Paid Reviews

Hello again, Fellow Readers and Writers–

Today’s topic is disturbing to me, and should be to you also.  I recently received an e-mail that read “Post Good Reviews is Hiring!”  I alerted Amazon.com and sent them the website and phone number on the e-mail.  Why?  Because paid reviews are not supposed to be allowed on Amazon.com. 

The reason? If you go to Amazon and wonder if you’ll like a book or not, you read the comments about that book.  Right?  Well, if they’re paid reviews, it’s just that the author is getting lip service, and not a true and honest review.  I don’t want my books reviewed that way, nor do I want to read what I think is an honest review, only later to find out the author paid for it, and the reviewer didn’t even read his or her book.  How can we know if a book is for us, with that kind of information?

So, dear friends, if you are approached by any company saying they’ll pay you to write reviews, please tell them you aren’t interested.  PLEASE!

I get good reviews, and one or two not so great ones, but that’s part of being an author and putting your work “out there.”  Not everyone is going to like your style of writing, and that’s okay.  That’s why there are thousands of writers on the planet–to please millions of readers.  I may like Janet Evanovich, and you might not.  I may like C. J. Box, and you might not.  I might like Jenn McKinlay, and you might not. It’s all good.  Find an author you love, and read their books…and hopefully the one you love will be me. 🙂

                           Happy Reading and Writing to you all,

                                                                            Jill-Ayn