Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
OK, so now editorials are for sale to the highest bidder? Show me the documentation for this claim.
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I'm not sure what you mean, but writers are paid to write editorials. They happen to push their agenda in most cases. They are propaganda meant to sway the reader to a particular opinion. They may be paid differently and presented differently than an 'ad' but they are still meant to draw attention to a viewpoint and sell a particular idea.
Editorials are opinions, just as reviews are. Most reviews are not paid for, but serve to advertise a book.
I don't like paid reviews. I don't pay for them. I have been offered reviews MULTIPLE times--and after I send the book have been instructed to buy an ad or send other "swag" such as books from that readers "wish list." I only wish the sites would be upfront about asking me to pay because in at least two cases I sent a print copy of the book--that costs me money and time.
I know of a couple of sites who purport to find "free" books for you, when in fact, they are paid-for-ads mixed in with a few "finds" probably so they don't get shut down by the FCC for not clearly marking the ads as ads. On some sites, these ads are not marked but cleverly APPEAR to be "endorsed" by the site as quotes from "reader" are provided (and these quotes by a drive-by reader may be easily mistaken as the opinion of the site owner/reader.)
Of course it's dirty pool. Of course it should be stopped. But who is going to police it? From what I understand, Amazon is hiring in the "review" area to try and improve the situation, but that's one heck of a lot of reviews to police.
And it isn't just in books. It's restaurants, hotels, etc. Last trip I took, I couldn't FIND a hotel that didn't have a complete mockery of reviews--bad ones from probable competitors and glowing ones from paid for trolls. The restaurants on the road trip that we tried obviously suffered from the same fate. The reviews were recent but in two cases, the restaurant in no way resembled the reviews from the cleanliness of the places to the marginal food. Sure opinions differ, but there's a baseline and if a place is a BAR more than a restaurant, that would generally be mentioned in a review or two because most sites have a check box for "kid friendly."
Some blogs still provide good reviews, but a lot of them are moving to paid ads as well. I realize people want to be paid for their time and general ads are probably a way to do this. But those who take money for ads from authors risk crossing that line into "this looks like an endorsement, but isn't." And guess what? Those that are clearly marked ads, don't sell copy! The authors talk about which sites work for them and it's generally the ones that cheat or don't make it as obvious that an ad is an ad.
That's my two cents. Only with inflation, I'm thinking of charging 3. And if you don't pay up, I'm going to insert an ad...
