The FTC Can Suck it

lol Sorry FTC. Do you know how much trouble you are causing? And well, after watching The Land of the Lost—a DVD I bought with my own money—where Dr. Rick Marshal (Will Ferrell) yells “Matt Lauer can suck it!” I couldn’t resist.

 

Anyway, for those who have no idea what I’m talking about concerning the FTC—read HERE.

 

Basically what the FTC is trying to do is bring transparency to the table. Now, hearing both sides of the argument, I think it has something to do with celebrities being paid to push products or others being paid to praise stuff that they were given—possibly giving them means to say good things.

You know I am sure we have all wondered if Oprah has really tried all those crazy diets. And I mean for more than a day mind you. Yeah, Oprah, just because you swallowed a spoonful of berries once or twice doesn’t mean you actually did the diet and had success.

And what about all those people raving about penis enlargers on their blogs? Did their penis really grow ten feet just by swallowing one pill?

 

But here’s the problem—book reviews. All over Blog-averse  people (book reviewers) are throwing up disclaimers just so they are not wrongfully sued or made an example of by the FTC. Now that’s what I want to talk about and explain because writers have it hard as it is. AND I do not want readers thinking that just because they read a Review (a good Review) of a book on the internet, that, that suddenly means the Reviewer was paid to say those things. Not so…

 

You have, out there, thousands and thousands of writers who are literally struggling. They can barely make the rent much less pay ten or more reviewers to read their books. I mean if you saw some of them dig in the sofa for coins just to send off a submission, you would grab the Kleenex.

If and when a writer has a book published, they are still a very small bleeding fish trying to survive in a gigantic pool of piranha. Not everyone receives advances and those who do aren’t running off to Macys to spend millions in diamond studded gowns. With that being said, every writer tries to advertise their work as many ways they can and as FREE as possible. The problem with that is, most writers are forced to do the same thing as all the other writers– only in an attempt to do something as different as they can. They use Blog, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Contests, Youtube when creating Book Trailers, Interviews, podcasts, and most importantly…have their book reviewed.

 

There are tons of sites out there that will review a book. In the circles of writers, some are very well known. Every site has its own guidelines concerning submissions but I can promise you this, every site has one thing in common—they Read and Review our work for FREE. And what do Writers silently agree on? We agree to take a chance.

There is a chance that someone will yell, “Hey Writer!!!Your Book Can Suck it!!!”

There is a chance that we will receive what we consider a great review only with some minor things the reviewer didn’t like, and that will in turn cause readers to X out the page and not buy our books.

There is a chance that 3 reviewers will rave our books and a chance that 1 big reviewer will crush us to dust.

There is a chance that offering our books up for reviews will kill us and a chance that we might sell one book out of 100 readers looking at the Review. (See small rewards for big chances taken)

Whatever our chance, I can promise you this…

Tomorrow, we will still be a bleeding fish in a pool of blood thirsty piranhas.

And I can promise you something else…

We, the writers, the true hard core, trying our damnedest to succeed in this business, don’t mind the slightly awful reviews. We want to better ourselves and in order to do that, we need the opinion of obsessed readers—and those are the reviewers.

 

However the point is this…just because a review site receives a book for free, does not mean that they are promising a dishonest and awesome review. If they like it, they say so. If they hate it…unfortunately they say so.

 

But how does a reader know whether or not to take a review seriously, especially when you are searching for new or not so well known writers? I mean the reader wants something fresh, right? They don’t want the New York Times telling them what a Best Seller is…*winks*

 

That’s easy.

 

A book will receive more than one review. Google it or check the author or publishers web site. They will list them. If you are worried that they are only listing great reviews…again…Google. Every book will have a mix of both or you will find critical sites that make a point to give you both. Search the archives of those sites. Are they madly in love with EVERY FREAKIN BOOK THEY READ?????? No? Yes?

 

The thing is, while the FTC may have a specific problem they are going after, some very small bleeding fish are going to get a new one ripped open from this…

That is, unless readers and people in general understand the in’s and out’s and why’s of all this.

And there you have it…hopefully you understand now…if not…

C.H. Scarlett can SUCK IT!!!! lol