Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

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What Do You Think About Authors Paying for Positive Reviews?

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First off, thank you so much to everyone who shared Monday’s post on the publishing process in GIF form. I seriously did not anticipate that response when I posted it, but it certainly made for an exciting Monday!

Meanwhile, publishing tongues were wagging this week in the wake of a NY Times article about the (apparently very lucrative) world of fake online book reviews:

In the fall of 2010, Mr. Rutherford started a Web site, GettingBookReviews.com. At first, he advertised that he would review a book for $99. But some clients wanted a chorus proclaiming their excellence. So, for $499, Mr. Rutherford would do 20 online reviews. A few people needed a whole orchestra. For $999, he would do 50. 

There were immediate complaints in online forums that the service was violating the sacred arm’s-length relationship between reviewer and author. But there were also orders, a lot of them. Before he knew it, he was taking in $28,000 a month.

Some of the responses to this post, including Salon’s, aligned this practice with self-publishing, likely because most of the authors featured in the article, including John Locke, were self-published authors.

I feel like this is unfair. There’s no reason why a traditionally published author couldn’t do the same thing, and in this day and age there’s every incentive for everyone to try and generate as much attention as possible. (For the record, I’ve never used a service like this).
But what do you think? Do you trust reviews? Is this a practice that should be punished or does it go with the territory? How do you see this playing out?

Art: The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs by Georges de la Tour

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lauren Jagger says

    Well…I'm an indie author and I've used paid review services! Don't see anything wrong with it–it's obviously a vanity/paid advertising service, but it's the author's choice when it comes to marketing.

    And for the record, i've used
    http://www.PennBookReview.com
    and they are very helpful, critical, and professional. I fell like I got exactly what I was looking for–reviews and marketing!

    Also, I fell that, rather than actually paying for the review–I paid for someone to manage my marketing strategy so that I could write more. & here is the other thing–I didn't get a five star bogus review–I got a thoughtful, creative, and professional one–more useful in my opinion.

    Thanks.