Yesterday I read a post on the blog Rat’s Reading where he complained about a site he recently came across that charges for reviews. Dedicated Book Reviews apparently charges for reviews, guest author posts and etc. You can check out the site and their fees here.
I looked over the site and I don’t really understand what they have to offer – what authors and/or publishers would want to buy – but I didn’t spend enough time on there to make an informed decision about the site itself. I will say I think charging for reviews is ridiculous and unethical. That’s a practice I’ve never agreed with. I’m sure many of you agree.
The issue Rat had with this site is that they were nominated for several awards in conjunction with Book Blogger Appreciate Week (BBAW). He requested that the site be disqualified based on the fact that they charge for reviews. BBAW responded that they won’t be disqualifying the site, though they’re confident the site won’t make it into the final rounds based on the process they’re using this year to judge the nominations.
I have several issues with this.
1) The site in question doesn’t seem to be established yet. Unless I’m missing something, I don’t even see where they have reviews or promotional posts up. At this point the only thing I see on the site is their reviewing/promoting policy and their pay scale.
2) BBAW and the way the nominations/awards are being handled. Last year the nominations were sent in and then the general public voted for their favorite (I’m sure the process was long and drawn out, I’ve condensed it here). This year they have panels of judges (made up of bloggers, authors and other publishing professionals) who are deciding which blogs will make it to the final rounds and which ones won’t. They base this information on 5 posts sent in by the nominees that they believe are the best representation of their sites.
Although I understand with over 1000 nominated sites the process needed to be modified from last year, I don’t necessarily feel comfortable with the system in place now. Let’s say I have a falling out with a blogger who is chosen to be on a panel for an award I was nominated for. What’s to say that person won’t reject my nomination just because s/he doesn’t like me? Things like that make me wonder.
3) Should BBAW automatically disqualify the site in question based on the above information? I think so. Saying they’re confident the site won’t make it past the judges seems like a cop-out to me. Why not just automatically disqualify the site and move on?
On the other hand, I don’t really put a lot of stock in the BBAW awards. I mean, it’s wonderful to be nominated (we received half a dozen or more and we’re so thankful our readers thought we deserved the awards), but I’m skeptical about the awards in general. Especially based on the scenario I listed above with the panel of judges. Not to mention the fact that there were no guidelines in place to regulate who could be nominated and subsequently win (not that I’m aware of anyway. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).
What do you think? Is this a big deal? How do you feel about the site being nominated for awards when they charge for reviews? Should they be disqualified out of hand?
Of course, you can always choose not to participate, as BBAW said today:
We understand that not every blogger will feel comfortable with this process. Please know that you are welcome to withdraw your nomination and association with BBAW at any time. We hope that the rest of you will understand that BBAW is a labor of love built by and for the book blogging community.
In regards to the site and charging for reviews, I think it’s unethical and shouldn’t happen. When you start charging for reviews or promotional posts I feel you lose objectivity and your motives should be in question. One of the best things about book blogs (in general) is the honesty and enthusiasm they offer. I would hate to see that tainted because sites start offering reviews for money. Especially since I doubt an author will pay for a bad review..if you know what I mean and I think you do.
How do you feel about the fact that they charge for reviews/promotional posts in general? Are you as annoyed over it as I am?
(as an aside, I think the concept behind BBAW is a great one. We participated quite a bit last year and have been following along somewhat this year [personal issues kept us from joining in this year]. I’m just not convinced the awards are as meaningful as they should be)
This is disgusting!! Paying $115 for a review?? Bullshit.
I am on a judging panel for one of the BBAW blogging awards. I judged on the blogs where I wasn’t associated with such as romance so I wouldn’t pick favorites. All the work that is going into BBAW is more than just a simple, let me give you an award and pass it one to anyone you like. I would like to think they are meaningful because the blogging community does such a great job.
While I told myself I wasn’t going to engage, I will address a few things.
