Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Are publishers putting the squeeze on bloggers?

 Alison Flood on her Guardian blog. 5 December 2011.

There are worrying signs from some quarters that online reviewers are being held to much stricter terms than traditional journalists receiving review copies

Last month Sam Jordison asked here if broadsheet book reviews were "bland, boring and formulaic", and if books blogs offered an antidote to "chronically cautious newspapers". Now HarperCollins' American imprint William Morrow (home to authors including Michael Connelly, Neil Gaiman, Conn Iggulden … and the Kardashians) has set the books blogosphere on fire with a (possibly badly worded) letter laying out the terms and conditions under which they will now send books out to bloggers for review.

"You will no longer receive titles piece-meal. Instead, you'll receive 1–3 emails during the month with all of our upcoming titles available for your review, one month ahead of the on-sale date … Your job is simply to review the book within a month of receiving it and post your thoughts on your blog or site. Ideally, we'd like for reviews to appear online within two weeks to a month after the on-sale date, so you might keep this in mind when selecting books," writes the impersonal "William Morrow Marketing Team", sprinkling its missive with exclamation marks, perhaps to soften the blow.

"You'll no longer receive books that you didn't order," they go on. "No more random books showing up on your doorstep! You'll only receive the titles that you want. If it isn't already clear, WE LOVE THAT YOU LOVE OUR BOOKS! And to allow us to continue to offer free copies and free shipping to you committed book reviewers, we will be tracking how many reviews we receive from you. If we notice that you request books but aren't posting your comments or sending us the link, we may suspend your ability to receive review offers from us."

These instructions have outraged some books bloggers. "We are not your bitches," writes blogger The World in the Satin Bag. "While you might think your new policies are about efficiency, what they tell the rest of us is that you do not value what we do. As @MotherReader has already pointed out: 'Can you imagine them sending this to Horn Book or the NY Times?' Exactly."
Full report here.

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