ForeWordreviews To Charge For Book Reviews

Posted on May 9, 2001

ForeWordreviews.com, founded by ForeWord Magazine and its publisher Victoria Sutherland, is a new service which charges for book reviews. The new service will charge $295 per review. ForeWordreviews.com has enlisted OverDrive Inc., an epublishing services provider, to handle the technical aspects of the website. The website will officially open next month during BookExpo America 2001. ForeWord Magazine will continue to provide reviews of independent press books seperate from the new website.

The company aims to capitalize on the growing number of self-published books, including ebooks and POD books, which have difficulty obtaining reviews -- or enough reviews. Potential problems with the service include whether or not publishers and authors are willing to pay for reviews and whether readers will trust paid-for book reviews. The company's goal is to review 1,000 titles each month by January 2002. Mary ``Dejah'' Tyler, of Clarksville, TN, is Chief Review Editor for the new venture. The company is currently looking for book reviewers.

Central to ForeWordreviews.com's initiative is its fee-based business model. ``The single most impenetrable barrier to the expansion of reviewing services in the publishing industry has been the cost of providing the service. In fact, in recent years, there has been a continued contraction of reviewing outlets, and an increasing focus on celebrity authors and established imprints,'' Sutherland stated.

For a fee of $295 per title ForeWordreviews.com's service includes professional consideration of the work by a reviewer, the rights to print the review in their own marketing/publicity efforts, lifetime archival of the complete review at forewordreviews.com, and distribution to licensees who post ForeWord Magazine's reviews. Ingram's iPage and Baker & Taylor's Title Source II have already agreed to expand their licensing agreements with ForeWord Magazine to include these reviews.