Should an author pay for book reviews?

[Bruce Atchison - author]

Dear folks;

I recently visited http://www.theusreview.com/USRsubmit.html and was
disgusted to find that they want money for reviewing books. I think it's a
rip off but what do you folks think? It seems to me that it would be better
to have one's books promoted on one's website with good search engine
rankings than to pay somebody to review one's books. There's also the
problem of bias. If a reviewer is paid by an author to review a book, it
seems likely that it won't be an honest assessment.

Please let me know what you think regarding paid reviews. I'd rather earn
my reviews honestly. If I'm mistaken on this point, please explain why.

Sincerely,

Bruce Atchison - author of Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind
School) and When a Man Loves a Rabbit ((Learning and Living With Bunnies).

http://www.bookstream.biz/cgi-bin/bookstream/bookstore.cgi?overlord=Details&store_id=132

http://www.bookstream.biz/cgi-bin/bookstream/bookstore.cgi?overlord=Details&store_id=102

[James Rau]

On Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:25:08 -0600, "Bruce Atchison - author"
<batc...@mcsnet.ca> wrote:

>Please let me know what you think regarding paid reviews. I'd rather earn
>my reviews honestly. If I'm mistaken on this point, please explain why.

For a writer to pay for a review breaks Rule #1: The money is always
to flow towards the writer. It verges on paying for "reading fees".
Any scam that takes money out of the writer's pocket is just that--a
scam and nothing more. I would prefer to stumble across your web site
and find a link to an honest, unbiased review by disinterested
jounalist that has nothing to gain.

James Rau

[Bruce Atchison - author]

Hello Sal;

Thanks for the 2 links. I'll check them out soon. Thanks too for the
advice about choosing the reviewer and publication best suited to the topics
of my books. I have done this in a limited way and I'll continue to search
for more opportunities.

Thanks too for listing the 5 review sources where an author might hope to
gain publicity. Midwest Book Review already has my Deliverance from Jericho
memoir so I'll do some research regarding the remaining review sources.
I'll investigate those too.

Though some of what you wrote was most helpful, I found your post to be
rather confusing. First, you said that you weren't going to follow the
links at the end of my post and later you said they didn't work. I'm sorry
that something has gone wrong with the website on which my books are
featured. I have no direct control of it and I'll call my publisher today
about the problem. I hope someday to have my own website where I can have
full control of its content.

I agree with James that money should, and must, flow toward the author and
not to the paper or magazine where a book is reviewed. Having read The Big
Sell by Pierre Berton, I now am reluctant to trust any pay-per-review ad.

I also understand that free reviews by established papers and magazines are
becoming difficult to find. Even so, people still like to know about new
books that are on the topics of what their interested in. The task for all
of us writers is to find where people glean their book-buying information
from and attract attention to our work there.

Sincerely,

Bruce Atchison - author of Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind
School) and When a Man Loves a Rabbit ((Learning and Living With Bunnies).

http://canadianauthors.ning.com/profile/batchison