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William Morrow sends a letter to reviewers that some might find to be out-of-bounds Larry Send a noteboard - 02/12/2011 02:02:52 AM
William Morrow recently sent a letter to reviewers that someone scanned and posted on Google Docs that said, among other things, the following:

Under the new system, you will no longer receive titles piece-meal. Instead, you'll receive 1-3 emails during the month with all of our upcoming titles available for your review, one month ahead of the on-sale date. You'll be directed to a Google form where you can request up to three of your choices. Of course, we'll still happily pay the shipping. Your job is simply to review the book within a month of receiving it and post your thoughts on your blog or site. Ideally, we'd like for reviews to appear online within two weeks to a month after the on-sale date, so you might keep this in mind when selecting books.

When you've reviewed a book you've chosen and sent us an email with a link to the posted review, you will be eligible for a free giveaway copy. Just let us know in the email that you'd like to host a giveaway. We'll pay for the shipping to the winner within the US and Canada.

Additionally, you'll no longer receive books that you didn't order. No more random books showing up on your doorstep! You'll only receive the titles that you want.

If it isn't already clear, WE LOVE THAT YOU LOVE OUR BOOKS! And to allow us to continue to offer free copies and free shipping to you committed book reviewers, we will be tracking how many reviews we receive from you. If we notice that you request books but aren't posting your comments or sending us the link, we may suspend your ability to receive review offers from us. We know you're busy bloggers – if you don't think you'll be able to post a review within a month, please pass on that offer so we can continue to offer you free books in the future!



Anyone else notice the reduction of what should be an independent, co-equal relationship between critic and publisher to a quasi-job relationship between employee and employer? Such nonsense convinces me further that I made the right decision to step away from soliciting review copies last year, as I couldn't stomach the thought of begg...err, asking for review copies with such conditions attached.

Thoughts?
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie

Je suis méchant.
Full opinion piece, with several links
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William Morrow sends a letter to reviewers that some might find to be out-of-bounds - 02/12/2011 02:02:52 AM 1620 Views
Sounds to me like he's tired of sending out free books to freeloaders. - 02/12/2011 03:09:33 AM 918 Views
There's more to it than that - 02/12/2011 03:25:39 AM 930 Views
Re: There's more to it than that - 02/12/2011 05:36:06 AM 809 Views
I elaborated in my comment to you below - 02/12/2011 05:57:01 AM 991 Views
I saw - 02/12/2011 02:51:53 PM 926 Views
I agree - 02/12/2011 05:01:13 PM 684 Views
Seems fine to me - 03/12/2011 11:51:23 AM 795 Views

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