Book endorsements are the fuel that keeps the publishing industry’s hype machine in motion. This perhaps explains why some better-known authors allegedly knock them out without even reading the novel they’re praising. Writing in The Guardian a few years ago, the novelist Nathan Filer revealed that he had received 42 unsolicited proofs in the six months after winning the Costa Book of the Year prize—each accompanied by hyperbolic prose from the publishers, who clearly hoped that some authors would repeat This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-One Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 37 Short Histories of Nearly Everything The bestsellers of the last decade look like a college reading list. Debika Ray looks at the rise of the “brainy book.” Arts & Culture City Guide Storage Book Store A meeting place for photography lovers in Seoul. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Alice Sheppard On dance as a channel to commune with the body—even when it hurts. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Dr. Woo Meet the tattoo artist who's inked LA. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Walt Odets The author and clinical psychologist on why self-acceptance is the key to a gay man's well-being. Arts & Culture Fashion Issue 47 A Picture of Health Xiaopeng Yuan photographs the world’s weirdest wellness cures.
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