Description

Online book club reaches out to book reviewers and offers them compensation for an honest review. I had never before accepted an offer because they required you to purchase the book on your own. This time, they offered $50 for an honest review of Patricia Skipper's "Deceptive Calm." I purchased a ~$3 digital copy, reviewed it everywhere required, and then they rejected my review with trumped-up complaints about misspelling (I said literarily and they sassed me for spelling literally wrong-- which I did not), refusing to type the N word as a white woman, and vague "does not meet standards." When I resubmitted my review and asked for clarification, they completely ignored me. Goodreads has dozens of complaints under Deceptive Calm from other readers who were tricked into buying and reviewing a book they never would have otherwise. I consider myself a professional reviewer; I wouldn't accept a job where I had to lie to get paid. They asked for honesty, they received it, and they refused to pay me for it.