I created a little post about the FTC just a little while ago, and it spread like wildfire and increased my hits tremendously, how awesome is that? Within the span of an hour there were 100 pageviews on that post alone. There is some disagreement over the term book blogger versus advertiser versus reviewer. Jenn’s Bookshelves said not to worry at all, as this is not related to book reviewers – so I had to create this public service announcement!!!
Before pandemonium ensues because of my alarmist nature, I want to make sure that everyone who possibly has decided to give up their reviewing career because of my post – egads, please reconsider!!!
On the FTC website you can search for ‘book blog’ and nothing – nada – comes up. So does the FTC care about book bloggers at all? What’s all the fuss then, right?
(Except all the publicity companies I review for state : “To comply with new regulations introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, please mention as part of every Web or retail site review that the publisher has provided you with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy through __”). or
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Checking out the Twitter feed from some of bloggers concerning this FTC dot com thing: “I see reviews as reviews, not advertisements.” So who knows who is right and who is wrong, but obviously there is zero need to panic about how you run your blog! As I initially said, it’s interpretation of the law and for the past year I have indeed considered myself a review robot and have complained about it many times that I really feel like I have somehow found myself in a marketing business that is unpaid! There’s the kicker, it’s UNPAID! So the FTC Guidelines wouldn’t apply to us. And no, all my books are not only galleys. I do receive actual copies at times that are able to be sold, traded in or gifted, so that is indeed compensation. Or isn’t it? I just got a horrible book yesterday in the mail that I would not want in my house, so it’s going on Paperbackswap! Credits for me!
I am thinking perhaps it is time to move away from my reviewing and write more of those posts to increase traffic to my blog! It will help hone my writing technique, and also increase traffic, and perhaps with your comments you can educate me on these finer points of book blogging! (Did you know that I want to be a writer one day? I wonder, does writing blog posts make me a writer? What’s the consensus on this?)
On another note, these conversational posts always attract the most comments. While my reviews may get tons of hits, the comments are where we interact with each other and have fun with each other. That is what I LOVE about the book blogging community, they are so warm and fuzzy and so helpful. On twitter, there were many reactions to my FTC post, especially the ones where they are talking about misinformation. Editorial and opinions are my interpretations, maybe I could start writing for Huffington Post… this reminds me of when an author there posted an article about touring around the blogosphere and he was so displeased with how bloggers write. He got tons of hits there, and I bet you tons of folks took a look at that book he was marketing.
Do you get the most comments on your review posts or on your opinion/free-style posts? Oh and another question I’ve had.. there is this term floating around, I think it originated with NetGalley’s how-to handbook actually…
“Professional Reader”… is this a term that as a reviewer you apply to yourself? Is there such a thing as a professional reviewer if you are NOT paid an hourly wage to review?
BurtonBookReview.com
Burton Book Review 
Awesome, Marie! You really should start writing strictly editorials/opinion pieces. *wink*
Yup, my reading would suffer, as this whole time I could have been reading!! But I wrote, so does this make me a writer?
I think you would lose a lot of readers if you went to doing opinions,etc and backed away from reviews. I should note that most book bloggers do note in the title of the post if it is a giveaway and that should be enough and quite honestly most people won't follow it to the letter of the law, as long as they are somewhere telling people where they got the book.
Truthfully, I will be reviewing for as long as I read, and for as long as I can hang in the book blogosphere if I feel like it. I mostly hang on Goodreads. The difference in my Reviews will be the Source. I am stepping away from the review copies provided for free because it has lost its luster. Being on a marketer's schedule is a downer, and I'm tired of it. I do feel like an advertiser, since that is all I do at times, advertise the new releases with my reviews that are scheduled according to tour companies' guidelines. =)
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I know where you are coming from; I do reviews for fun and therefore don't want to be pressured into reviewing something within a limited time frame.
I enjoy your opinion posts, Marie. I say keep writing them. I think you're right that those kind of posts get more comments.
It's funny, I've been thinking this week about how I'm getting burned out with writing reviews — not for actual review copies, but any books I read. I even read a great one recently that totally surprised me as to how much I enjoyed it, but I haven't been able to muster up the desire to actually post the review.
I was even thinking about blogging about this today, so I won't keep going on here, haha.I do think opinion posts are nice, and I was thinking about trying to do more of those on occasion, but even with those I'm not always feeling inspired. (So I may be hitting some blogging burnout, uh oh…). Anyway, I wouldn't step away from reviews TOO much (after all, I do look to you for opinions on a lot of books!), but I do enjoy seeing opinion posts (from any blogger) from time to time.
Thanks Melissa! I think with my personal blogger burnout it stems from what I see happening on the web with others, such as when some folks think they are the end all to be all..lolI can get so frustrated and fed up with people that I walk away and quit "that relationship." It happened with family, Dr Pepper, authors, and someday it will happen with blogging… but will it happen with REVIEWING first? But I have refrained from "personal" posts merely because my husband would kill me.I need to find a happy medium!
LOL – Hey, NetGalley says I am a "Professional Reader" and even gave me a blog badge that says so. Are they setting me up for FTC problems down the line? Bwahahaha. Don't fall for the burnout from cliques….by now, we both know better than that and learned the hard way, right? Just keep on keeping on. Oh, and the Unfollow Button is the nicest thing to push sometimes!
Absolutely true about that Unfollow Button. But I like to stalk people bwahahaha and know what they are doing so I can laugh.