Mid East Women Writers

Kathy- Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting! Have a great week.

Karen- Thanks a ton Karen! I really appreciate the input and your kind comments. I really haven’t been sure about the snow. Personally, I like it too.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond to your previous comment.
It’s a bit complicated, but yes, as far as I understand, after taking me to federal court, they could fine me up to $16,000 per infringement. As far as I know, the issue is not so much with the book cover, but with posting an endorsement or positive review of an ARC or galley sent to me by a publisher, author, advertiser, etc…

Many book bloggers think it is a farce to have these guidelines applied to arts reviewers such as book bloggers because if we receive a copy of an ARC or galley from a publisher, we cannot resell the book. There is no resell allowed for ARCs or galleys because they are still subject to further editing and changes before the final copy of the book goes on sale. And yet, the FTC is claiming that the book sent for review is payment or compensation for a GOOD review, which I know is not true having read many negative reviews based on ARCs. I’ve also seen publishers and booksellers who send out ARCs that expressly tell bloggers they do not care if the review is positive or negative; they just appreciate someone being interested enough to read the book and post a review.

Also, there is the issue that bloggers who review books are being treated differently than reviewers at newspapers and magazines—even if the blogger is a journalist. Newspaper and magazine reviewers—including online ones—do not have to disclose that they were sent an ARC or galley by a publisher to read and review. This is silly in my view because you would think that the FTC would know that the line between newspaper journalists and blogger journalists is blurring fast—especially when so many bloggers are trained writers and journalists. And in my opinion, their arguments have not held up and only lead me to believe they don’t really understand the industry they are trying to regulate.

They are even trying to apply their guidelines to tweets. So if I tweet that I loved a book, and it was sent to me by a publisher who thought I might be interested in reading and reviewing the book on my blog, I would have to disclose that as well. If they really expect this, it would be helpful if they would set aside a short hashtag making it easy to disclose such information. And they really should come up with their own because many bloggers are resorting to their favorite one right now: #FUFTC

Many American book bloggers are also posting disclaimers on every post where they review a book or post some sort of endorsement like, “I loved this book!” to cover their own asses—even if they have borrowed or purchased the book themselves. Recently, on my reviews, I’ve started posting a short declaration as to the source of the book, as well as a link back to my review policy that includes a more general disclosure statement. However, since I had purchased all of the books on this post, it seemed easier to just disclose it at the end of the post.

The FTC has recently suggested they do not intend to go after bloggers, but instead to focus more on advertisers. However, that is not how it is written in the guidelines, and thus it makes bloggers like me a bit nervous.

It is a tricky subject. On one hand, I like that they are cracking down on people who write fake reviews for free products. Reviewers like that are misleading and make people who write honest reviews look bad. On the other hand, it seems like the FTC is going about it the wrong way. If they truly intend to go after advertisers and not bloggers, they need to write that into their guidelines.

OK. Rant over. Here are some good links, if you are still interested.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/ftc-bloggers/
http://www.edrants.com/interview-with-the-ftcs-richard-cleland/