Thursday, October 29, 2009

Review Materials Disclosures

I just wanted to explain why I now have a compensation and source of materials disclaimer at the bottom of every review now.

The FTC in trying to crack down on bloggers who are paid to give good reviews to products. Inadvertently this affects book bloggers who receive materials from publishers and authors for review. Starting December 1st it will be required to discolse if a book was a free material.

For more info check out this link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33177160/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

My theory is that ARCs as being marked "Not For Sale" are not a compensation for reviewing the material, as they technically have no value. And since I give away all of my ARCs that is also one more thing in my favor. However, I have to put a disclaimer now on the source of my materials and stating that I don't get paid to give a book a good review.

BUT my opinion doesn't matter much. I will disclose when and where books were sent to me by publishers.

3 comments:

TerryLynnJohnson said...

I had started to this this on other blogs but did not know what it was all about. Thanks for clearing this up!

Write2ignite said...

wow. Thanks for the head's up. I just received a request to review a book a book (given to me by the author) so I'll need to review the new law. Again - thanks!

peace,
Donna

Aubrey said...

I don't think we need to worry too much. As long as the source is disclosed us book reviewers will be okay. The law was set up more to stop false advertising on blogs. But just to be safe, include that disclosure.