Discussion Details
| Title: | RE: RE: Prices in Reviews (Reviews Team Response) |
| Submitter: | Mark Mandel |
| Description: | The Review Editors Team (23.4060) does not seem to have read the discussion of the current policy on including prices in reviews (23.3814, 23-4056), so I will summarize here in line: Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2012 13:26:31 From: Review Editors Team Subject: RE: Prices in Reviews (Reviews Team Response) The reviews team has discussed the proposal to include explicit information about pricing in book reviews, but we have decided not to change the current policy. Every review has a link to the publisher's book announcement right at the top, above the author and title of the book under review, so just one click provides that kind of baseline information. Well, two clicks. The most recent review -- 23.4069, Nana Xu on Tang (2012), Academic Writing in a Second or Foreign Language -- has a link to the LINGUIST announcement (23.1843). *That* page has a link to the publisher's announcement at the top as well as to the LINGUIST book information page at the bottom, both of which indeed show the price. The next newest review, 23.4039, is Lionel Mathieu's of Mark Sebba, Spelling and society, announced in 23.549. There, the only link at the top is to the publisher's home page. But that's almost immediately followed by the ISBN and pricing in US dollars and UK pounds. What was so hard about including that? (It's also at the bottom of the LINGUIST book page, which is linked at the bottom of the announcement.) Restating that information in a review might be convenient for a segment of our readership, but it would not be particularly helpful for others, especially international readers, since the prices are usually in U.S. dollars. Then adding it to the review is certainly no less helpful to them, and it would make it more accessible to all the readers. Furthermore, we would like to encourage LINGUIST readers to check prices and purchase books through the LINGUIST Amazon store: http://astore.amazon.com/linguistlist-20. (For more information about this, see http://linguistlist.org/amazon-faq.cfm.) By doing that you can support LINGUIST at no extra cost to you! And is it always just as easy for international (= non-US) readers to understand the prices there? to pay Amazon? to pay in US dollars? This is the first I've heard of the LINGUIST Amazon store... oh, right, there it is on the Read Issues page. By all means add the link to reviews if you wish to encourage readers to use it. But still: what's wrong with putting the information in the reviews? Sincerely, Mark A. Mandel |
| Date Posted: | 03-Oct-2012 |
| LL Issue: | 23.4117 |
| Posted: | 03-Oct-2012 |
