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Reviewing books.

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yasminandersonposted 4 years ago
Hiya,

I just signed up to Hubpages today (because I only just found it!) and I'm looking to start reviewing books on here. I was going to start with a few of my favourites simply because I think they're a good place to really get my creative juices flowing, then I'd want to move onto more unknown books, or books that I wouldn't usually look at and say "Oh, I'd like to read that."

I wanted a little bit of help with a couple of things, if that's okay?
1. I wanted to be 100% sure I won't be breaking any copyright laws by reviewing a book (it will be all my own opinions and writing).
2. Can I post pictures of the book cover? Do I have to contact someone about this?
3. If the book is having a movie adaption done, and I mention it, do I have to reference where I got this information from?

Thank you loads in advance! :3
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psycheskinnerposted 4 years ago
No you wont
Yes you can
and no you don't have to
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1. 60
  yasminandersonposted 4 years agoin reply to this
  Thank you!
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JessBrazposted 4 years ago
Hello yasminanderson! Welcome to Hubpages!

You've come to the right spot to find answers, the forums here on HP are a great way to connect with fellow Hubbers. There are a lot of experienced writer's on here who are always willing to provide advice and tips..

I am a huge bookworm myself! I look forward to checking out some of your reviews.

As far as your questions:
No.. simply writing about a book and giving your opinion of it does not violate copyright laws. However, be careful not to copy & paste text from the book (ex. "I loved this book.. I think you'll love it too! Here's the first five pages of Chapter One!....."... Can't do that. .. But you're absolutely welcome to write your own personal opinions about the story, how it is structured, your view of the characters, etc. etc.

No, if you know the book is coming out as a movie in the future, you don't have to tell us exactly how you know that. Most times, if a book is coming out into a film version, it's usually common knowledge. Unless you have some amazing private source who may you require you give them credit for giving you a scoop.. But otherwise, no, you're safe on that front.

As far as posting images of the book covers themselves, yes you can and no you can't. lol. It depends on where and how you obtained the cover image. Book covers are usually considered "fair use" when it comes to book review sites/blogs.. However, if you've obtained the photo from someone else's blog, you need to either get permission (if they don't state that it's free for other people to use on their sites) or make sure you provide the proper credit (if they state you can use the photo's, with credit given.)

The trick with book cover's is that even though a book cover may be considered "fair use"- the actual photograph itself that you find online, might not be. Example: If the cover for Catcher in the Rye is considered fair use... but if I took a photograph with my camera of my copy of Catcher in the Rye and posted it to a blog, then even though the content of the photo (the book cover) is fair use, I own the actual photograph... It's a big confusing. lol.

Your best bet would be to try and find photographs of book covers via flickr (Fellow hubber Marisa Wright has a great tutorial on how to find photo's on flickr to use in your hubs... Check it out here:
http://marisawright.hubpages.com/hub/Ho … -Your-Hubs

Or, you can check out:
http://bookcoverarchive.com/
They've got 1000s of book cover images.. However, I couldn't find any info on their site about whether it's legal to use their book cover images.. You can always send a quick email to the website admin's and they can tell you whether it's safe to use them or not.. And maybe even direct you to a source that provides public domain photo's of all your favourite book covers.

A few things in the learning centre that might be beneficial for you to check out:
HP Guide to Proper Image Use:
http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/legal-image-use

HP Guide to Earnings Programs (which includes the Amazon program. If you plan to write a lot of book reviews, I highly suggest you learn all you can about the Amazon Affiliate program)
http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/hubp … am-and-ads

I hope I didn't overwhelm you too much.

Again, welcome to Hubpages and best of luck with your book reviews!

Cheers,
Jess.
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psycheskinnerposted 4 years ago
A book cover is produced for the purpose of promoting the book. I have trouble thinking of a case where it would not be fair use to reproduce for the purpose of a book review.

I must have posted book reviews with covers over a thousand times on my blogs. One one occasion the publisher told me to take it down, I invited them to sue me over it, which unsurprsingly--they did not do.
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yasminandersonposted 4 years ago
Thank you so much for the info, off to write my first review now :3
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lovebuglenaposted 4 years ago
You can definitely review books on this site. I've done it and others have done it as well. If you write a summary of the book write it in your own words and not from the book description on amazon because then you'd be copying content and that isn't allowed. If you use images of a book cover that you obtained online make sure to say the source where the image came from and make sure you are allowed to use the image before using it in your hub. If the book is being adopted into a movie you can share it in your hub with no issues. Happy book reviewing.
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Beth37posted 4 years ago
Darn, I thought this was going to be a thread about our own book reviews. I think I will start that thread now.
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  yasminandersonposted 4 years agoin reply to this
  Sorry! In hindsight I probably should have put a little more info in the title...
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