Actually, I’m not quite as mad as Ed Champion after going over Reading Matters blogger Kim Bofo’s suggestion that book bloggers should tell people when they get free books. But I’m certainly not impressed with the idea, either. “When you read a newspaper’s book review section you pretty much know that every book that’s being reviewed has been submitted by the publisher for review,” she says, but since “as far as I’m aware” most bookbloggers are working from their personal collections, “when a blogger posts a review of a book that they received for free from a publisher, I personally feel that the blogger should make their readers aware of it.” She already does this herself, “in the hope that my readers can make up their own mind as to whether I’m being impartial or whether I might be peddling something to keep a publisher happy.”
Well, good for her for being so forthcoming, but the way I see it, it’s completely unnecessary—at a certain point, readers have to either trust that the writer/reviewer is sharing their genuine sentiments or stop visiting the blog. Bloggers don’t have to beg for your trust any more than “legitimate” book reviewers do…and, frankly, it’s insulting of Bofo to suggest that a blogger’s opinion could be “bought” for a couple hardcover novels.
“I don’t think it is any exaggeration to say that our credibility as book bloggers is at stake,” Bofo opines. Obviously, I think it is. In all fairness, she raises some legitimate points about marketing departments trying to game bloggers into mentioning promotional activities…but that’s entirely different from suggesting that somebody’s opinion about a book is by default not to be trusted if you don’t know how it came into their hands. And if you can’t tell the difference between somebody who’s genuinely passionate about a book and somebody who’s repurposing press releases, then frankly you’re probably not the most attentive of readers to begin with.