Book reviews?

[bloggers]

(FLA) I would like to do brief summaries/reviews of books on my radio show and I'm wondering if there is anything I should be aware of before I commence?

My feeling is that reviews/summaries would have to conform to the same regulations as print reviews/summaries in terms of the amount of content one can quote. I am not interested in paying any royalties, and conceive of the spot as a bit like a book review in the NYT / Huffington Post / academic journals. I'm wondering if giving out an affiliate link on the broadcast to where people can buy the book would be problematic--or if we put an affiliate link for the books up on our station's website.

Thanks!

 

[quincy]

(FLA) I would like to do brief summaries/reviews of books on my radio show and I'm wondering if there is anything I should be aware of before I commence?

My feeling is that reviews/summaries would have to conform to the same regulations as print reviews/summaries in terms of the amount of content one can quote. I am not interested in paying any royalties, and conceive of the spot as a bit like a book review in the NYT / Huffington Post / academic journals. I'm wondering if giving out an affiliate link on the broadcast to where people can buy the book would be problematic--or if we put an affiliate link for the books up on our station's website.

Thanks!

You are correct that your on-air reviews must conform to the same laws that govern the writing of any book summary or review.

You must be aware of and comply with copyright laws. You can take a look at the following Stanford University site (http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html) for a good look at what might be considered a fair use of copyrighted material. Fair use, as an important note, is an affirmative defense to copyright infringement, and not permission to use another's copyrighted work.

You must also be aware of and comply with both privacy/publicity right laws and defamation laws (which vary by state).

It will be important for you to stick to facts (for example, the actual text) and pure opinion. You must be especially careful in how you handle the author and his/her reputation.

You can check out the Knight Community News Network website (http://www.kcnn.org), click on "modules" in the banner on the home page, and then scroll down to find the "Top 10 Rules for Limiting Legal Risk" module, produced by Geanne Rosenberg. The KCNN site is a good resource for all of those working in communications.

Good luck.

 

[bloggers]

Thanks very much for taking the time to share that Quincy. My aim is to provide a helpful overview of the work(s), so my critique will go no further than: 'Some readers might wish that (author) had explored (idea) in chapter 4 to a greater extent, but it opens up a new vista for discussion in the genre; I remember once (personal anecdote time)...and had I known about this idea, it would have saved me a lot of time and money.' That sort of thing.

Your point about author reputation and defamation is well taken though; standards of reasonableness vary by person, so I don't want to presume that what I think is a reasonable summary/review of material is what the law considers fair/reasonable.

Thanks again!

 

[quincy]

Thanks very much for taking the time to share that Quincy. My aim is to provide a helpful overview of the work(s), so my critique will go no further than: 'Some readers might wish that (author) had explored (idea) in chapter 4 to a greater extent, but it opens up a new vista for discussion in the genre; I remember once (personal anecdote time)...and had I known about this idea, it would have saved me a lot of time and money.' That sort of thing.

Your point about author reputation and defamation is well taken though; standards of reasonableness vary by person, so I don't want to presume that what I think is a reasonable summary/review of material is what the law considers fair/reasonable.

Thanks again!

You're welcome, bloggers.

I like your book review idea, and your plan to explore, and expand on, what is presented in a book.

Good luck.