Honesty

Suggested by JM:

I receive a lot of review books, but I have never once told lies about the book just because I got a free copy of it. However, some authors seem to feel that if they send you a copy of their book for free, you should give it a positive review.

Do you think reviewers are obligated to put up a good review of a book, even if they don’t like it? Have we come to a point where reviewers *need* to put up disclaimers to (hopefully) save themselves from being harassed by unhappy authors who get negative reviews?

I do not think a reviewer is obligated to put up a good review of a book if he/she does not like it, no matter if it is a free copy or not. If the reviewers are always giving good reviews, then what is the point of writing reviews in the first place? A good reviewer writes in a constructive manner, but this does not mean he/she is slamming the author in a negative way. Reading is a subjective matter and anyway, readers are entitled to their own opinions.

At this point, I do not feel a need to put up a disclaimer since I always try to make an effort to write reviews in a constructive manner. Most of the times, I will ask the authors to send me a synopsis of their books (or I visit their websites to check on them, if any) so that I can make a decision whether or not if I want to review them.