I go away to Portland (a beautiful city, btw, the Art Museum kicks ass and the Chinese Garden is most especially lovely and relaxing) and a new, unbelievably pointless brouhaha hits the litblogosphere. Other folks express their opinions more eloquently than I want or wish to, but I'd like to point out the following:
Moi: blogger, Baltimore Sun crime fiction reviewer, uses Amazon affiliate links
Dick Adler: Chicago Tribune mysteries & thrillers reviewer, paperback mysteries blogger, uses Amazon affiliate links
David Montgomery: Chicago Sun-Times crime fiction reviewer, blogger, uses Amazon affiliate links
In other words, as conflicts of interest go, whoop-de-freaking-do - especially since it's hardly an instance of "buzz marketing," as John Freeman puts it. I'd rather worry about making sure I don't review books by people I know well or something that actually constitutes a real issue here.
It's such a silly, non-issue. Of all the factors that I've considered over the years that might compromise my independence, Amazon affiliate links never even came up. Really, I can't imagine any critic who would be so craven that they could be corrupted by the tiny amounts of money we're talking about. What nonsense.
Posted by: David J. Montgomery | June 13, 2006 at 08:30 PM
The people you link to are nothing but a pack of commercially corrupt monsters who are destroying the sanctity of book reviewing!
And that Montgomery fellow is the worst of the bunch!
;-)
Posted by: John Rickards | June 14, 2006 at 05:28 AM
Plus, he's a witch! He turned me into a newt!
Posted by: Ray | June 14, 2006 at 08:49 AM
Oh goodness. Doesn't everyone know by now that reviewing books, blogging about books, and writing books is books is the clearest, sure fire way to become a millionare, retire and move to the south of France and that everyone involved in books is part of the evil capatalist empire?
Posted by: M.J | June 14, 2006 at 09:11 AM
Next up: authors who compromise their artistic integrity by accepting money for their work.
Posted by: Graham Powell | June 14, 2006 at 10:47 AM
Oh, this reminds me... Sarah, could you remind me when Cabana Boy fees are due? And are you still accepting PayPal?
Posted by: Duane Swierczynski | June 14, 2006 at 12:56 PM
Someone is feeling the competition?
The success of the blogs mentioned is due to their reputation of unbiased critiquing.
Posted by: Ingrid (I.J.Parker) | June 14, 2006 at 01:38 PM