Pamela Paul at the New York Times Book Review says section will continue to hire new writers and editors to focus "across all genres," covering novels she feels the NYT did not effectively cover in the past

 

A new novel by Ian Woolen coming in July

 

Chief books section editor Pamela Paul at the New York Times Book Review recently told PW that the section will continue to hire new writers and editors to focus "across all genres," -- including, presumably, ''cli-fi'' -- covering novels she feels the Times did not effectively cover in the past.

 

Paul said that the Times is expanding its books coverage, with the intent of becoming more "strategic" in how it covers particular books.

Previously, the newspaper had 3 separate desks that covered books entirely independent of one another.

 

That will now change, with all books coverage falling under a single Books Desk umbrella.

 

 

 

To this end, Paul noted that the Times has been, and will continue, hiring new writers and editors to write about books in different ways.

 

Those editors and writers will be focused "across all genres," Paul said, and covering—but not reviewing—books [in genres such as cli-fi and SFF and ecolit that] she feels the the paper did not effectively cover in the past.

 

 

There will be a re-design of the New York Times Book Review, which remains "central" to the newspaper's books-related mission. The redesign will affect both digital and print and,  will be unveiled sometime in summer 2017.

see also:

Pamela Paul Shared How The New York Times Book Review Chooses Its Best Books of the Year on AMA on Reddit in 2016

Natalie Zutter

Thu Dec 15, 2016 3:00pm Post a comment 1 Favorite [+]

Illustration by Rebecca Mock

 

Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review, visited Reddit’s r/books yesterday for a short AMA (Ask Me Anything) tied in to the Book Review‘s annual list of The 10 Best Books in 2016. While conversation also touched upon publishing industry trends and how many books Paul has read in a year (76 “for fun” one year long before the internet and her family), most of the focus was on the how and why of the best-of list. How did the editors choose Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, or Han Kang’s The Vegetarian (translated by Deborah Smith)? What ineffable quality determined the difference between the editors’ internal longlist and the final shortlist? Paul gives insight into how the best-of list gets put together, starting in January, and what the selections do (or really don’t) have in common.