Paid Reviews Not Welcome in Valhalla

In today's Business Day section of the New York Times, an article told Todd Rutherford's story. Rutherford built a business, GettingBookReviews.com, by providing positive book reviews for a price. At its height, the business pulled in approximately $28,000 per month. Regardless of the book's quality, Rutherford and his minions always provided a positive and often stellar review. Perhaps it is simply a by-product of the information age. Consumers have massive amounts of information to digest and little time to do it. Rutherford and his ilk offer the equivalent of a digestiv to keep the consumer from getting informational indigestion. It is in fact a sugar-covered placebo luring the reader into a false sense of well-being. Over the last several years, we have seen investment banks, ratings agencies and government regulators offer dishonest assessments of economic instruments with catastrophic consequences. It is often tempting to cut corners, but we at Valhalla Press feel that markets depend on integrity, that what the seller tells the buyer is true, that the buyer knows that a review is coming from a disinterested third-party, not the writer's shady shill. Our policy is to immediately terminate our contract with any writer who pays for reviews. We owe the readers who purchase our books nothing less.

Contest News

Important Contest Update

As we are nearing the finish line for our first contest, we have a few important updates:

1. Every entry will receive individualized feedback on each submission by our judges. It’s the least we can do and is, frankly, our pleasure.  

2. Every entry that does not win one of the big prizes but which will be included in the first issue of Ragnarok will receive payment.  This is very different from the industry custom.  Frequently, writing contests offer publication to writers who don’t win the big prize, but don’t offer payment. We think this is wrong. If your work is selected for inclusion, you will receive payment of $25.

3. We will not be extending the deadline. We think that’s unfair to writers, who are expecting a decision. While deadline extensions are also an industry custom, it’s wrong and even a little insulting to those who have entered.  We give our prizes away on schedule.

If you have hesitated to enter, now there is even more reason to get your work in by the deadline, August 31, 2012.  If you enter, you receive:

Detailed feedback

Prompt prize payment if you win

Payment for your work if you don’t win but are selected for inclusion in Ragnarok