Thursday, October 13, 2016

Should book bloggers charge for reviews?

A while back, Shannon over at the wonderful River City Reading opened up a discussion about book blogging and an ongoing concern about value and the work done.

This is not work. This is not a job. I am not assigned a task by a publicist with a due date, nor am I required to promote a product. While I certainly respect everyone involved and feel thankful that I’m able to read well ahead of publication, a book for review is not a contract—something I’m very clear about in my review policy. More>>

Her post was in response to a former book blogger who had suggested charging for reviews, as time is money.

I started charging for reviews before I left the book blogging world. I started charging $50 per review and there was no guarantee the review would be favorable. I was still selling myself cheap at a rate of $5 per hour (again, assuming a 10-hour investment). Considering I almost always tweet quotes from a book while I’m reading it and talk about the book on social media it was pretty obvious the book was going to get exposure. Everyone balked. There was backlash from the book blogging community and people in the publishing industry were upset.
I eventually left book blogging. More>>
If you're promoting a book you've written, would you pay for an advert? Would you pay for a review?

If you're interested in the discussion, head on over to RCR and jump in on the comment thread.

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