Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Hall of Shame: Elsevier and Elisabeth

I really try not to be judgmental, especially because I know there are always many sides to a story and the media usually spins things way beyond recognition. But today I can't resist pointing the finger of shame at two parties in the book publishing world:
  • Elsevier, which stands accused of offering $25 Amazon gift cards to anyone who would post a 5-star review of one of their books (see here). Sure, we've all wanted to encourage people to post reviews of our books on Amazon because it helps boost sales. Some publishers have gone so far as to send out free books and galleys to get the general public to do just that. But to dictate that it's a good review and to offer a bribe? For shame!
  • Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who stands accused of plagiarizing parts of her gluten-free diet book (see here). I spent one long maternity leave muting her empty-headed rants on The View. Looks like anybody can be an "author" these days. Give us a break. Her 15 minutes should have been up a long time ago.

Okay, I feel better now. I might just have to make this a regular feature on this blog.

2 comments:

Mark Roy Long said...

Yikes. Elsevier . . . talk about a marketing dept. scheme gone wrong. It's like what happened at Baylor University here in Waco a couple of years ago. The school was offering students already accepted bookstore vouchers (or something along those lines) to retake their SATs to try to raise the overall score of the incoming freshman class for PR/marketing purposes.

Anonymous said...

There is a group of us (~20 or so) who have been waiting for payment from Elsevier (with individual invoices totalling less than $1000 each- some only for $500) who have been waiting since Sept-Oct 2008 for payment. It's July 2009, and we're still waiting......