out, the school, i will be here tomorrow and just kind of give people a little bit of insight into not necessarily what is happening but why it is happening and what the ramifications of that are going to be. >> the obstacles he meant when you first started in radio, was their anything similar when you first started writing the book? >> well, you know, within a publisher like simon and schuster thankfully, they have their relationships and certain things that they don't want said and in radio there are certain things they don't want said and on tv there are certain things they don't want said. so you have to find a way around it. and you have to kind of just doing it in a way that is obvious. there were very cool. they gave me the option to write whatever i wanted to write about and it was -- i have a whole new respect for writers because people come on the programs with

their books and i'd like you wrote a book, that's cool. then i wrote a book and i was like that's hard. because when you talk i can always the next day or the next hour go you know what i said last our? i was wrong. i got this information the changes would ever. but when it's on the page, it's fair for all of time. so what i did was i have i don't know, 300 or 400 notes in the book and by chronicle where i took everything from so you can't dispute my sex, you can dispute my conclusions but all the facts because they are what they are. >> do you want to write another one? >> not now, no. >> it's an interesting process. i think in writing the book i kind of been tweaked my radio show based on what i do with the book because you slowed down a little bit and go what was the book all about, what was the show all about?

and for me it's trillion to push the rock of the hill a little bit more every day. i'm not here to tear down or prop up. i'm not a cheerleader which we see a lot of in books and tv and radio you just drop the football in the end zone. i did what we need more of in the media is coaches. somebody's going to smack you upside the head and say that wasn't good. we lost the game but a lot of what we have a deal logically are cheerleaders, not challenging their own and that is where the best exchange of ideas take place when people just go really coming to believe that? why. when i hear but financial summits they are having with obama and his administration i go look at a meeting right now. i can tell you exactly what you need to do, stop spending. some don't stop spending but we have to get alan simpson and have six republicans and six democrats and they are going to

get together and the cameras will be on and they are like looking at these negative getting together to solve the deficit problem. stop spending. it's simple. and people say negative because they've had to do it. elaina i have had to be leverage. a lot of people got crazy and 06 and 07 real estate. atm. i've always wanted a clot, or fee, but -- rv, boat. we reduced spending by 28% and people are going on had to do it, why don't they? when i look at the government just now, and $1.9 trillion increase in the deficit to $1,433,000,000,000,000 then might kiribati talking about we are doing this for our children and our children's children. no, your bankrupting the next generation. and i think we have a responsibility to make the campground nicer than the way we found it and what we are doing right now, republican or democrat -- and everybody is like obama is doubling the national debt, bush did the same

thing from five to $10 trillion. i listen to these guys going obama stand -- and i said you did it, you did exactly the same thing under the guise of compassionate conservatism which to me is redundant. conservatism by nature in my opinion is compassionate when you for compassionate service to some it's like we did spend a lot of money to read the whole thing about helping out religion and government and how to be advanced that agenda. i don't want to protect government from religion. i want to protect religion from government because whoever writes the checks makes the agenda and i think people right now largest like common sense, getting back to common sense to read stuff we have to do every day and hopefully i capture some of that in the radio show and got it in the book. >> thank you very much for the time. we appreciate it.