1) The blog in question has withdrawn their nominations. However, they didn’t start charging for reviews until after BBAW nominations closed. Because we had no guidelines in place about who could be nominated, it felt wrong to suddenly disqualify them. I could then choose other issues I find unethical about different bloggers practices and do the same. Additionally, anyone could cause a firestorm on twitter demanding certain blogs be withdrawn.
2) I based the panel concept after other blogging awards. The way I did it last year, I just counted nominations. If someone had 2 readers, but convinced all of their facebook friends to nominate them, they made the shortlist. Soooo…I thought this would be more fair. Then BBAW suddenly exploded and is three times bigger and this process will need to be tweaked again.
3) We worked hard to make the panels balanced, but even this week I’ve had panelists drop off. Such is life in a volunteer land.
You’re right…the awards are meant to be fun….and while I feel like we’ve almost killed ourselves to make them as fair as possible, I simply have to accept that not everyone will think they are fair or worth anything.
I was shocked when I saw that this particular bloggers was paying for reviews. I simply have no words. Why an author would pay that kind of money to do what they can get for free is beyond me.
I won’t add much as I see Amy chimed in but I will say that BBAW is not all about the awards. Let’s celebrate book blogs and the amazing community that exists within it.
I don’t think BBAW is about the awards. I think the concept itself is a good one and it’s wonderful to celebrate the book blogging community.
I do think the awards would mean more if there were some guidelines associated with them. Even simple ones, such as not being able to nominate yourself, the blog needing to be established for at least 3 months (or 6 months or a year, whatever), etc etc.
Of course that’s very easy to say as someone who is sitting on the sidelines looking in, as opposed to actually doing any of the work.
@Katiebabs
The paid reviews thing just kills me. As Natasha said, why would you pay that much for something you can get for free?
Its interesting that authors would pay for these reviews…
As for BBAW, I do see a need for modification for the nomination process and maybe some simple rules.
As for the panel judging, I think it is mostly fair for panels to be judged by bloggers, professionals, etc. who were NOT nominated in those categories. It would be unfair if the people in a particular category judged others in their same category.
You bring up some good points.
Serena – Judges are most definitely not judging in their same category. I’m judging a category that is so outside my reading interests that I haven’t even heard of 90% of the blogs. Also, each category has multiple judges on it. That eliminates the “personal” factor as the scores are averaged w/ each other. The scoresheets are set up in such a way that I don’t see how a bloggers personal relationship can come into play.
My first thought was that it was stupid for an author to pay for reviews. Of course the review will be grand, great, perfect, blah blah blah.
But if you spend a bit more time on that site you will see the reviews. Some are not so good. (2s and 3s out of 10, etc)
At least the reviewer(s) are honest and not letting money sway what they say about the book.
Would I review for money? No.
But I think the authors are crazy to pay for something they can get for FREE somewhere else.
Psst Wena, reviews are there. 🙂 They open up in new windows to a new site, though.
@Chantal
They say some of the reviews are paid and other aren’t. Which begs the question – which reviews are paid? B/c my first thought? All the good ones. Like I said, what author would pay for a bad review?
This is the issue with paid reviews. Now they’re all tainted.
I’m not sure if things were changed from when you guys saw it, but when I looked I don’t see anything about her charging for reviews. It even says:
• These packages do not include a book review!
Did she edit it? It seems to be just author promotion packages. Nothing about her reviews. Am I looking in the wrong spot?
And if she is charging for reviews, I too agree with everything that was said. Why pay her for reviews when a million other bloggers will review it for free and give an honest opinion that wasn’t persuaded by money?
Under the Budget Friendly package for only a cheap $55 you get a book review: http://dedicatedbookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/08/book-promotion-packages.html
If you are an author, why would you pay for a review when there are so many great review blogs and sites that would gladly review for no money?
They aren’t the first blog/review site to charge and I doubt they will be the last. With the amount of blogs wanting to make of living off their book blogs I would guess we will see more and more of it.
