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SkookumPete · 09-19-2011, 03:43 PM

Harriet is not the only one. There are outfits like Midwest Book Review, which to date has published over 64,000 Amazon "reviews", all of them (as far as I know) five stars, and seldom consisting of much more than the title and author repeated, a very general description of the contents, and a recommendation to buy.

I've thought about the possible business model for a long time, and the conclusion I've come to is that these people are getting review copies for free and then wholesaling them to some bookseller who sells them as new (which they are, because it's a certainty no one has read them!). Say you "review" ten books with an average retail price of $15. You sell these to the bookseller for half-price and realize $75, which is not bad money for an hour or two spent writing and posting one-paragraph blurbs.

It seems dishonest in so many ways.

09-19-2011, 03:43 PM	#39
SkookumPete Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 13888 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle	Harriet is not the only one. There are outfits like Midwest Book Review, which to date has published over 64,000 Amazon "reviews", all of them (as far as I know) five stars, and seldom consisting of much more than the title and author repeated, a very general description of the contents, and a recommendation to buy. I've thought about the possible business model for a long time, and the conclusion I've come to is that these people are getting review copies for free and then wholesaling them to some bookseller who sells them as new (which they are, because it's a certainty no one has read them!). Say you "review" ten books with an average retail price of $15. You sell these to the bookseller for half-price and realize $75, which is not bad money for an hour or two spent writing and posting one-paragraph blurbs. It seems dishonest in so many ways. Last edited by SkookumPete; 09-19-2011 at 03:52 PM.