Literary Hub, colloquially known as LitHub, launched little more than a year ago, in April of 2015. Yet, through extensive relationships with authors and other literary publications around the web, the site has already established itself as one of the internet’s premier spots for book news and writing. And it’s only about to become more popular, most likely, as the site has just announced (and launched!) Book Marks, a criticism aggregator that gathers writing from around the internet (and print publications), smooshes all the pieces together, and then creates a nifty letter grade that represents the overall quality of a book.
If this approach sounds familiar, that’s because it’s essentially the same thing Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic have been doing for film, television, movies, and video games for years. If you’re wary of the idea that a book can be summarized by a letter grade, never fear: LitHub’s editor-in-chief, Jonny Diamond, knows where you’re coming from.
“We understand it is difficult to summarize the nuance and complexity of a review into a letter grade,” he said in a statement. “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.”
The site is live now. Also, it’s worth noting that this is in no way associated with Bookmarks, the bimonthly magazine that was founded in 2002 and “summarizes and distills published book reviews and includes articles covering classic and contemporary authors, ‘best-of’ genre reading lists, reader recommendations, and book group profiles.”