Some readers make an understandable — but unfair — assumption that all paid reviews must be unethical, that payment can only be in exchange for positive sentiment. This assumption carries the connotation of another: that unsponsored reviews are inherently more ‘fair.’ The full reality is not so simple.
Why Paid Book Reviews Exist
Of the trillions of books in existence, only a fraction of them organically appear on the radars of influential book reviewers. These titles usually have the backing of a major publishing house or established author. Other times, unknown authors get lucky. Their books go viral overnight, regardless of writing skill or unique qualities.
For these publisher-backed and/or bestselling books, reviewers don’t necessarily require payment as motivation to set aside their time. When book reviewers have websites, they can profit by leveraging reviews of popular books to drive traffic. The dynamic is similar for book reviewer social media influencers who try to monetize their channels.
Some book reviewers receive money from an employer or client. In this case the book review is an assignment from an outlet. Neither the author nor the publisher are paying the reviewer.
The vast majority of purchasable books, including the deserving ones, do not naturally receive these types of attention. For authors who don’t have the time, resources and affinities to efficiently build their own marketing operation, paid book reviews can level the playing field a bit.
From the book reviewer perspective, time is money. Payment justifies the time needed to review books that aren’t yet popular and most likely won’t assist with profitability.
Payment for Time vs. Payment for Positive Sentiment
When authors work with book reviewing services such as Kirkus, payment is for the reviewer’s time, not a positive sentiment. Kirkus allows buyers to see the review draft before it goes live. If the author believes the review is too negative, they can ask Kirkus not to publish it.
I’m a big proponent of this model, which is why we employ it here at The Rauch Review. I believe strongly in paying people for their time. I would never ask a book reviewer to review a title for free, unless we have a partnership where they are receiving something valuable in lieu of payment.
In this model, it’s possible for money to influence reviewer sentiment. From my experience, however, it seems like most skilled reviewers include praise and criticisms, regardless of pay.
When I bought a Kirkus review for my first novel, “Teach Me How To Die,” the reviewer had plenty of praise, but also some harsh critiques. Here’s one critical line that stood out to me: “Walter’s spiritual guide, Vincent, is the only other character fleshed out enough to even approach authentic personhood.” Oof. She thought only two of the characters in my novel felt like full, authentic people. Clearly my money didn’t bias her enough to generate a 100% positive review.
Kirkus does not do star ratings, so it’s difficult to tell whether money significantly influences their review sentiments. To this day, I have no idea what star rating this woman would have given my book. Perhaps it doesn’t matter.
Paying for Five-Star Reviews: A Bookstagram Case Study
The definitively unethical reviews are the ones where authors pay reviewers specifically to generate a five-star review on a book reviewing platform or website. When a popular Instagram influencer featured my second novel in a giveaway, dozens of book reviewers swarmed my inbox, many of them offering a five-star review in exchange for money.
As I waded through these offers, I realized the vastness of this paid five-star review industry. Every day, thousands of economically desperate people are soliciting authors online. I wondered what percentage of Amazon and Goodreads reviews were a product of these exchanges.
Paying for Reviews With Star Ratings, But Not for a Specified Number of Stars
It’s tough to determine whether the inclusion of a star rating impacts the honesty of a paid book review. Platforms like Amazon and Goodreads don’t define the meaning of each number of stars. Every book reviewer has an idiosyncratic definition for their star ratings.
At The Rauch Review, we do sponsored book reviews that include star ratings, but we have very specific meanings for those star ratings. Many other platforms and influencers employ the paid/star ratings combo, but not all of them define each rating.
Ethical authors want honest reviews. Simultaneously, we want five-star reviews. Even when we pay expressly for time spent on a star-based review, we are hoping for five stars.
When I self-published my second novel, I paid a few trusted colleagues in my network to read and review my book. I wanted to establish a base of reviews before promoting my book to the general public. I told my colleagues I only wanted thoughtful, honest reviews. They could give whatever rating they liked. Still, I worried they would hold back to spare my feelings.
Luckily I was wrong. I receive a mixture of five and four-star reviews. Many of the reviews had constructive criticisms I have learned from.
Reviews That Are Unpaid and Unfair
Money is not the only source of bias. Even when a reader reviews a book of their own intrinsic motivation, their star rating and sentiment might not be fair.
Let’s take a reader who leaves a one-star review with no explanation. Is this rating fair to the author? Or perhaps the reader gives one star and writes a bit of text in the review box, but the text only says that the book is bad. There’s no reasoning. Still unfair?
It’s not only readers. Sometimes authors boost each other by giving five-star reviews to their books, regardless of whether they read the books or genuinely think the quality meets their idea of five stars. I think it’s OK for authors to review each other’s books if they agree beforehand that they will read the whole book, demonstrate they read the whole book, and not necessarily give five stars. Nonetheless, I understand the argument that this type of organic partnership is not ethical either.
It All Depends on the Reviewer
Regardless of payment, a thoughtful, empathetic reviewer will generally write reviews that are useful and interesting. A lazy, unempathetic reviewer will offer little to no explanation, or they will conflate quality with how much they enjoy the book.
As for the ethics of payment, it’s about the specific case. Money itself is not the corrupting factor.
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