Amateur book reviewers who are having their say on Amazon and online forums are giving professional reviewers a run for their money. And according to an LA Times article, some consistent consumer voices are receiving up to 60 free books a month to review.

Customer feedback is taken so seriously that even publishers are getting involved. Last October, HarperCollins started a monthly contest in the USA called First Look, which offered readers a chance to read and review the book before publication.

Parts of the amateur reviews are posted online with bona fide media critics’ blurbs, so Senior Vice President of electronic media Andy Khazaei says it’s hard to tell if they’re influencing sales. However, he concedes, “There were a couple of instances where I thought, wow, these reviews are saying this, maybe we should reconsider how we position a title.”

The President of the American Journalism Review says, “You have no real guarantee that the person is bringing any kind of knowledge or expertise to his opinion," but Amazon readers reckon the amateur reviews “come from the heart”, presumably uninfluenced by potential backhanders from authors or publishers.

There’s no way of knowing, of course, if it’s the author anonymously publishing his or her own review … and authors do confess to obsessively checking reviews on Amazon.

If you’re tempted, the NZ Book Council has conveniently posted an entry on its wonderful website “for anyone wanting to make a start, or improve their existing [reviewing] skills’.

29 March update: Thanks to reader and writer Kelly Ana Morey, (author of Bloom), who draws our attention to the NZ site www.book-club.co.nz, where aspiring reviewers can get jiggy, review, or just post comments.