Here's an article from New York Times that caught my attention, The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy.
Wow. The guy was making $28,000 a month!
Imagine how many artbooks you can buy with that kind of money. I must be doing something wrong.
Then I finished the article and realized it didn't end happily ever after.
Stuff like this that gives reviewers a bad name. It also makes people suspicious of not just the reviews but the motives of the reviewer.
It's not uncommon to see authors looking for reviewers on the Amazon reviewers forums. Sometimes they would offer to pay money. I'm glad to say that I've not been given such offers, and I'll not be entertaining such offers — I won't be earning $28,000 monthly anytime soon.
Getting paid to write a favorable review is no different from lying. Getting paid to hurt your own integrity is just not good business in the long run.
If you're an author, never pay for a book review. It can ruin your reputation.
Check out the comments at the bottom of that NYT article page. They are really interesting.
2 Comments
Hi Parka-
Submitted by David Y. on
Hi Parka-
I know in the past you've mentioned receiving free books from publishers for review (I think it was Ballistic Publishing). Have they ever acted negatively toward you if you didn't give their book a good review (or pressured you into thinking you had to give a good review)? Seems like it would be tough to be objective about something you received for free.
-David
P.S. Love the blog and I'm not trying to being accusatory. I'm just curious how your interactions have been with art book publishers in the past.
@David Y.
Submitted by Teoh Yi Chie on
@David Y.
I'm on the reviewer list of Udon and Ballistic Publishing. So they mail me books occasionally. After I get the books, I just review them as I normally would. They don't really say anything other than a reminder that I haven't written anything yet after a week or two.
About objectivity. It certainly doesn't feel right to criticize especially when someone gives you free stuff to review. But I've actually done that for some books before.
For me, it's not difficult to be objective. The worst case scenario is they stop sending me books and I go back to borrowing or buying the books for review, which is what I do for the majority of the books featured on the blog.
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