Paid for Reviews?

[Michelle]

This is an issue brought up by Michele Gorman on her blog, and it has generated a lot of discussion both there, and on twitter.

 

http://michelegormanwriter.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/should-bloggers-charge-for-reviews.html

 

It would appear that most reviewers and bloggers are quite shocked by this, as the vast majority do not receive any form of compensation, apart from a free book.

 

I include myself in this - I'm always excited and happy to receive said free book, and if I enjoy it, I then also enjoy helping to promote it.

 

I'd like to ask you how you feel as readers - does it bother you that some people are being paid to review a book, and would you trust their opinion? Does it bother you if you know the book has been provided for review, rather than something the reviewer has picked up of their own choice? Or have you given up on reviews altogether?!

[delaila]

Hello there

 

I'm new to this forum, but have been lurking around for a while...

I think that the people who are being paid to review books are those with a strong influence in the book industry. I don't think any author would pay a randomer to review his/her book do you? I love reading books that have been suggested to me by people who havent been paid to review/promote it. Forums like these for example are excellent for getting honest reviews from people who are just like me and if I read an interesting book I'm always up for promoting it myself to others even if i'm not getting any compensation for it.

[vodkafan]

If someone is paid to give a "good " review then I would not trust that reviewer at all; why they are then just part of the marketing machine.

It does not bother me though if the book is provided free for someone with an interest in books to review (like yourself), I think that is about right.

[Michelle]

Thanks for your input - the place in question is a chick lit review blog, which I don't think has a particularly strong influence in the industry. Michele's blog post is quite eye-opening.. they look at a book being offered, read around to see what others think, and then decide whether they think they can offer a good review (just how can you judge that without reading the book yourself?!!). If so, they then go on to charge $95 for their review.

[Michelle]

Also, out of interest, do you think this makes it clear that they charge for reviews?

This blog is a collaborative blog written by a group of individuals. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified.

About Chick Lit Girls Reviews

Chick Lit Girls reviews books in a honest and forthcoming manner. Although we try to give our authors good/favorable reviews, it must be noted that we make no claim to and there is no guarentees of a positive review given by our reviewers.

[lauraloves]

To be honest, if I'm sent a free book to review then for me thats more than enough payment for me. I think i would feel far to under pressure to write reviews if i was paid for them. I dont get sent many books for review, probably about 5 or so a year and thats normally because its part of a reading challenge or something.

[bree]

I think this is acceptable. The site in question is asking to be paid for reviewing - not for writing a good review.

They obviously have a larger follower-base, and influence a larger number of people, than the regular individual blogger - and its their prerogative to cash in on this.

 

While their terms are not straight-forward as it could be, it does say :

Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products.

 

And if they don't stick to their word, and actually write a good review for a bad book because they've been paid, it may help sell that particular book, but I think they'll then stand to lose their blog followers along with their credibility. So even as a business move it wouldn't work.

[Michelle]

It still makes me question them though - consider that they decide they want to review a book, accept the author's money, then find out they don't like it - do you think they'd still write an honest review? I suspect that the payment puts a lot of pressure on them to write a good review.

[Alexi]

I'm sort of with Michelle on this, I would think it would put extra pressure on to write a positive review. Not even necessarily from the publisher putting on direct pressure, but the possibility of future monies has to enter the reviewers head - as well as guilt that they might have paid you to heavily criticise the book!

 

 

[bree]

You're right Michele, I just read through their emails.

They sound more like an advertising and internet marketing service than book bloggers!

 

While I'd expect, and presume a site like Kirkus, manages to be honest (despite being paid), going by the tone of those emails, I'm not so sure about the chick lit bloggers.

It sounds more like they play it safe - pick a book which is beginning to look favoured - and write popular-opinion review on it.

 

And while it doesn't make it wrong, it is sad.

Takes away the credibility of blog reviews.

Edited July 16, 2012 by bree

[Nollaig]

I don't like it.

 

At the end of the day, if people want to make money off it, and other people are willing to pay for reviews, fine. But I personally wouldn't read a review I knew had been paid for. No way. I simply wouldn't believe what was written in it. I also would never want anything more for the reviews I do than the pleasure of doing them (and yes, getting free books is lovely, and more than enough payment).

 

Looking at it from another perspective, if an author paid for their book to be reviewed, I'd be wary of the book too. Couldn't find anyone to give it a good review for free? (And I DON'T mean that as a blanket statement, as I said, if people wanna pay for the sake of getting a well known blog name on their list of reviews, grand by me. But the thought would occur to me.)

 

I don't know, to my mind once you start throwing cash incentives into a hobby, it becomes less about heart and more about getting the work done to the standard set by the payment value. Or put another way, if someone hands you their money, they're doing so because they expect a product in return which is of some set standard. And to my mind, that just doesn't fit with being honest ALL the time about what you read. Some of us hate bestsellers, others of us pick up a book we think will be terrible and love it. You can't always know, but when you make it into business, you have to provide the service that was paid for. So no, I don't like it.

[chesilbeach]

I have to say, reading the email on the link, it concerns me more that they pick and choose which books to review before they read them, than that they request payment. If I was going to use a website to look for a book review, I want to know both what they liked and didn't like, so I can compare with my own tastes, but if they're only reviewing books with a 4/5 rating or higher, there's no balance. If they haven't got a review of a book does that mean they haven't read it, or that they decided not to read it?

