Chekhov’s Mistess

Get Rich Quick: Litblog Amazonia

SCMZZZZZZZ.jpg” style=“float:left;padding:0 5px 0 0;”/> The title of this post comes in part from James Marcus’s excellent memoir Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.com Juggernaut (full disclosure, not only is his book a fascinating picture of a particular slice in time, but I’m happy to call James a friend, despite his book being so good, and if you click on the link to buy it – and buy that or anything else at Amazon – I get a cut, which over the course of a year adds up to one or two free books for me, about 5% of my annual book purchasing not including all the free books that publishers send me in hopes that I will mention them on this site and create some buzz, which, I should mention, I do if I like the book).

It’s safe to say, like Jeff Bezos in the 90’s, but on a much much much much smaller scale, I’m all caught up in the Web and books and trying to make money. In my case it’s more like make a living instead of becoming a billionaire because whenever I play that “I won the lottery” game in my head I never know what to do with all the cash anyway (full disclosure: that’s a lie, I’m quite capable of spending a billion dollars, ask anyone who knows me).

If you haven’t guessed already, I’m writing in response to all the talk about conflicts of interest among lit-bloggers who advertise with Amazon links (you can get a rundown of the conversation at MetaxuCafé, which, I should mention out of fairness before you click that link, is a Website I run and sell advertising on). For a long time whenever I showed my blogs Chekhov’s Mistress or 400 WIndmills to anyone in my family to tell them how great it was that I write there and people read it, these well-meaning family members blurped “so how do you make money with that?” or “so how do you get paid?” You can imagine how irritating and deflating those comments were; “it’s about the writing,” I would say, “I love it.” And some would say, “If you could just get everyone to pay you a dollar (nickel or whatever) every time they visit.” If I had a nickel for every time I heard that!

Fast forward to now and the world is discovering that, like cable tv only better, blogs provide an outlet for people to read and converse about interests that are not necessarily covered in a meaningful way in the mainstream media. Blogs in general are becoming popular and litblogs such as mine are finding an audience, however small in terms of the big ol Web that may be.

The Economist wrote in 2003 (”Golden Blogs”) that “it [blogging] also creates small, tight groups of readers that could make ideal target audiences for advertisers. Like search engines, once considered loss leaders, there is therefore an opportunity for ‘monetising something cool’…”

I’ll add to that quote with something from John Freeman, a freelance book reviewer and the person who started this conversation on conflicts by saying “How can you actually claim to blog blindly if the chances are, a positive or salesworthy blog might generate some extra income?” In 2005, Freeman was on a panel on embargoed books at BEA. Here’s a snippet from my post on that panel:

Freeman, who as I said is a freelancer, showed a very pragmatic approach to book reviewing when he said that he felt his job as part of the publishing industry was to promote good books to readers. Reviewing, he indicated, was a part of a virtuous circle of writing, publishing, reviewing and reading. But, he said, the idea of embargoes made the process too “synchronized.” [Art] Winslow seemed to take issue with Freeman’s implication that reviewers were that close to publishers – he said it was not the job of a reviewer to promote books.

Okay, so reviewing is, according to Freeman, part of this virtuous circle of publishing and everyone along the way to the reader gets paid: the writer, the publisher, the reviewer. But bloggers don’t get paid. The others are professionals and they get paid so they can spend the time to keep doing what they’re doing. That’s what we all want.

I don’t think that Freeman objects to bloggers getting paid necessarily, but he is concerned with “synchronicity” and conflicts if your pay is too closely related to the thing you are supposed to be objective about. That’s fine, I like to think (not that I consider myself a book reviewer) that book reviewing is superior to the type of journalism you read in magazines that happen to be nicely timed with ads promoting the same product discussed (full disclosure: I say that with a teensy-weensie tinge of irony in my voice). But in the micro world of the blog, without a corporate infrastructure to put a barrier between the high-integrity reviewer and the wheels of commerce, where is the financial mechanism that will keep these ventures something that people like me can devote time to?

Some bloggers don’t make money with their sites. Some are personal outlets, many promote careers and books of their own, though that’s a form of payment, albeit one with more ambiguous conflicts. Some have argued that the numbers in terms of earnings are low, so it doesn’t really present a conflict. I disagree. Either it does or it doesn’t present a conflict and I think everyone who links to Amazon or another book affiliate program or sells advertising has to decide that for themselves.

Personally I’d be happy if I could make enough money with blogs that I didn’t have to do other things for a living (a stunning ethical capitulation!). It’s not about money, it’s about time. If I made money blogging about books I’d probably write a lot more – I’d take the time to dig into books to give them a thorough review. The funny thing is that right now I only write about books I like. Because I don’t get paid, I refuse to spend the time to read a book – no matter how important it may be – if I don’t enjoy it, so all my reviews are positive and thus promotional. So in my view, monetizing my blog writing would actually have the perverse affect of causing me to write more often and both about books I don’t like as well as those I do.

If the purpose of reviewing, as Freeman said, is to promote books to readers, then it is a fact of the Web’s efficiency that providing a link to buy the book is logical and expected. A bad review often generates interest in a book as well as a good one, so to my mind that link cannot present a conflict of interest – people may buy the book even if I dislike it because the very fact that I’m talking about it promotes the book – I’m free to be objective. Someone is going to buy the book and it might as well be through me. If that link helps, even in a small way, for me to keep on doing what I’m doing, to help perpetuate this conversation, then I’m all for it.

comments

Hi Bud,

Well, you’ve touched all the ironic, insanely reflexive bases here--touche! The idea that a blogger would cut critical corners right and left simply to earn $11.37 per year is DELICIOUS. The idea that print reviewers and editors operate in a squeaky-clean vacuum is also delicious. Also risible.

Your friend,

James

PS Remind me to send you a crisp five-dollar bill for putting the Amazonia jacket on your site.

    – James Marcu8s (06/13  at  05:16 PM)

I could have sworn we agreed on $10, James.

    – Bud Parr (06/13  at  07:10 PM)

Bud, I don’t have ads on my blog, but I would like to sell out to evil corporate interests at their earliest convenience.

    – David Thayer (06/15  at  06:45 PM)

It’s an interesting debate—not so much the amazon affiliates question on its own, but the larger issue of corporate connections between advertising, promotion, and reviews in a variety of forums. I appreciate you placing the former in the context of the latter in this thoughtful post.

    – Kate S. (06/19  at  07:59 AM)

While I don’t have anything to add to the many eloquent posts regarding Freeman’s accusations, I do want to point out something that I feel has been overlooked a bit: the mere fact that litblogs are joining the Amazon associates program at all. As a member of the American Bookseller’s Association, I know that Amazon’s dominance in the marketplace has been a growing concern for many years. There is a real concern that the independent bookstore is disappearing from the American landscape. Litbloggers, of all people, could be at the forefront of this issue and one way to support the independents is to join either the Booksense associates program, or Powell’s, or The Tattered Cover’s.

    – renee (06/23  at  05:46 PM)

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: June 13, 2006
• Filed Under:
  Litbloggers & Blog Floggers

• Comments:5
• Links to this Post: Technorati

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