Most people consider me either ridiculously calm or emotionally stunted.  Either way, I don’t get angry very often and on the rare occasion I do, it’s generally very mild.  However, there are two things that make me furious to the point of being irrational: bullying and paid reviews.  The former is neither here nor there on this blog, but the latter is an issue that has cropped up frequently these last few weeks.  Somehow I think you can guess my stance on paid reviews, but I’ll tell you anyway:

I AM ABSOLUTELY, UNEQUIVOCALLY AGAINST AUTHORS PAYING REVIEWERS TO WRITE GOOD REVIEWS. (Yes, I’m shouting.)

Accepting money for a good review is unethical on the reviewer’s part and laughably pathetic on the author’s.  There is only one scenario I can think of in which money for a review is acceptable: if it’s in exchange for an honest review.  But if you’re the kind of author that would even consider paying for a review, you’re not going to risk a bad review when you can pay the same amount for a guaranteed good review.

Notice that here I’m against paying or sending free books in exchange for a good review.  There is nothing wrong with an author sending a reviewer a free copy of their novel (print or ebook) in exchange for an honest review.  If you’re an author, sending a reviewer a free ebook in exchange for an honest review doesn’t cost you a thing and most reviewers are scrupulous enough to delete the book when they’re finished with it.  If you’re a reviewer and you get a free ebook, all it costs you is time and in return you get content and publicity, possibly even new readers who never would have found your blog otherwise. Continue reading →