 

At the end of the day, there have been many changes in reviewing since the advent of the internet, and we've discussed elsewhere the increase in the "anonymous" promotion that we see both here and on places like Amazon. From a personal point of view, if I choose a book based on a review, it's only likely to have come from here, a newspaper or a radio programme.

Edited July 16, 2012 by chesilbeach

[Kell]

I don't mind people being paid by magazines or papers to review books, but being paid by the author or publisher would leave a reviewer wide open to accusations of bias. Personally, I have always been more than happy that I get a free book out of writing reviews, often before the books are available to the general publis, so I get a first peep at them. I've been receiving books for review from publishers and authors for just over 6 years, and never once has it occurred to me to ask for any kind of recompense. As far as I'm concerned, if I take no payment, I will not feel any obligation to praise a book unduly. Anyone who has read any of my reviews will know that when I read a stinker, I call it like it is and rate it as such. If I had taken payment for reviewing them, I'm pretty certain those authors and publishers would have felt mightily ripped off. So, until such time as I get snapped up by a literary rag to review books exclusively for them, I'll never take payment for writing a book review That way I can be as honest as possible and give my very honest opinion of the books I review, whether they be good, bad or indifferent.

 

On a separate note, ther eis a secondary benefit to my receiving free books to review - when I'm finished with them, I donate them to a library that has had no new acquisitions budget for several years, so they get some new books out of it too, and other people get to enjoy (or otherwise!) the books I've read.

[Janet]

I see there is a response from the review site on that blog now. It's not a terribly well written comment, ironically!

[Arukiyomi]

c'mon guys... it's chick-lit. That genre needs all the help it can get!

[Michelle]

She's also received a legal threat from them, which is very sad. If you visit the original link, she's written about it at the top of the post.

[Kylie]

Also, out of interest, do you think this makes it clear that they charge for reviews?

 

I think it makes it reasonably clear, but there are two sections that particularly concern me:

 

The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

 

This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified.

 

They seem to be admitting that payments influence their reviews! There's no way I'd trust anything they write.

[SueK]

They seem to be admitting that payments influence their reviews! There's no way I'd trust anything they write.

 

And in my view, that's thinly veiled as bribery! I find their response quite patronising to Michelle Gorman and their comments in the first reply "educate yourself" strike me as a rather nasty group of people.

 

Like Michelle (our Boss ) here says, I review for the sheer pleasure of getting free books. That way I'm not swayed one way or the other on reviewing.

[Michelle]

Moving away from this particular case, and looking at the idea of blogs and reviews in general - when looking for reviews, do you assume that all blogs are run as a hobby, with only free books exchanging hands? Would you like to see a clear disclaimer on a blog, or even each review, stating whether a free book has been provided, or money has been accepted?

 

Personally, I'm starting to get a bit disheartened by it all, wondering what is behind each review - have they been paid, do they know the author (even if just through twitter), are they pressured by a publisher, etc? The same goes for amazon - just how many reviews are genuine, and how many are connected to the author, or paid for? I then wonder if people feel the same about my own reviews, and those on our blog - even though I know myself and our reviewers are always honest.

 

I think there's a lot to be said for forums such as this, where reviews have no influence at all (well, genuine members, rather than the promoters!). Unfortunately publishers and authors seem very focused on blogs these days.

[Janet]

I always assumed that blogs were personal, honest opinion based on someone reading a book for pleasure - or, if they were sent one by the supplier then that alone would be the reward for posting about it - not any cash changing hands. Also the idea of only a book rated 4* or above being reviewed, or only 'nice' reviews posted doesn't sit well with me.

 

If someone reads a book for review and doesn't like it, they don't have to be rude about it - after all, it's very rare that everyone hates a book - what one person loves. another will hate, and vice versa.

 

Sites should be honest. It's fine charging for a review if that's how one wants to operate (although if I was an author I wouldn't pay for someone to review my book - that wouldn't feel right) - as long as they're honest and up-front about it.

[Raven]

If you have to pay for a positive review of your book, your book isn't worth reading.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*On a totally unrelated subject, I'm now offering positive reviews of, well, just about anything really for a low, low price of just $45 per review.

[Kylie]

RAVEN! You're back! I just tried to PM you but couldn't for some reason.

 

*handcuffs Raven to forum so he can't leave again*

 

Back on topic, I don't read too many blogs, but I'll be more suspicious of them in future, especially if they're only posting good reviews!

[Kell]

I would hope that anyone who received payment for reviewing books would be honest enough to make that very clear on their site. Personally, I wouldn't trust the word of a paid reviewer as there is the posiblity that their review has been coloured by that payment, whereas someone who reviews for peasure and received nothing more than a free book, or who reviews books they have bought for themselves, well, I feel I can trust they'll be completely honest about what they're reading because there is absolutely no reason not to be.

 

As for myself, I have the following disclaimer on my own book blog:

All books I receive for review are from either the publisher or the author. I do not accept or receive monetary compensation for my reviews. Other books I review are books I have purchased from stores directly or borrowed from libraries.

[Nollaig]

That disclaimer is a very good idea, Kell! I think I'll add something similar to my own one.

 

I also think any website receiving monetary (or any other) compensation for the reviews they write should be absolutely upfront about that fact.

[lauraloves]

I put my thoughts on books on my blog, i wouldnt want to say that i 'review' them because i dont think im that good at it. I always say how i come across the book, whether it be brought, borrowed, kindle download, competiton win or sent by the publishers (which is very very rare for me!)