Film and Book reviews are in decline at a time when unprecedented numbers of new titles arrive in the market. Every newspaper, from the LA Times to the Toronto Star has gradually cut space and resources allocated to reviewing. Movie reviews have morphed into one-paragraph snapshots. Advance book reviewers are more selective and more opinionated than ever. Some newspapers have entirely eliminated book reviews altogether.

Word of mouth, of course, has always been the primary driver of any movie or book title success, but often it begins with a small review in a local newspaper. Book publishers find it increasingly difficult, and very costly, to reach out to the few reviewers left in the industry. Smaller publishers have few places to turn for the all-important review.

Is there a solution?

It has already appeared in the form of the internet. Forums, reader groups online, places like Authors Den and large portals provide voice for the necessary buzz and word of mouth. Online magazines, such as Films and Books, move in to provide opinion and review. And perhaps, given the sheer numbers of independent film companies and small press publishers, this is a very good thing.

“No one starts out wanting to make a bad movie,” wrote Rona Edwards and Monika Skerbelis in their enlightening book “I Liked It, DIdn’t Love It” (Lone Eagle Publishing Company, ISBN 1580650627). “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the one thing that remains clear is the intention to entertain…”

A quick glance at our SPECIAL section Books to Film Adaption Deals, shows a number of books bought by Hollywood with clear intention to entertain. The more sensational the better?

The sensational title Asshole: How I Got Rich & Happy By Not Giving a Fuck About You by Martin Kihn, sold for between $500,000 and $1 million.

Why does Hollywood approach New York? Creative executives at hundreds of production companies go to sites such as Publishers Marketplace almost daily to read the latest rights offerings.

“I’ve had calls on all our titles,” said James McKinnon, Editor-in-Chief at Kunati Books (www.kunati.com) “Of course it helps that we position around provocative and controversial themes and our authors are chosen for their originality. The Game, the first mystery thriller set against a reality television setting, has generated over a dozen please-sends already. Rabid, a brilliant novel that explores the ongoing war between science and religion will almost certainly be a movie one day. Timely themes, like Lynn Hoffman’s bang-BANG, exploring gun rights, these have to go to film production.”

With thousands of spec script writers, many staff writers, why seek out New York? Our opinion at Films and Books Magazine, an analysis based on “insider” information, is that Hollywood knows publishers have the highest standard in the “entertainment” industry for creative content. By the time a book has the thumbs up from an agent, then from a publisher acquisitions team, followed by extensive edits – and all of this usually after an author has spent possibly years on the story – the material is ready for development, and probably unique. Certainly, a potential best seller or a book with solid reviews is likely to bring a ready-made audience.

This is why FILMS and BOOKS will continue to thrive in partnership.