GM Dianne! First, the Pomogical video is gorgeous! And the five women mentioned produced seriously stunning botanicals—what inspiration. All of the art is sublime. I'd love to see the collection in its entirety in person.
To answer your questions. I'm not bothered about the free product mentions. In fact, I respect the mention and think it's necessary. And yes, I'm aware of the publishing industry practices.
Great stuff in this letter. Thanks! Happy November.
Great post (as always!). Interesting topic. I have to admit that I never feel uncomfortable about mentioning when I've received a book as a gift. But then again, I don't do straight reviews. Like you I get approached by authors all the time about sending me their cookbooks. 90% of the time I say no thank you. Mostly because I know I will never cook from the books so don't want them to spend the money sending me a copy of a book that I will eventually get rid of anyway. At the other end of the spectrum are books I'd truly like to read and cook from , but the publishers will only offer a digital PDF copy, which I find incredibly awkward to deal with. In that case I usually end up simply buying the book myself. It's all a changing landscape in publishing, and I appreciate you keeping us all up to standards!
Yes, it is indeed awkward, but I think it's only correct. Folks like us, with newspaper backgrounds, should set a model for all those others who happily accept--nay solicit!--products to "review." I note that Val Monroe always includes a statement on her substack posts to the effect that she does not get paid in any way for the products she endorses--good practice!
Yes, I prefer the transparency. As someone who reviews items it helps give clout to say you were sent an item, as in my opinion means something. I’m now sending out my second cookbook 😀 and I have instructions to be honest and disclose it was sent. As much as negative reviews are not fun to read they can also steer the audience toward or away from a product that is or isn’t for them. I’ve read plenty of cookbook reviews for my special diet where the negative ones are mostly from people who don’t follow that diet.
Oh my gosh - I don't think I ever realised this! I come from print and publishing as well, and we would review submissions all the time without ever actually stating it had been sent to us. It think it was just assumed a book or video had been sent in. What a crazy world!!!
Hey Diane, yeah, I know all of this is annoying. I hear you, that we all have hoops to jump through for seemingly everything. What about if you use a hashtag like#freebook or #review? What about if you put something at the top of your posts like we do as food bloggers about affiliate link but instead you say you might have received the book for free. You could explain because you’re in the business, publishers send you books all the time it’s a normal practice?
Oddly, if the article first appears in print you don’t need to. So I try to run reviews in my newspaper column and then share on social media. If that’s not possible I just include a note the book was provided to me. I dislike the #ad hashtag for the same reasons you mention so I try to work it into the copy or a note at end of post
Anytime you get anything for free and you review it you need to disclose it. This isn't a bad thing and is honestly overdue. Youtubers are notoriously bad at this and you wonder why all of the reviews of a certain companies products are positive and then you realize that company is supplying them. If they give out bad reviews the free products worth thousands of dollars stop coming... I like to know.
I wouldn't think that you receiving a complimentary book would affect your honest review. So, disclosure seems irrelevant but maybe I don't understand the issue. I would think that readers would be looking to your integrity and reputation.
This is news to me ... important information for sure! When I taught college courses, textbook companies sent me desk copies of as many books as I requested. Many of them were very good, and I let my students know that. How is this different?
Your reading list choices are the perfect ingredients in a recipe for the rest of my year!
GM Dianne! First, the Pomogical video is gorgeous! And the five women mentioned produced seriously stunning botanicals—what inspiration. All of the art is sublime. I'd love to see the collection in its entirety in person.
To answer your questions. I'm not bothered about the free product mentions. In fact, I respect the mention and think it's necessary. And yes, I'm aware of the publishing industry practices.
Great stuff in this letter. Thanks! Happy November.
Great piece, as always. Thanks for shouting out my Food & Wine article. Working with you gave me the confidence to make the pitch!
Great post (as always!). Interesting topic. I have to admit that I never feel uncomfortable about mentioning when I've received a book as a gift. But then again, I don't do straight reviews. Like you I get approached by authors all the time about sending me their cookbooks. 90% of the time I say no thank you. Mostly because I know I will never cook from the books so don't want them to spend the money sending me a copy of a book that I will eventually get rid of anyway. At the other end of the spectrum are books I'd truly like to read and cook from , but the publishers will only offer a digital PDF copy, which I find incredibly awkward to deal with. In that case I usually end up simply buying the book myself. It's all a changing landscape in publishing, and I appreciate you keeping us all up to standards!
Disappointing news re Substack. It makes me wonder if there's any platforms that haven't, or will not, be compromised like this.
Yes, it is indeed awkward, but I think it's only correct. Folks like us, with newspaper backgrounds, should set a model for all those others who happily accept--nay solicit!--products to "review." I note that Val Monroe always includes a statement on her substack posts to the effect that she does not get paid in any way for the products she endorses--good practice!
Yes, I prefer the transparency. As someone who reviews items it helps give clout to say you were sent an item, as in my opinion means something. I’m now sending out my second cookbook 😀 and I have instructions to be honest and disclose it was sent. As much as negative reviews are not fun to read they can also steer the audience toward or away from a product that is or isn’t for them. I’ve read plenty of cookbook reviews for my special diet where the negative ones are mostly from people who don’t follow that diet.
Oh my gosh - I don't think I ever realised this! I come from print and publishing as well, and we would review submissions all the time without ever actually stating it had been sent to us. It think it was just assumed a book or video had been sent in. What a crazy world!!!
Hey Diane, yeah, I know all of this is annoying. I hear you, that we all have hoops to jump through for seemingly everything. What about if you use a hashtag like#freebook or #review? What about if you put something at the top of your posts like we do as food bloggers about affiliate link but instead you say you might have received the book for free. You could explain because you’re in the business, publishers send you books all the time it’s a normal practice?
Oddly, if the article first appears in print you don’t need to. So I try to run reviews in my newspaper column and then share on social media. If that’s not possible I just include a note the book was provided to me. I dislike the #ad hashtag for the same reasons you mention so I try to work it into the copy or a note at end of post
Anytime you get anything for free and you review it you need to disclose it. This isn't a bad thing and is honestly overdue. Youtubers are notoriously bad at this and you wonder why all of the reviews of a certain companies products are positive and then you realize that company is supplying them. If they give out bad reviews the free products worth thousands of dollars stop coming... I like to know.
I wouldn't think that you receiving a complimentary book would affect your honest review. So, disclosure seems irrelevant but maybe I don't understand the issue. I would think that readers would be looking to your integrity and reputation.
This is news to me ... important information for sure! When I taught college courses, textbook companies sent me desk copies of as many books as I requested. Many of them were very good, and I let my students know that. How is this different?