TuesdayTips108

Should You Pay For Reviews?
(Spoiler: No!)

Last week saw the release of the latest DCI Warren Jones novel, Time To Kill. Over the past few weeks, it has been available to pre-order, and available on NetGalley, a website that allows members to request an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC). If the request is approved, the reader gets a free electronic copy, ahead of publication date, on the proviso that they write an honest review.
It's an essential part of the book launch process and I thank all of those who take the time to download and review the book. It really is appreciated.
However, as sure as night follows day, the announcement of a new book, brings with it the offer to "collaborate" from "book reviewers". Basically, "collaborate" is shorthand for "pay me to write a review."
Now first of all, let me make it clear that I understand what a commitment reading and then reviewing a book is, and again state how grateful I and other writers are for this kindness. It takes hours, and on the face of it, it doesn't seem unreasonable to charge for your time. After all, reviewers for newspapers such as The Guardian or The Times are paid journalists, and lots of other publications pay their freelance reviewers. But this is different. The publication is paying these reviewers to deliver an article for them; the authors and publishers are not paying the reviewers. Therefore, these professional reviewers have no financial relationship with the author and are thus free to write an honest and unbiased review.
There will always be a suspicion that a paid reviewer has delivered a biased assessment of the book because, if they give a crap review, they probably aren't going to be paid to do it again!

There is a veritable shopping list of reasons why paying for a review is a bad idea:
Amazon Will Block Your Books.
Amazon states quite clearly that it will not tolerate the purchasing of reviews. If its all-seeing algorithm identifies a paid reviewer, it will remove all of their reviews, and worse than that, will assume that all the rest of the reviews for your book are also fake and remove those too. It may also remove your books from sale, leaving you with no access to the planet's biggest bookseller. And since it's Amazon, there's no right of appeal.
Even If The Reviewer Doesn't Post On Amazon, Amazon May Still Block You.
There is good evidence that Amazon's bots trawl social media and the wider internet looking for relationships between authors and the people that review their books. A few years ago, authors were complaining that certain reviews were being taken down for their books. The best explanation anyone could come up with was that the reviewer and the author knew each other on social media.
Thousands Of Followers On Social Media Doesn't Mean Thousands Of Eyeballs.
"Collaborators" like to boast about how many followers (or Likes) they have on Instagram, Facebook, GoodReads, Twitter etc.
So what? Do you read every single social media post that appears in your feed? Do you ever just click "Like" out of politeness, or so that the platform's algorithms keep on prioritising these posts, in the hope that occasionally you'll see one that tickles your fancy?
Furthermore, how many of those followers are real? There are businesses that will sell you thousands of "followers", none of them real people. They are just ghost accounts. Periodically, I do a scan of my Twitter followers. Buried in there are dozens of accounts that automatically follow thousands of people, in the hope that they follow back and buy whatever they are selling (usually themselves or videos of themselves, if you catch my drift).
Will They Actually Read Your Book?
It's easy to write a fake 5 star review. Just scan the blurb and the 'look inside' pages on Kindle. Bang out a very short synopsis (genuine reviewers don't want to give away spoilers, so they aren't going to write a detailed synopsis beyond the first few pages anyway). Perhaps peruse a few other reviews and then just talk in general terms about "the amazing twist" at the end, and praise your writing style. Easy Peasy, everyone's a winner.
Except that the reviews come across as generic and frankly, it's dishonest.
It Breaks The System And Is Immoral
I make no apologies for saying this. Paid reviews destroy our trust with the reader and are a dishonest way of making money. And if you pay for those reviews, you are contributing to that, and should be ashamed of yourself.
Readers pay attention to reviews and star ratings. Sure, they aren't naïve enough not to realise that a couple of those reviews might have come from your mum and a your best mate. But by and large, they trust that most of those endorsements are from genuine readers who haven't any reason to write anything other than the truth. And so if you have put in the time and the effort to write a decent book, then that will eventually be reflected in the reviews (not withstanding the odd person with an axe to grind).
So How Do I Get Genuine Reviews?
Unless you are fortunate enough to have a large publicity team behind you, I'm afraid you have to graft.
Approach book bloggers. Others have written in far more detail than I [https://peterfoley.co.uk/2022/04/14/book-blogs-thoughts-in-progress/] about how you can approach these stalwarts of the book industry.
Approach online magazines that review your genre of books. I like Shotsmag. These folks run a fantastic crime and thriller publication that is read by loads of crime fans. They are also always looking for reviewers, so offer your services.
Put a gentle reminder at the back of your book inviting readers to leave a review.
Ask subscribers to your newsletter, or visitors to your website/Facebook page to leave an honest review.
But there is one thing you should never do.
Never Pay For Reviews.
What are your thoughts on this? As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Until next time,
Paul.
PS. If you've like what you've read, why not hit the Like button or share on social media? If you've enjoyed one of my DCI Warren Jones novels, why not leave a review? (See how easy that was? And it didn't cost me a penny!)