Another fee-based review service is operated by Foreword Magazine at #www.ForewordMagazine.com/ clarion#. An online review costs $305, and the company makes it available in key databases used by booksellers and librarians--Bowker's Books-In-Print online, Baker & Taylor's Titlesource 3, and Ingram's iPage.
Critics argue these paid reviews aren't read by consumers, and that their supposed target audience--booksellers and librarians--pay no attention to paid reviews.
"I feel that paying for book reviews is a bad idea," says self-publishing guru Dan Poynter. "There's a compromise there. And people can see right through it--they know it's a paid review, so it's an ad."
Jim Cox, editor in chief of Midwest Book Review, puts it this way:
Any reviewer that wants money from you for any purpose whatsoever is operating a scam, engaging in unethical behavior that is in violation of the publishing industry etiquette and norm.