Pre-packaged reviews

[Dave Rosenthal]

A publicist recently emailed me, wondering why I hadn't reviewed a book she had sent. She said: "I realize that you may have read the book, but don't have time to write a review so I've included some mock reviews below that you may find possibly fits how you feel about the book. Feel free to choose one if this helps."
Then she listed 10 blurbs, including: "Great page-turner! Couldn't put it down!"
At first, I thought it was a joke. Then I realized she might be serious, believing that I can't come up with my own cliches. So I'm wondering: Is it a joke? Or do these sorts of pre-packaged reviews come your way, too?

[haley mathiot]

ouch--true. add water and stir. what is the world coming to?

[Stacy-Deanne]

Hi Dave,

I'm an author not a reviewer but I must say that that person is VERY unprofessional and clueless! You don't send other reviews to reviewers like that! She was also begging, something that a true publicist shouldn't be pathetic enough to do. I would have thought it was a joke too or either the poor thing needs to research because she has no idea how to be a real publicist. My first thought was, was this HER book? She's acting like she's desperate, LOL!

Best Wishes!

http://www.stacy-deanne.net
Read Excerpt of Melody on My Page:

[Ray Melnik]

Hi Dave
That’s funny as h*ll. Amazing.

[Lexie]

well now go figure--she managed to alienate a whole host of people with her little paragraph! I mean if I was the author i'd be offended that she had so little faith in something I worked so hard on, if I was her boss I'd be embarassed to claim her as my employee, you were obviously turned off, all the folks writing here are turned off, and how much you wanna bet even more were turned off by your column?

::shakes head:: certainly wish I could influence that many people at once!

[Night Owl Reviews]

Wow - I've never heard of this before and surely would never have my reviewer’s use pre-done quotes provided by a publicist, author or publisher for their reviews. Reviews are supposed to be the readers thoughts and opinions...not someone else’s push for a book to be viewed as a page-turner etc.

It's my hope that when an author gives a quote that they have read the book or it's just false advertising in my opinion. At some point you just have to say I don't read those author quotes anymore because it's just for show and the quote pulled from a hat.

It gives review sites and author quotes a bad rap. When most reviewers and authors review for free. It's a real slap to the hard work that we do.

[Dave Rosenthal]

Amen

[Linda]

I wouldn't post a "canned" review, I also have never thought that I had to give a good review so that I recieve books. Absolutely not. I would give up reviewing if I though I had to write good reviews to get the books.

[Holly Lee]

This is totally scadalous! I wouldn't want to wrok with someone who sent me canned review ideas.

[haley mathiot]

oh my goodness! this is why the new law came out...... good grief. I never have gotten anything like this. Good thing, too, because if I did, i'd toss the book right out of my lineup. I'm not going to review a book that they expect fake reviews from.

Besides--I can come up with my own one-line blurbs if I want to ;)

[Dave Rosenthal]

I would have been less upset if the publicist had sent some original blurbs. But "page-turner" and "Couldn't put it down"? Please.

[Cheryl]

Wow. This is really bad on the publicist's part. She is pretty much hinting at you to write a good review for the book. I have never had this happen to me and if it did. I would never work with that publicist again.

[Elisabeth Wang]

You have got to be kidding!! That is horrible, though I guess I can't say I'm surprised. I guess my question is, "what's the point?" There are hundreds of us out there... what is she after? The ability to say X# of reviewers gave it a thumbs up?