Interesting article from Edward Champion on Michael Hyatt’s recent Book Review Blogger Program, which gives people free books from Thomas Nelson Publishing in exchange for writing a 200+ word review: There’s no such thing as a free book. Champion argues that the program is inherently flawed:

While Hyatt’s marketing strategy appears to have yielded results, there remains the more troubling question of what this means for the blogosphere. Will Thomas Nelson stop sending books to those who write negative reviews? Will the publisher demand 400-word reviews a few months from now? Will other publishers begin setting more extraordinary terms for hotter titles? And, most importantly, will the blogosphere ever understand that surrendering to marketing forces simply isn’t a substitute for journalistic integrity?

Personally, I’m confused about why this is a big deal. Hyatt doesn’t require that reviews are positive. Instead, he says that reviews can be “positive, negative, or somewhere in between.” Don’t journalists get free books all the time for writing reviews? Why is this any different?