This is… disheartening

[k_a_webb]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/business/book-reviewers-for-hire-meet-a-demand-for-online-raves.html?smid=pl-share

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Comments

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

It's not really all that new, because ...

1) People have been paying reviewers to say good things about books all along. It just wasn't as obvious earlier.

2) People pay for advertising all the time, and everybody knows it's mostly lies, and they rarely fuss about all the bullshit ads. This is just authors taking advantage of what cereal makers, car makers, movie makers, etc. already enjoy: the opportunity to pay someone to promote your work.

3) The idea that reviewers should work for free is unfair; they have a right to be paid just like anyone else. The idea that reviewers should never know the author is impractical, because many subgenres are so tight that if you ruled out all connections, you'd rule out everyone who cares enough to write a review.

4) The kind of reviewers people hold up as examples, like those working for big magazines, won't touch a majority of the books that get written. They rarely review books by women, or people of color, or any other underprivileged group, or whole swaths of disrespected genres. So if you want something done, do it yourself, get a friend to do it, or hire someone. Don't wait for a free handout from someone who's already decided not to like you.

5) It mainly works on idiots. Any thoughtful reader can pick up a book and figure out in about a minute whether it's reasonably worth reading. They can also look at a handful of reviews by a given reviewer and compare that person's taste to their own. If they don't bother to do those things -- if they take a single review at face value -- then they deserve the same disappointment as anyone else taken in by ads. A fully functioning bullshit detector is crucial for modern life.

[moonwolf1988.livejournal.com]

I guess it was more that some of the reviewers didn't even read the books before writing about the books, because I don't think you can possibly write a true review about anything unless you've experience what you're reviewing. Of course my abilities at reviewing anything aren't great - I'm not someone who ever writes reviews, whether I like something or not, so I have no idea how someone can do it without actually reading the book.

To be honest I don't read reviews much either. I pay attention to the blurb of the book and if I like that then I pick up the book. My tastes are too personal to let a reviewer tell me whether or not I may like something.

The other thing that disappointed me is that it means that once again someone with money is likely to have better luck because they can afford to pay for reviews. If anyone wanted to review my work I could pay in stories, but money is something that's currently in short supply.

However I do agree that in some cases it probably is the only way to get reviews and that is wrong. I hate that there's still discrimination in the world. It makes me sad and I don't understand it, because my view is that people are people no matter what gender, colour, sexual orientation or disability they have. Nothing makes me see someone as less than they are, unless that person happens to discriminate against others. Then they need re-educating, and if that doesn't work they should be sent to an island with all the other like minded people.

(One day I'll remember to log on as my other self while commenting.)

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>I guess it was more that some of the reviewers didn't even read the books before writing about the books, because I don't think you can possibly write a true review about anything unless you've experience what you're reviewing.<<

I certainly don't think that's a professional thing to do, when somebody is paying for a review. However...

>>Of course my abilities at reviewing anything aren't great - I'm not someone who ever writes reviews, whether I like something or not, so I have no idea how someone can do it without actually reading the book.<<

There are ways to do that. You read the front and back cover, plus any front or back matter. Then read the first and last chapter. A majority of the crucial information in any book will be in those places. If you feel the need for more, read the first and last page of each chapter. This is a necessary trick for getting through college with professors who think that ordinary people can read a few hundred pages per night and still have time to write about what they read. I'll still do that if I need to cover a topic fast. But I don't feel it's right to do that if I'm being paid to analyze something.

>>To be honest I don't read reviews much either. I pay attention to the blurb of the book and if I like that then I pick up the book. My tastes are too personal to let a reviewer tell me whether or not I may like something.<<

I rarely bother with reviews, because I don't care what people think. It's usually faster for me to check for myself. I occasionally take recommendations from friends though.

>>The other thing that disappointed me is that it means that once again someone with money is likely to have better luck because they can afford to pay for reviews.<<

Agreed. I'm not thrilled about that part. However, I do feel that it's fair to give authors more control to buy services that they are no longer being offered for free. Otherwise they'd just get shut out.

What I really want to see is the rise of more websites that rec and/or host weblit. WebFictionGuide is a good start, as are some of the fanfic sites. But there's not yet a good place that has a pool of readers, a search engine for new fiction, both reader and staff review options, and lets people make money from their writing.

>> If anyone wanted to review my work I could pay in stories, but money is something that's currently in short supply.<<

That basically is what we're doing. If you put your stuff on WebFictionGuide, let me know; I am (or was) registered there and I've reviewed several other projects. If nothing else, do it the next time you do a big connected piece like your Advent story.

>>I hate that there's still discrimination in the world. It makes me sad and I don't understand it, because my view is that people are people no matter what gender, colour, sexual orientation or disability they have. Nothing makes me see someone as less than they are, unless that person happens to discriminate against others. <<

Agreed. I find discrimination unbearably stupid. This is why I like to review or recommend books, stories, art, etc. by women, Pagans, people of color QUILTBAG folks, and anyone else outside the mainstream. Somebody needs to do it.

Well, you can see that in a lot of my writing, too; I run to diversity. I also tend to set up and knock down some of the edgier premises, like showing how disastrous it can be when there are real differences in how races think or reproduce or live. There is still no "better" overall, but some can be better at specific things. Lack of cooperation just makes life harder. Any bigot who comes into a story I'm writing ... or reading and can prompt for ... is just asking to get shoved into a magical volcano.