Publisher tries to buy reviewers

This post (Write Reviews for Company Books) on Freelance Work Exchange has garnered a lot of attention. They're asking for people to write and post reviews for their own books (on Amazon, LuLu.com, etc.). They'll pay $5 to $10 per review. Yeah, those reviews will be trustworthy.

It's a hot topic on at least one of the romance lists I read. (Actually two now that I've posted about it on mine. ) There's also a post (and comments) about it on the SmartBitches blog.

victoriastrauss said:

...Dollars to donuts it's a POD hobby publisher (why post reviews on Lulu unless Lulu is the printer?)--which makes this a) not surprising, and b) nothing to get too upset about.

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I think the reason this has garnered so much interested is a reaction to the frustration with reviews, lists, etc. planted by authors. Many readers know that there are many "reviews" on Amazon planted by authors or their friends. Some authors have admitted that they'll give a good review to a friend if that friend got a negative review. And then you have certain authors (you know who they are) who post useless reviews of other books (or create useless lists that just happen to include their books) to promote their own books.* Many people are upset that Amazon has been slow (glacial in fact) in replying to complaints about the abuses. Yet at the same time, it often seems that Amazon is too quick to pull legitimate bad reviews if an author complains. Sigh.

*|I'm not counting authors who go to the trouble of writing detailed reviews of other writers' books, or creating lists based on a topic of their expertise. In fact, if I know their tastes, I often seek them out.

aadams73 said:

Anne, these days I find Amazon reviews to be mostly useless precisely because of this.

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I can get something out of them, but it depends on the field. Political and current events books? Forget it. Fiction, it depends. I try to go by the length of the review and what is actually said. (A short yet specific review can be helpful as well.) In some genres, I've learned to recognize the names of people who specialize in certain types of reviews. (If Alianore says a historical novel is inaccurate, I pay heed. )

aadams73 said:

What really helps me make an informed decision(if I do purchase on Amazon) is checking out the Search Inside This Book feature. It lets you read the first five pages so you can get a good taste for the writing style. Of course it's not available for all books...boo.

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I have dial-up, so Search Inside doesn't always work well. And what I hate is when I finally get it to show up, and all it shows me is the copyright and title page. What's the point of that?

aadams73 said:

(and then there's that handy Stats feature which gives you a book's word count)

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Always a nice way to find out if you're about to buy a hefty tome or a tiny story that should have been published as a novella.