The New York Times Book Review (NYTBR) is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed.
It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry.
[2] The magazine's offices are located near Times Square in New York City.
The New York Times has published a book review section since October 10, 1896, announcing: "We begin today the publication of a Supplement which contains reviews of new books ... and other interesting matter ... associated with news of the day.
"[3] In 1911, the review was moved to Sundays, on the theory that it would be more appreciatively received by readers with a bit of time on their hands.
[2] The Times publishes two versions each week, one with a cover price sold via subscription, bookstores and newsstands; the other with no cover price included as an insert in each Sunday edition of the Times (the copies are otherwise identical).
Each week, the NYTBR receives 750 to 1000 books from authors and publishers in the mail, of which 20 to 30 are chosen for review.
[2] Books are selected by the "preview editors" who read over 1,500 advance galleys a year.
[2] Books not selected for review are stored in a "discard room" and then sold.
[2] As of 2006[update], Barnes & Noble arrived about once a month to purchase the contents of the discard room, and the proceeds are then donated by NYTBR to charities.
[2] For freelance critics, they are assigned an in-house "preview editor" who works with them in creating the final review.
[2] Freelance critics might be employees of The New York Times whose main duties are in other departments.
[6] They also include professional literary critics, novelists, academics and artists who write reviews for the NYTBR on a regular basis.
[2] The book review publishes each week the widely cited and influential New York Times Best Seller list, which is created by the editors of the Times "News Surveys" department.
The debut episode was released on April 30, 2006 and the show has been recorded weekly ever since.
[10] In 1983, William Peter Blatty sued the New York Times Book Review for failing to include his 1983 novel, Legion, in its best-seller list.
Blatty contended that Legion had sold enough copies to be included on the list.
Lawyers for The New York Times did not deny this, but stated that the content of the New York Times best-seller list is editorial in content, and is not an objective compilation of information.
Beginning in 2004, it consists of a "100 Notable Books of the Year" list[13] which contains fiction and non-fiction titles, 50 of each.
In 2010, Stanford professors Alan Sorenson and Jonah Berger published a study examining the effect on book sales from positive or negative reviews in the New York Times Book Review.
[68][69] Lesser-known authors benefited from negative reviews; in other words, bad publicity actually boosted book sales.
[68][69] A study published in 2012, by university professor and author Roxane Gay, found that 90 percent of the New York Times book reviews published in 2011 were of books by white authors.
"[70] At the time of the report, the racial makeup of the United States was 72 percent white, according to the 2010 census (it includes Hispanic and Latino Americans who identify as white).