tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post290130882776683321..comments2024-03-14T18:09:09.667-05:00Comments on Do Some Damage: ReviewolaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-24365635032838629672012-08-28T13:25:10.500-05:002012-08-28T13:25:10.500-05:00Well said Brian. Thanks for raising a many faceted...Well said Brian. Thanks for raising a many faceted issue.Anonymous-9https://www.blogger.com/profile/09018422038963109199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-10084962566677056922012-08-27T20:36:47.624-05:002012-08-27T20:36:47.624-05:00It's an interesting topic. I've never pai...It's an interesting topic. I've never paid for a review, and the idea bugs the crap out of me.<br /><br />However... Why is it okay for companies to pay for people to endorse their products, even if they don't use them? We don't cry foul, fraud, etc? How is it different than paying some person to endorse a brand of shoe or line of clothing to pay someone to endorse your book?<br /><br />How many times have people flipped out because characters on The Wire were looking at books by Lippman and Pelecanos? What if the actors can't stand crime fiction books and don't read them? Still okay?<br /><br />My point is only that we have really weird, and inconsistent, ways of rationalizing things. I think that if any author found out that their publisher paid big money to have a character on some TV show hold their book in a scene, they'd be thrilled, and excited about the publicity. <br /><br />Would it matter to the author if the actor holding the book actually liked it or just pretended to because that's what they were paid to do? Hell, if Amazon decides to run a commercial for Kindle and uses one of my book covers, I will do a cartwheel. I may break my neck trying, but still.<br /><br />Before I was published, before I knew much about the publishing industry at all, I didn't know anything about co-op space. I thought consumer demand drove placement, not publisher dollars. Maybe it's naive, but anyone who claims there's no such thing as the blurb circle jerk is lying, and how's that any different than paying for a review? Nobody complains when agents are wooing editors with meals and schmoozing, and nobody complains if they know someone who knows someone who gets their book to the top of the review pile for the NY Times. <br /><br />Like I said, we're funny, and inconsistent, about the moral lines regarding endorsement in the book industry. I may still not like it, but I have to admit it's not as black and white as some try to make it out to be.Sandra Ruttanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06109584805469336742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-78484417282387008822012-08-27T11:18:31.138-05:002012-08-27T11:18:31.138-05:00Advertising has always had a problem with fraud - ...Advertising has always had a problem with fraud - did all those doctors who endorsed cigarettes not really know how harmful they were?<br /><br />John McFetridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09442198820998606682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-71261701280267575942012-08-27T10:56:55.359-05:002012-08-27T10:56:55.359-05:00Paying for co-op (i.e. table placement in a store)...Paying for co-op (i.e. table placement in a store) isn't fraud. Participating in Amazon's Select program and offering books for free isn't fraud (and personally I'm glad Amazon changed their algorithms to remove the incentive for this since I don't believe it's ultimately healthy for the industry). Paying for outright bogus reviews to fool Amazon into promoting your book is FRAUD.<br /><br />Brian, I certainly hope you're simply fooling around with this blog post and playing some bizarre illogical devil's advocate, because any publisher who doesn't understand this shouldn't be in business. Seriously. Dave Zeltsermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04007736514118297783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-90924085239715833422012-08-27T09:44:12.517-05:002012-08-27T09:44:12.517-05:00I'll stand by you Mr Pluck. With all the gami...I'll stand by you Mr Pluck. With all the gaming we are ultimately left with what independent authors and publisher always had, readers telling other readers to read your book. Legend has it that Louis L'Amour started selling his book by taking them in the back of his station wagon and visiting truck stops across the country. The truckers felt he was their writer and promoted him where ever they traveled. True or not it guides me. The best marketing plan I know is to write a good book. Hope that some people connect with it and passes it on. We may not see the breakout runaway hits that money can buy, but we are published by people like Snubnose who won't drop us if we don't sell to an expected quota. I dream of the days when a pub house would stand by its authors because they believed in their talent. <br /><br />I have mourned the death of the "mid-list" having been told by agents and publishers alike that the Moses books would have be easy sells ten years back. They liked the writing, just didn't feel they had break out potential. <br /><br />Konrath put out an essay explaining that it was all about getting as many titles on Amazon as possible. I was told by family and friends if I wanted to make a living I had to publish every fart I made. Many write enough to pull this off. Me, I'm slow, it takes me some time and effort to write what I write. For good or bad, I want to know, and have readers know when they pick up a piece written by me it will contain my voice. So I'll continue to game the system by writing the best I know how and hoping readers dig it enough to pass it on. Josh Stallingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09913654176433125233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-37036495378142226322012-08-27T09:10:28.269-05:002012-08-27T09:10:28.269-05:00Funny you mention the Mob / Vegas connection. Thir...Funny you mention the Mob / Vegas connection. Thirty years ago the Mob was making, oh, three, four million off their skimming. That's with 11 million visitors per year. Vegas is almost forty million visitors, and the private equity managers and the multi-globals run the joint. (One sports book out there is run by a subset of Cantor Fitzgerald.) Who needs a skim when you got Bain & the boys carving out tax-free profits? No more gangsters. Just banksters.<br /><br />Fred Zackelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-68676918067043027482012-08-27T08:57:00.995-05:002012-08-27T08:57:00.995-05:00You can wash the taste out with whatever you like,...<br />You can wash the taste out with whatever you like, I'm with Les on the ethics of being paid directly for a good review. I don't think Kirkus is much different- $425 for a review, without guarantee. There's no such thing as bad publicity, right? <br /><br />And it doesn't have to be cash. Numerous writers have explained why they don't do blurbs, and it's because the expectation is there. The hand sanitizer won't make you forget you were in a circle jerk.<br /><br />I've been approached numerous times by strangers for reviews, because when I like something, I am enthusiastic. But I am not a book reviewer, and I don't review anything I don't want to read in the first place. <br /><br />Wealth and success absolve you of all sins, in this country. If success matters that much to you, throw ethics aside. As one politician said recently, "Do what is legally required." In my book, that's the same as "get away with whatever you can."<br /><br />It's not easy to comport yourself with integrity, and no one is pure as the driven snow. Barry Eisler wrote a good article regarding integrity in journalism, and he said if you can't look back and find your mistakes, you're in trouble, because you're believing your own bullshit. I tend to agree. I've been influenced by the desire for success in the past, but I've decided that I want to write good stories. I want as many people as possible to read them, but I'd rather be remembered as a stand-up guy who could be trust to do the right thing than "that guy who wrote some bestsellers." Let's face it, most of us will be forgotten. Most of our work, even that of the biggest writers, will gather dust on library shelves until they are pulped and recycled. Do you think James Patterson will be read after he dies? Jonathan Franzen? I'm not so sure.<br /><br />Write well, keep writing, and people will find you. In ten years, you might be the overnight success you so want to be. I know instant gratification takes too long, but whether it's self-publishing or traditional, our Lotto millionaire culture has us thinking we just need to be discovered like a starlet in early Hollywood. Me? I'm gonna try to stay off the casting couch and put in the hard work.Thomas Pluckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17008022962076648740noreply@blogger.com