Or not see, and discover it, since nothing stays hidden for long… Is it right? No, the idea doesn’t work and anyone who does it is rather dumb. The fact the blog made it on BBAW – not shocking in the least. Didn’t they have 1000+? I would be more shocked it they didn’t get a nod.
As for blog awards, I think they are a delightful idea that don’t work. Book bloggers do a hella lot of work, a lot, a lot, a lot. And if you find yourself at a point where you feel you are under appreciated, it is time for a break.
It is a circle jerk, wrapped up in a popularity contest, and an excuse to cry ‘You like me, you really, really like me.’ Yes I know, I am a killjoy. But even if I wasn’t they killed any chance of this being a ‘true’ contest (which was a laugh to begin with because couldn’t you nominate yourself) when they sent the emails asking for posts for the ‘panel’ to review.
You can say all you want it will be fair and balanced. It won’t be, if nothing else there is human error. But being told do this work and then we will either toss it (based on this nifty panel of people who are based to judge you and opinions you care about why?! cuz they answered a twitter call for help? a SB post?) or we will you know, get wild and count the votes.
Really it comes down to the same thing as all the other blog appreciation things – with a hella lot more work – but a ton of linkage for amy’s trouble. So maybe it is worth it?
Of course I am a terrible jaded cynic and look at everything that way. At the end of the day, if they enjoy the work and others enjoy the icon. WOOT!
The blog has only been around for how long? Like, 6 months and to be charging that much money for things that authors can get everywhere else for FREE just seems pretty ridiculous. It didn’t surprise me at all to see that there were no reviews up.
*shakes head*
I understand why someone would start charging money, but I don’t understand why authors would go there, since yes there are so many wonderful bloggers that do it for free.
I could never do it, I would just be happy to get a book to read and perhaps love and tell my readers about.
The BBAW are a great idea and I feel like they are about the joy and community. Sure the process can be hard, but dunno if there could be a simple way doing it
Charging for reviews is bonkers. Why not just hope someone will give you a positive review on a regular blog? Unless you have no confidence in your work to stand on it’s own.
As for the BBAW. It’s all in fun. A little change to read new blogs and participate in something a bit different than the everyday blogging world. Amy could probably save herself a lot of trouble and just have a week of fun without the awards but this is how she choose to do it. I doubt I’ll be winning anything but that’s ok I’ll be joining in.
Oops! I meant paying not charging.
It can be the pits trying to organize something of this size. I’m sure it’s possible they’ll learn from this year’s BBAW experience and improve it where they can for next time.
And that’s about as short and pat as I can get on it all.
As for paid reviews, I don’t see how one site or many could mire down the entire book blogging/reviewing community. As for disqualifying them, it looks like, according to Amy, that it wasn’t necessary, true? Since the site withdrew themselves and they didn’t charge before being nominated anyway?
As for setting guidelines, sure, it would help. Would these then become some kind of guide for how bloggers should and should not blog? That idea’s been passed around as well.
@KMont
Would these then become some kind of guide for how bloggers should and should not blog? That idea’s been passed around as well.
It makes me sad that people would change the way they blog just to win an award, but you’re right, some would.
I’m certainly not telling Amy how to run BBAW. Nor am I suggesting she’s doing it wrong. I’m only saying the awards would mean more (at least to me) if there were some guidelines in place. That way I would feel more speshul for having gotten nominated. Especially since there’s nothing stating these blogs can’t nominate themselves.
So a blog that opened a week ago and has posted one review can go against a blog that’s been doing this for 5 years? Not that length of time means anything, but it makes the awards suspect, IMO.
But as I said before, it’s easy to point these things out when I’m sitting on the sidelines.
@Holly
Well, and you and others that comment here may have some good suggestions. Maybe email them as suggestions to the event organizers? It’s never too late to start improving for next time. Good things can come from the sidelines.