Book Blogger Confessions is a new bi-weekly meme hosted by Tiger @ All Consuming Books and Karen @ For What it's Worth Reviews.
What do we owe publishers and authors? If we accept ARC’s do we “owe” anything to them or just an honest review to our followers? As book bloggers are we obligated to do more than just review books? Post covers – participate in book tours – host guest posts - promote authors?
I say if a blogger accepted a free ARC for review all we are obligated to do is give an honest review, if we are able to complete the book. If you couldn’t finish the book then maybe you could pass it on to someone else who might enjoy it more than you do or write a post about the book that way you still get the word out there but I don’t think this should be required. I mean what if you hated the book so much you wanted to burn it? Then it’s probably not a book you even want to mention on your blog.
Most book bloggers do what we do for fun, we are not getting paid for our services or the time we spend on our blogs so I don’t think we a required to do anymore then review a book we’ve accepted for review. If a blogger wants to help promote an author and their book by participating in blog tours, hosting giveaways, etc then that is solely up to the blogger.
Yes we working on reading and writing reviews for the books we do review :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of that!!
ReplyDeleteYou owe them an attempt to read the book and an honest review if you finish. That's it. That book that I hate and want to burn? I still review it. I state right in my review policy that I DO give 1 and 2 star reviews (it's rare, but it happens). I had an author who I gave a 1 star get really emotional and email me asking WHY, GOD, WHY would I do that? I pointed to my review policy and said "Realize this: All press is good press. I agreed to tell people about your book, and I did so."
ReplyDeleteAs for cover reveals, trailers, etc...I don't do that. I don't want to become an advertising platform. But that's just me, and I have no problem with blogs that do participate in such promotions.