Hmmm. This piece in the NY Times is very interesting to me as a writer and occasional reviewer of books.
Thanks to Derek Blass for pointing it out to me. The question for everyone is “What is a review worth?” and “Should reviewers be compensated for their time?”
… Would love your comments!! Enjoy!
Andy Holloman - Dad, Writer, Goofball 
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be compensated for one’s TIME. I’ve been asked, in the past, to review some truly awful books. To be honest, I’ve not even been able to make myself read them. I probably would need to be paid to do so.
But writing a false review, whether you’re paid or not, is unethical.
If a reviewer accepts money to review a book, they should a) only be promising, in return for the money, to take the time to read the book and write a review, but NOT promising what that review says and b) should disclose that they are paid to read the book/write a review. If it was me, I would also add ‘but I do not not guarantee a good review’, because after all what you want to make clear is WHAT you are paid for, not just the fact you are paid.
Thanks for posting this. It was very eye-opening. I passed it along to my writer’s critique group.
I came across this link through twitter from another person. As a book review blogger myself (as a hobby not a profession, for free), I find it disgusting that people are giving money for reviews. It totally crosses reviewer’s ethics. If I charged $99 dollars for each review, I’d give everyone a five star glowing review too. But how would one tell the real, honest reviews from the fakes? And who would trust you? It also gives other book review bloggers a bad name because then they think it’s okay to start charging for reviews, and it gives authors the right to think that reviewers can be bribed. Not everything can be marketed. Who would you trust more? Someone who was paid, or someone who wasn’t?
Oh heck, I’m always late to the party. 😦 A few months ago I could have bought my way to the top by selling myself as a party girl reviewer at the same time … Now I’ll just have to continue on being the honest person I’ve always been, and begging for reviews like everyone else I know.