If you really hate a book, should you review it? That’s the dilemma facing some participants of the Amazon Vine reviewing program.
The program offers free advance reading copies in exchange for a review posted on Amazon’s site. My friend Christine, a top reviewer at Amazon, is one-fifth of the way through a book she requested, only to discover she can’t stand it.
I really would be torturing myself if I force myself to keep reading this book. Additionally, the book is full of stuff that is not so great to have rattling around in my brain, it has some offensive stuff in it that I just don’t even want to read anymore.
I have a personal policy of not reviewing books which I don’t read cover to cover. I don’t think it is fair to review a book if I haven’t actually read the whole thing, to see if the story gets good by the end or whatever.
The thing is, Amazon won’t send Christine another book to review until she posts a review for the book she hates.
And what if she’s honest and posts a one-star review? Will she be dumped from Amazon Vine? The publishers who are paying big bucks in exchange for prepublication reviews on Amazon won’t be thrilled with negative reviews.
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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors
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One Comment
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the post about Amazon Vine. We do not force Vine Voices to review everything they request – only 3/4 of the products that they request. We hope that this provides people with enough leeway to deal with just this type of situation. We can also work with voices on a situational basis to give them credit for an honest attempt. Thanks for your interest in the Vine program!
-Aaron Freshwater
vine-support@amazon.com