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CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT
Date: xx/xx/xx
Publisher XYZ
Re: Title: Book ABC
Author: Author LMNOP
Publication Date: xx/xx/xx
______________________
______________________
______________________
Dear ___________:
In order to induce [Publisher XYZ] to deliver a copy of the manuscript and related pre-publication materials (“the Manuscript”) of the above referenced work (the “Work”), the undersigned media company, library, or bookstore (the “Company”) agrees to comply with the following terms and conditions:
1. The Manuscript will be used solely for the purpose of planning book reviews and promotion for the Work. Such book reviews and/or promotion shall be released no earlier than the Publication Date.
2. The Manuscript will be seen by, and its contents disclosed to, only those employees of the Company directly involved in decisions regarding book reviews and promotion. It is further agreed that those members of the Company who are made privy to this information or material will also be subject to the terms of this letter by virtue of your signature.
3. The Company will ensure that no copies of the Manuscript are made, except as is necessary for the purposes of planning book reviews and/or related promotion, which may be seen only by the employees permitted to see the Manuscript under paragraph 2.
4. If the Company determines not to review the Work, the Company will as soon as possible return all copies of the Manuscript to XYZ. If the Company does review the Work, then upon request of XYZ, it will, as soon as possible return all copies of the Manuscript to XYZ.
5. Until the Publication Date, the Company will treat the contents of the Manuscript and the Work as highly secret and confidential. The Company shall not disclose or otherwise reveal the contents of the Manuscript or the Work to any other person, except, 1) under compulsion of legal process, and/or 2) as expressly provided in Paragraphs 2 and 3.
6. Author shall be third-party beneficiary of this agreement.
7. The Company has been informed that it would be adverse to the financial and other interests of XYZ if there were to be any public revelation of information contained in the Manuscript or the Work prior to the Publication Date. Accordingly, the Company agrees to be responsible for any reasonable loss suffered by XYZ which results from its breach of the confidentiality provision of this letter.
8. This agreement sets for the entire understanding and agreement of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes all other oral or written representations and understandings. The formation, construction, interpretation and performance of this contract shall be governed by the law of the State of QRS . . .

Etc. We didn’t sign this agreement but I verbally agreed not to let review copies out of the office and not to review the book before publication date. Which KILLS me. It means that even though the review is all ready to go, we won’t be able to publish it in print until well after the publication date. According to the terms of the contract above, I can’t even tell you the name of the book or if I liked it. I guess I just don’t see what this gets a publisher. Do you?

I know we could post our review online on the publication date but that makes me feel like a tool. Should we just skip the whole thing entirely? I’m tempted.

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The REASON children’s literature is overlooked is because we persist in regarding it as ENCHANTING.

Okay. I’ll stop shouting. And, to answer a query on yesterday’s note, Eden was terrific at negotiating between the world of the professional children’s-book critic and that of the Times children’s-book-reviews reader, the educated parent. She knew what I didn’t know about what they didn’t know.

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“If we were very, very, very naughty, and wouldn’t be good, what then?”

Then,” said the mother sadly–and while she spoke her eyes filled with tears, and a sob almost choked her– “then,” she said, “I should have to go away and leave you, and to send home a new mother, with glass eyes and a wooden tail.”

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He does bring up a moral question that vexes me, though. If I want a copy of, say, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which Betsy Hearne says I do), am I morally required to go out of my way to purchase it at an independent bookseller? There are two small independents in my neighborhood, but I can’t go into either with the assurance they will have any given book I am seeking–one is mostly remainders (Jamaicaway Books and Gifts) and the other is too random (Rhythm and Muse). I can go to the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge on my way home from work if I take an extra bus and train, but both Borders and Barnes & Noble are on my subway line. I always drop a hefty wad of cash at the Brookline Booksmith when we go over to Coolidge Corner for a movie, but that trip requires a car (and, thus, driver, thus Richard). As far as I can tell, Boston supports no full-service independents. What’s an enthusiastic non-driving reader to do? On the one hand, shopping at an independent is, in the particulars, more fun, and I invariably buy more books than I had intended to. And in general, the existence of independents, with their handselling and appeal to big readers, allows more kinds of good books to flourish. But it has been my experience that immediate gratification wins out over virtue when shopping or reading (this is why I don’t shop online). It says something great about reading when you just can’t wait to get your mitts on a book–but it also makes it unlikely that you will wait until you can plan a day around its purchase.

I think what I miss most about Chicago is living a five-minute walk from Unabridged Bookstore. That place is heaven.

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No, Joe, what you have turned off is the water supply, rendering both the pipeline AND spigot irrelevant.

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