Quote:
Originally Posted by Ravensknight
nope. I don't trust paid reviews at all. If a book has only paid reviews, then I'm not buying it, period.
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But when you go to Amazon and see a bunch of 4- and 5-star reviews of a book, how do you know the reviews aren't paid-for reviews?
Bottom line, really, is unless you are specifically told that a review has been paid for, it is not possible to know that it hasn't been paid for unless you personally know the reviewer.
Given that it isn't possible to know whether a review has been paid for or not unless the reviewer specifically discloses they've been paid, why make payment the criterion for belief or disbelief?
And if you are going to insist that payment for a review makes the review untrustworthy in toto, at what kinds of payment do you draw the line? Is it OK to accept a box of chocolate but not $10? Or is it OK to accept $10 but not $1,000? Or how about a bunch of bookmarks or pens?
Seems to me that whether a review should be accepted or not should depend on the content of the review. I am much more inclined to accept a reviewer's opinion when the reviewer compares the book under review to other well-known and respected books in the genre.