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| Hearsay: |
The NBCC has conducted an interesting poll that’s yielded a trove of info on what people think about ethics in book reviewing. What we need now is some sort of manifesto built from this and laid down on the populace like a blast from a water cannon at a riot.
68.5 percent of book reviewers think anyone mentioned in a book’s acknowledgements should be barred from reviewing it.
64.9 percent think anyone who has written an unpaid blurb for a book should also be banned from writing a fuller review.
76.5 percent think it’s never ethical to review a book without reading the whole thing.
And 52 percent think it’s not okay for a book-review editor, in assigning books for review, to favor books by writers who also review regularly for that editor’s book section.
Yes, it’s time again for “The Ethics of Book Reviewing,” an old NBCC favorite. From the numbers above, book reviewers sound like quite an ethical bunch, no? Yet not everything seems clear to them.
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December 10th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
So, 31.5% — almost a third — of book reviewers surveyed think it’s ethical to review a book whose author has thanked the future reviewer in the acknowledgements?
23.5% — almost a quarter — think it’s at least sometimes ethical to review a book they haven’t finished reading?
I find this stunningly gross.
an infrequent, but ethical (and obviously naive), reviewer,
ZG
December 11th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Aw c’mon, Zsuzsi, all we’re doing is facilitating the sale of the things. Right?
December 11th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
As usual, I’m for flouting any and all rules. I’m all for extending creativity, changing boundaries, forgetting stuffy traditions, and letting the human heart in all of its glory and gory mess show through. The only rule should be that a book review be interesting, and I guess that the reviewer actually read the book.
Is it fear of nepotism? The world runs on that stuff. Makes it a bit tough for shy girls like me.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Dear ZW,
Well, like I said, me obviously naive.
Yeah, Of course I know we’re glorified copywriters, but a gal can try, right
December 12th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I like the publicity info that publishers hand out, ’cause then all I have to do is rephrase it “in my own words” and presto! instant review. I don’t think this practice was covered by the survey, so it must be ethical.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Skip the reviews. Borrow the book from the public library and form your own opinion.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
But if I borrow the book, then I can’t sell it afterwards, Frankie!
December 12th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
#
# Frankie the C says:
December 12th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Skip the reviews. Borrow the book from the public library and form your own opinion.
Hell yeah! Why would anyone look to critics to help narrow down what they might want to spend time reading when they can go out and buy and/or borrow all one thousand books that are published each month and form their own opinion!
I know I’ve got at least 100 spare hours a day to spend reading every book that gets published so I’ll have my own opinion. I’ll just slot that in right after I buy every album I might concievably like and watch every film that might possibly interest me!
December 12th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
ZW, if you’re buying books to read and sell later, you’re going to go broke very quickly.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Francis, I think he’s sarcastically referring to the skeezy, if anecdotally common, practice of reviewers hawking their assigned books for a little extra cash. I knew a guy who made a living off art books sent to him for review.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Ethically, book reviewers in this country should insist on being paid and paid promptly, in order to help raise the professional standards of certain Canadian review publicatons.
December 13th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
I agree, anonymous, Books in Canada has a terrible track record for paying their writers. Every other publication I’ve worked for has been pretty darn professional, tho.
What I’m wondering now is: Is it ethical to send a book back because it’s long?
December 14th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
ZW, if a book is too long, then the editors haven’t done their jobs and cut out enough text. Send the book back!