Authors still ask if they should pay for reviews

[LilyBLily]

Hard to believe, but true. Someone in a romance writing group reaching out today to ask if she should pay redheadedbooklover for a review.

Sigh. We start out so desperate.

[Eric Thomson]

Hard to believe, but true. Someone in a romance writing group reaching out today to ask if she should pay redheadedbooklover for a review.

Sigh. We start out so desperate.

Good heavens. Is that person still soliciting writers?

[LilyBLily]

Apparently. I think the author got a cold email.

Weird thing is, I think years ago redheaded was legit in some way. Maybe her books didn't sell. Some days it does seem as if we'd do better in the shovels-for-miners racket.

[Cephus]

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't want to listen. It's why people still fall for vanity publishers, even though a 10-second Google search would show them not to. It's like the Nigerian prince scam. It still succeeds because people choose to be ignorant. Then, when we try to help people, and we honestly do, they get mad at us because reality doesn't fit into their emotionally-driven world.

It's really kind of sad, isn't it? 

[TimothyEllis]

Both sides are on Quora.

The ones desperate for reviews, and the ones trying to entice people into paying for reviews.

There's also the new crazy, which is people asking about Goodnovel, which is essentially a rights grab writ as large as it can go, including all rights to everything for 70 years after your dead, including prequels, sequels, and anything using the characters or settings ever again, across everything. Mercedes Lackey is currently on a crusade on these questions.

Likewise on the 'should I go with this publisher' questions, where it's obviously vanity.

They just never stop. Both the authors asking, and also the trap merchants either answering the questions, or asking questions so they can answer them.

[writeway]

Maybe the person was a newbie. Many newbies don't know the protocols to getting reviews. It's smart that the person asked for guidance before they went out and purchased reviews. Some people are ignorant to how things go but don't take the time to research or ask questions so they end up with their KDP accounts snatched. As for this reviewer, she'll be around as long as folks are still naive or dumb enough to pay her for reviews. if someone doesn't take the time to research how things are done, I don't feel sorry for them.

[Cephus]

Maybe the person was a newbie. Many newbies don't know the protocols to getting reviews. It's smart that the person asked for guidance before they went out and purchased reviews. Some people are ignorant to how things go but don't take the time to research or ask questions so they end up with their KDP accounts snatched. As for this reviewer, she'll be around as long as folks are still naive or dumb enough to pay her for reviews. if someone doesn't take the time to research how things are done, I don't feel sorry for them.

That's really a problem these days, people don't take the time to do any research on their own, they figure that the Internet is a giant automated answer machine and they don't actually have to do any of their own work. Newbies have to have a realistic view of the entire writing process and most, in my experience, don't. They expect to be guided by the hand in as non-threatening and emotionally-comforting manner as possible, such that they are never actually told the harsh reality of writing.

That's not how reality works though.

[Alexa]

Maybe the person was a newbie. Many newbies don't know the protocols to getting reviews. It's smart that the person asked for guidance before they went out and purchased reviews. Some people are ignorant to how things go but don't take the time to research or ask questions so they end up with their KDP accounts snatched. As for this reviewer, she'll be around as long as folks are still naive or dumb enough to pay her for reviews. if someone doesn't take the time to research how things are done, I don't feel sorry for them.

Many new authors don't even understand 1% of how complex this business is. They're overwhelmed, so it's easy to imagine that they might think they should pay for reviews.

[LilyBLily]

I agree there are a lot of people whose attitude seems to be "tell me everything it took you years to learn." To them I say, "Google is your friend."

I think they're a different group from the ones who clearly never read a professional book review or bothered to follow the publishing business in any way. They got their concept of publishing from bad movies, I suspect. Or possibly from bad novels.

[Cephus]

I agree there are a lot of people whose attitude seems to be "tell me everything it took you years to learn." To them I say, "Google is your friend."

I think they're a different group from the ones who clearly never read a professional book review or bothered to follow the publishing business in any way. They got their concept of publishing from bad movies, I suspect. Or possibly from bad novels.

Mostly from wishful thinking, I figure.

[Cephus]

Sp far as I know, Kirkus reviews or any of the paid review services, they don't post their reviews on Amazon. There's nothing that Amazon can do beyond it's boundaries. You can pay for anything you want so long as it isn't posted to Amazon.

[LilyBLily]

So far as I know, Kirkus reviews or any of the paid review services, they don't post their reviews on Amazon. There's nothing that Amazon can do beyond it's boundaries. You can pay for anything you want so long as it isn't posted to Amazon.

However, as far as I know you can pay for a review from PW Booklife or Kirkus and then use those as "editorial reviews." Although how many people look that far down the page?

[She-la-te-da]

I agree there are a lot of people whose attitude seems to be "tell me everything it took you years to learn." To them I say, "Google is your friend."

And then they get mad, because you're keeping the secret to yourself, because you're jealous they write better than you. (Actual response given, more than once.)

[Cephus]

I agree there are a lot of people whose attitude seems to be "tell me everything it took you years to learn." To them I say, "Google is your friend."

And then they get mad, because you're keeping the secret to yourself, because you're jealous they write better than you. (Actual response given, more than once.)

That's really the problem today, everyone is in a hurry to become successful and writing is one thing that you can't do fast. It takes years to learn how to write well. It takes many, many books to produce something worth trying to sell. Everyone is so concerned with instantly monetizing things and not in learning the lessons that can only come through hard work.

I really think a lot of people these days are downright lazy and that's not a characteristic of a successful author.