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Paid reviews for books
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message 1:
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BreeAnn
(new)
Nov 18, 2019 03:14AM
I am a book reviewer and I spend a ton of time reviewing books. I'd like to charge for the review because of the time it takes me to read the book and then write a thoughtful review and cross post to my blog, facebook, instagram, amazon, goodreads and Litsy. I currently agree to read almost any request for a book review and it's becoming a full time job and I love it! But, I'm wondering if any authors can give me some insight. Do or would you pay for your book to be reviewed? I won't post a dishonest review, so I was thinking that if I felt the book was less than 3 stars, I wouldn't charge for the review. Any thoughts are appreciated!
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Hi BreeAnn, there are lots of services authors/publishers are willing to pay for, however paid for reviews might contradict amazon, GR and maybe other venues' policies. I'm sure we have threads dedicated to these themes here somewhere. As of the "value" of reviews: there is one thing when a reader bought a book and wrote whatever s/he thinks about it, another when s/he got a book for free from an author in exchange for an honest review, and yet another - when an author actually undertook to pay for a favorable review, which then can entail a temptation for the reader to give a higher score to arrive into the "paid area"
Nik wrote: "Hi BreeAnn, there are lots of services authors/publishers are willing to pay for, however paid for reviews might contradict amazon, GR and maybe other venues' policies. I'm sure we have threads ded..."I agree and I have been struggling with this. I'm thinking that I will keep my reviews free, but if they would like to be featured on my Instagram, have a charge, as that also requires additional work with the photography. I really appreciate your feedback!
BreeAnn wrote: "I am a book reviewer and I spend a ton of time reviewing books. I'd like to charge for the review because of the time it takes me to read the book and then write a thoughtful review and cross post ..."BreeAnn, I'm an author, and I'd encourage you to give an honest review no matter whether you've been paid or not. And if you choose to charge, then charge for all reviews, not only ones that are favourable. As a writer, we (should) know that not everyone will like our stories, or our writing, and be prepared to deal with it when the inevitable negative review happens.
And as an author, thank you for being a reviewer. You do such an important thing for authors.
Thank you. I will never adjust a review to be positive based on compensation. I've decided to keep my reviews free always.
Another occasional author view here. You could perhaps have a catalogue to cover your costs,effort e.g. basic review (Goodreads and Amazon) free. Cross posting to other sites possibly on a charging basis e.g. to cover the Instagram case you mentioned. Whether that is allowed or moral or anything else is subjective and down to Ts and Cs for the site/law of land.I have been offered reviews on this site if I am willing to pay and I get Spam emails and blog postings offering this service as often as I get 50,000 tweet offers.
I'm unclear how some sites do it (Bookhub etc) but I am very suspicious of mainstream reviews given the in built corruption in book launch events which invite media for free drinks etc.
I want honest reviews from readers but they are not for me, they are for other readers whether I agree with the review or not. Just getting people to read books is hard enough any review is a bonus.
Philip wrote: "Another occasional author view here. You could perhaps have a catalogue to cover your costs,effort e.g. basic review (Goodreads and Amazon) free. Cross posting to other sites possibly on a charging..."Thank you. I'm going to keep my reviews free :)
Nik wrote: "Hi BreeAnn, there are lots of services authors/publishers are willing to pay for, however paid for reviews might contradict amazon, GR and maybe other venues' policies. I'm sure we have threads ded..."In theory, paid reviews are banned on Amazon. Any review that's posted as a contingent for future review opportunities is supposed to be banned, even if the reviewer only received a free book. When a reader provides a review in exchange for a review, it's supposed to be noted in the review for transparency, and the reviewer must be under no obligation to provide the review. This is meant to clamp down on authors who solicit the free reviews and pick and choose the good ones to have the readers post.
In theory...
In reality, Amazon is flooded with paid reviews. I could list dozens, if not hundreds of books whose reviews were bought and paid for, but I don't want to be "that guy" who singles out other authors or books.
The OP could offer their services and provide paid Amazon reviews, but understand, in the event it ever does get Amazon's attention, both the OP and the author(s) could, in worst case, find themselves banned from Amazon.
I am not a writer, but a reader. If I find out that the review is paid for, it is not worth the paper it is printed on. It does not matter if it is good, bad or indifferent. A paid review cannot be taken seriously because the of the appearance of impropriety. Once money changes hand, the draw of more money taints the honesty of the review. It pays to be nice and give a great review because once word gets around....For you authors, get a series of fake emails and write your own reviews. It will have the same effect and be cheaper in the long run.
A paid for review on Amazon, I wouldn't pay attention to. But, I am also the person who reads the 3 star reviews on any item to get a better feel for whether I want to make that purchase. The 5-star ones and the 1 star ones, I ignore equally.Consider, those who write reviews in major publications are paid to do so and our society does pay attention to those. Of course, they are mainstream, publishing house books, but they have resulted in books and authors becoming best sellers. So how do the independent authors compete with that since we readers ignore paid for reviews?
However, a real in-depth review of a book does take a lot of time and effort. Just small reviews for books I received for free became overwhelming so that I stopped doing it except for 1 or 2 authors whose work I like. So, I understand BreeAnn wanting to put some value on that.
