The Federal Trade Commossion has issued new guidelines about book bloggers. Apparently, if I review a book and don’t tell you that I received it for free, I could be fined up to $11,000!

$11,000. For a book review.

Now, I do understand the motivation behind this. There are some powerful blogs (the examples I’ve read about are mostly mommy-blogs) that endorse consumer products and there have been some concerns that they do not reveal that they are paid by the manufacturer or given free products. I can see why that would be a concern.

You will notice that at the bottom of my reviews, I always tell you if the book was an Advanced Reader Copy (those are the ones the publishers send out for free) and give you a link to buy it online. That should keep me in the clear. But just to be sure, I guess I will have to BE VERY CLEAR when I review a book. Because no free book is worth an $11,000 fine.

You can read of my comments at When Falls the Coliseum.