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Should Authors Pay for Good Reviews?

September 26th, 2012 | 2 Comments

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Should Authors Pay for Good Reviews? syndicated post from @TheMadReviewer (via The Masquerade Crew)

Buffer The following is syndicated from The Mad Reviewer and is posted here with permission. Most people consider me either ridiculously calm or emotionally stunted.  Either way, I don’t get angry very often and on the rare occasion I do, it’s generally very mild.  However, there are two things…


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2 comments on “Should Authors Pay for Good Reviews?”

  1. Ranger on said:

    I am new to this game. Having self-published my first book with the second in the series in the works, and several short stories in various stages of completion. I have struggled greatly just trying to get any review request accepted. I agree that “paying for a good review” is reprehensible but I also agree with Thomas… Paying for a HONEST review should bring no ill will. I would gladly pay for a review, whether it is good or bad, so long as it is an honest review. So, where is the defining point to this question? Or IS there no defining point beyond treating all paid reviews/reviewers as pariah?

  2. Toi Thomas on said:

    I have never paid for a review and have never asked to be paid for a review. I’m fairly new to the writing world so this may not be such a big deal at the moment. I understand and agree with pretty much everything you’ve said, but I still sometimes wonder if there is a way to monetarily support the people who spend a lot of their time, and sometimes their money, to read books and review them for the masses; a way to say thank you for what they do.

    I mentioned this idea to someone before and she did not take the time to listen to what I was saying. She heard my words and automatically assumed I meant that people should pay reviewers for good reviews. That is not what I’m saying.

    If we lived in a perfect world teachers would make more money than doctors and lawyers and a person could make a living writing honest quality reviews. Since we don’t live in a perfect world, every time I say, good reviewers should be paid, I have to defend myself from people who think I’m trying to scheme my way to the top.

    A good reviewer doesn’t write a good or a bad review for money, because that goes both ways. If people are desperate enough to pay for good reviews, then they are probably sick enough to pay for bad reviews of their competitor’s work. I don’t put anything past people anymore. So having said all that, I will again state that I have never paid for a review or have asked to be paid for a review, but I know a few people who love reading so much that I wish they could make a living at doing it.

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