This week’s dilemma is as follows:
You have a really popular blog where you review books. You get thousands of hits everyday, and readers flock to you for your no-nonsense take on newly released romance novels. You don’t get paid for the reviews, you just get free books from publishers and authors, which you of course appreciate.
One day, you get chatting to a newly published author, and out of the blue, she offers to give you $200 for you to post a ‘positive’ review on your blog.
As it happens, you’ve already read her book, and it sucked great big hairy donkey balls.
What do you do? Do you take the money, figuring that $200 is too much to refuse, or do you say thanks but no thanks, and stick to your reviewing principal of honesty always?
What would you do???
Amarinda Jones
October 9
8:27 am
I think it depends on how much you think your soul is worth. Everyone has a price. Me? While I adore money – nope, I wouldn’t do it. I’d rather give an opinion without fear or favour or obligation
Mary Winter
October 9
9:16 am
I learned a long time ago, that I really can’t sell my soul, though goddess knows, I tried…My price for some things just can’t be paid.
Anyway… no, I don’t take the money. And I do make sure I have all headers, ip addresses, etc. in case they’re ever needed.
RebeccaS
October 9
9:28 am
I wouldn’t take the money. Not only on principle; that kind of thing inevitably comes back to bite one in the ass.
KristieJ
October 9
11:32 am
Nope – I don’t take the money. What I said would be a LIE and I couldn’t do it and respect myself. And respect for myself is priceless
Ghetto Diva
October 9
11:51 am
Lie, or be $200 richer.
Honestly, I wouldn’t do it. I like to keep things straight up, no lies. Just the way I am.
SarahT
October 9
12:25 pm
I wouldn’t take the money, at least not for a review on my current blog. If I had a blog which openly stated it accepted money for reviews, that might be different. I still wouldn’t feel comfortable accepting money for a guaranteed positive review, though.
Jody W.
October 9
12:58 pm
Would she be interested in investing in some property I have for sale in Timbuktu?
SamG
October 9
1:12 pm
I would say no. My honor, such as it is, is worth more than $200.
Sam
AztecLady
October 9
1:51 pm
If someone offered to pay me for writing honest reviews, I’d be happy. But to guarantee a positive review–whether I’ve read the book or not, liked it or loathed it–hell, no.
Sorry, no can do.
maddie
October 9
2:04 pm
No because once you sell your soul for anything, not only is it’s down hill from there, but you cheapen your self.
Plus you told the world you can be bought at any price.
Christine Rimmer
October 9
2:05 pm
I would say I wanted more money. Because, you know, my integrity doesn’t come cheap. LOL What’s that Oscar Wilde quote? Something like, “Madam, we’ve already determined what you are. Now we’re just haggling over the price.”
Shiloh Walker
October 9
2:23 pm
Nope. Not interested.
Karen Scott
October 9
2:30 pm
Hmmm, what if you were offered $1000 instead?
Mireya
October 9
2:37 pm
Thing is that in this environment, the news are spread fast … that means that once that if you say yes, the author is bound to mention it to a friend author… then the friend author will tell her friend authors… can we say avalanche?
And there goes your reputation with it …
My answer is no, as tempting as having extra cash may be. Developing a good reputation is easy, the hard work is KEEPING it. It can be destroyed in a matter of seconds and by something even smaller than accepting money in exchange for a positive review.
Anon76
October 9
3:14 pm
Nope, not for a predetermined review rating, no matter the size of the bribe.
Melissa Blue
October 9
4:41 pm
I wouldn’t do it. As with anything it’s hard to gain trust and very easy to lose. The reason why my blog was popular is because of the fact I don’t hold any punches when something sucks. Then I review a book favorably that is beyond craptastic? So, nope, and really the publishing world is a very small world.
Alexandra
October 9
4:44 pm
I’d say no and blog about the attempted bribe.
Grrrly
October 9
5:13 pm
I’d take the money, then write the negatve review anyway. What are they going to do, complain about not getting what they paid for?
anonymous
October 9
6:15 pm
A year or so ago there was a website that was was raking in books by the ton. They weren’t reviewing them. I’m not sure why they were hoarding them but they sure as heck weren’t posting reviews. Instead, they were putting out calls for books they wanted. We’re talkng HUNDREDS of books here, folks. finally I blieve it was Ellora’s Cave you called them on it and said no more until you did some actual reviews. I hadppened to be one of the reviewers on that site and was privy to the remarks. These guys knew they were in the wrong but they didn’t care. They got pissed at EC. All they wanted was to read the books for free. Unfortunately, thats the way of it with most of the so-called ‘review’ blogs/sites. Yeah, yeah, you might not get paid in moolah but you are getting paid in merchandise. If you review a book by somone your gang doesn’t like and you give them a fucking bad review…hahahahahahahahaha! Aint we having fun at someone else’s expense. If you give them a great review, you are the Queen of BFE and it’s all light and sugar and kissy-kissy face. I really don’t see the difference. Either way, you’re getting paid for reading. At least be honest about it and call a spade a spade even if it hurts you little ego.
Janean
October 9
6:51 pm
I wouldn’t be so melodramatic as to say taking the money for a book review would be selling your soul, but if I were a blogger I still wouldn’t do it.
If the book was bad there is no way I would want the people reading my reviews to think I had bad enough taste to like it. If I reviewed books the whole point for me would be to share my opinions with others; it would be a pointless exercise if I started taking money and giving reviews that didn’t accurately express my true opinion. Why would I waste my time for some pocket change and free books?
I figure if they have to give you money or free books to get a good review the book probably isn’t worth reading anyway.
Chantal
October 9
7:08 pm
Nope. I don’t need money, and if I did I would find a way to get it without corrupting my personal morals.
Nonny
October 9
7:42 pm
I’d want a lot more than $200 to bend my morals like that. If we were talking $2000… maybe. That’s a lot of money to pass up. 😛
Lorraine
October 9
11:27 pm
I wouldn’t take the money at this point in my life because I don’t need it and I can afford to hold tight to my moral values.
But if my husband and I were both unemployed and neither of us had any job prospects, especially in these rough economic times, then hell yes, I’d write a positive review for the $200. My children can’t eat my pride. It is, after all, a review of a romance novel, not a murder for hire.
Katie Mack
October 9
11:35 pm
What KristieJ and Mireya and Lorraine said.
Ann Bruce
October 10
12:51 am
Big Business already bought my soul–and for a lot more than $200, so no.
Nadia Lee
October 10
5:36 am
Karen,
Only $1k? That won’t even buy me a troy ounce of gold!
maybe
October 10
12:02 pm
How long does the review have to be?
There’s always something nice to be said about a book. “the author’s passion for her characters is clear.”
or
“she certainly did her research. I now know all about 12th century horse training methods!”
or
“The character who brought them the dinner on page 33 made me laugh out loud.”
or
“I hear donkeyballs are very tasty.”
Ashley Ladd
October 11
2:10 am
No amount of money is worth your integrity or even your reputation.
Venus Vaughn
October 11
11:37 am
$200 isn’t nearly enough to wash the dirty off a falsified review. $2000 might be closer to the mark, but I’d rather take the money and give her editorial advice or beta reader feedback for the next book.
Either way, I’m sure I can be bought at some level, but $200 is nowhere near my price.