May 2020
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Literary Hub Launches a New Book Review Aggregator Site BOOK MARKS
Site Aims to be the Rotten Tomatoes for Books
Literary Hub has launched a new section of their site -- Book Marks -- to showcase book reviews from the most important and active outlets of literary journalism.
“Book Marks will help readers find books they will love by giving them access to the critical discourse that is an essential part of our ecosystem,” said John Freeman, LitHub’s executive editor and former president of the National Book Critics Circle.
While online readers’ reviews create robust conversations about books and foster new and diverse book-loving communities, it is also valuable to read what professional critics have to say about a title. Book Marks will aggregate reviews from more than 70 sources—newspapers, magazines, and websites—and average them into a letter grade, as well as linking back to their source. Each book’s cumulative grade functions as both a general critical assessment, and, more significantly, as an introduction to a range of voices and opinions that make up the world of American literary criticism.
“We understand it is difficult to summarize the nuance and complexity of a review into a letter grade,” said Literary Hub Editor-in-Chief Jonny Diamond. “But we believe that Book Marks will lead more readers to reviews, and amplify critics’ voices in a way that benefits readers and writers alike.”
Visitors to http://lithub.com/bookmarks can browse this year’s books, delve deep into critical reviews, and offer their own thoughts. “Book Marks will help readers discover books, while spotlighting books that deserve more attention,” said Literary Hub Publisher Andy Hunter. “We’re bringing it all together in one place.” Literary Hub has over 180 committed partners, from large publishers to small bookstores, and features a mix of content contributed by those partners as well as original material, including author interviews, features, excerpts, and essays.
Through consistent and engaging editorial content, LitHub has quickly acquired a wide audience and has become the go-to site for all things literary. “Book Marks is an important step for Literary Hub as we grow into the definitive online destination for book lovers,” said the site’s co-founder, Morgan Entrekin, Publisher of Grove Atlantic. Literary Hub was launched in April 2015 and quickly grew its audience from 150,000 to 1.2 million monthly visitors in its first nine months. The site was conceived by Entrekin and ASME Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, as a daily destination for readers, from self-described book-lovers to casual readers. They collaborated with the nonprofit Electric Literature to develop and launch the site in April, 2015.
"We scour the most important outlets of literary journalism in America each day and assign their book reviews a letter grade. When a book is reviewed at least three times, those reviews are averaged into a result at Book Marks."