Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Thornton
There's a Time article. It seems that publishers will send a lot of books to the top reviewers, so that could be one incentive. Also, her profile says that she became a "freelance" reviewer, so she's getting paid for reviewing somewhere, if not on Amazon.
Apparently, Amazon will send out samples of all sorts of stuff to top reviewers to get some reputable reviews in place. |
Yeah, I'm one of them. It's not nearly as lucrative as you might think.
But, believe me, there's no way this is all one person. Someone did the math once, and just typing up her reviews should be too much for one person to accomplish, let alone the actual reading and writing part.
Having also said that, when someone receives a free book in exchange for a review, the reviewer is (legally) supposed to disclose that as a protection to customers. Which is why I said that "she" could possibly be in violation of that rule, but no one has been prosecuted for it, afaik.
You don't get money or referral fees from your reviews on Amazon; it's not like blogging as an Amazon Associate, so I'm not sure how this could be a profitable scheme. And if "she" is being paid per review, I'd be interested in knowing how that works precisely. I've never had a publisher contact me about a (secretly) paid review, and with good reason: if I told anyone, it would look bad. Big name publishers don't really need to pay people for reviews, anyway -- if they give away free copies on NetGalley, someone will write a glowing review for free.
So it's all very puzzling from a profit perspective.