Would you pay for Advance Review Copies?

[Marty Shaw]

I recently found out an online magazine, Rumpus, is going to start a "fairly unique sort of book club" in June. For $25 a month, you'll be able to receive an unreleased book to read and review, and the best review of that book will be published on the site.

Personally, I'm not thrilled with this "unique" idea. Why are we paying for the honor of promoting an author's book to increase his/her sales in addition to providing free content for their site?

What do you think about it?

Source: Media Bistro

[Leslie]

Here's a recent article about Rumpus:

Online literary magazine Rumpus sows community

They are calling it a book club that cost $25 to join. Sounds like a one time fee. Not something I'd be interested in but I'm sure they will find people to join. I prefer to make my own choices on what books to read and review.

[Jen]

The best review gets published on their site....What do they mean by "the best review"? Hmmmmm..... Publishing "maybe" not so honest reviews while getting rich and free promotion... sounds like a shady politician to me.

[Edna Tollison]

I would not, when we recieve a book for review and we don't have to pay for it, then we are trading our services as reviewing their books on different sites and they can take the books off their income tax. So why would we pay for a book to give them the publicity for free and it would cost us. Noooooooooooo I would not and i want accept e-books either, not it the company furnished the e-reader for free the e-books may be ok, but I am not sitting at a computer reading a book. I love books and I have always read all my life and I am not 67, so I am set in my ways.

[Kaye]

That works out to $ 300 per year. No way am I spending that kind of money on books I can't even pick out. I can find a lot better ways of spending $300 than joining that "unique" bookclub. I can't imagine they'll get too many takers for that deal.

[Marty Shaw]

Well...it looks like Rumpus has started their "book club". For $250 a year ($25 monthly), you can get an ARC every month (that you don't choose) and, if you get the urge, you can send in a review. They will then choose the best review out of all the ones they get for that book and publish that one.

I still honestly don't see how this is a good deal. $25 a month for a book that I don't choose? I don't think people are that interested in ARC's, are they? There's no telling what might wind up in the mailbox....and while I might be wrong, I think there's a greater chance of getting a book on how to fertilize your lawn than there is of getting the latest James Patterson or John Grisham novel.

Here's their subscription page if you want to see the info:
http://therumpus.net/2010/06/the-rumpus-book-club-gift-subscription...