Caught in the Act: Elsevier Offers $25 Gift Card for 5-Star Reviews

Inside Higher Ed is reporting that Elsevier offered $25 gift cards for 5-star reviews on Amazon and Barnes & Noble to contributors of the publisher's new title, Clinical Psychology (On Amazon, note the 1-star review calling attention to the marketing scheme).

Elsevier's email:

Congratulations and thank you for your contribution to Clinical Psychology. Now that the book is published, we need your help to get some 5 star reviews posted to both Amazon and Barnes & Noble to help support and promote it. As you know, these online reviews are extremely persuasive when customers are considering a purchase. For your time, we would like to compensate you with a copy of the book under review as well as a $25 Amazon gift card. If you have colleagues or students who would be willing to post positive reviews, please feel free to forward this e-mail to them to participate. We share the common goal of wanting Clinical Psychology to sell and succeed. The tactics defined above have proven to dramatically increase exposure and boost sales. I hope we can work together to make a strong and profitable impact through our online bookselling channels.

George Tremblay (Antioch University) and a contributor to the work emailed his friends and colleagues his response to the offer:

As a contributor to an Elsevier textbook, I received the invitation ... You might want to reconsider any weight you accord to those Amazon reviews, considering the probability that at least some of them are being bought. I told them this one backfired, as I'd be forwarding it to a listserve of academic psychologists -- the very potential audience for the book (which I hasten to add, I actually do hope will succeed, but Elsevier should be ashamed of themselves).

Of course, Elsevier is now distancing itself from its stealthy marketing promotion. [JH]