Can I recommend books on my website?

by **ManOfSuccess** on Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:38 pm

I'm currently in the process of designing my own website advertising my services as a success coach.

I want to include a section on it with some recommended books to read. Maybe even a small picture of the book.

Is this copyright infringement or is it just me being slightly paranoid!

Please let me know if this is acceptable. I envisage there to be 4 or 5 recommendations.

Thanks

by **tutanhamon** on Mon Jul 11, 2011 4:54 am

Hello from Minsk, Belarus. I'll be happy if you do this (I mean including some pdf-books) because it' s easier for me to read than comprehend english texts by ears. Sorry for my bad English. Good luck !

by **Beagle Scout** on Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:08 am

Absolutely, it's not copyright infringement unless you offer links to download (from Rapidshare, Megaupload, BitTorrent, etc.). I'm sure that the publishers and authors would be more than happy for someone to recommend their products!

Posting a paragraph excerpt is not infringement either, as it comes under the Fair Use doctrine of works used "for nonprofit educational purposes" and limits "the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole" to a very small piece. Reviewers do this all the time, whether professional (as with things like Publishers Weekly and The New York Times Book Review) or amateur (like on Amazon or GoodReads), or with literary criticism, as you do in school when writing a research paper (*gag*). All that is important is that you give credit where credit is due -- i.e. don't pass the book off as your own (you can't say "Check out my new book "Chicken Soup for the Soul") or worse, not include any credit at all. (A well-established work or author might be much harder to pass off as your own or not give credit to, but it's still important nonetheless.)

My advice is as follows:

1. Familiarize yourself with the Fair Use Doctrine (under U.S. copyright law) and/or similar statutes in other countries. The Canadian office might have different wording or terms than the U.K. or U.S., and so on. I would say to become acquainted with the terms of other types of licenses too, such as Creative Commons, the GPL (GNU Public License, usually used for open source software), and Public Domain. A couple of starting points are in the links below. But overall there's no problem with reviewing books and including cover art. Just make sure you also get the cover art from a reliable, official source (the publisher or book's site itself or an authorized seller like Amazon, B&N, AbeBooks, etc.), and not Google Images.

2. This is optional, but advisable. Why not make at least a few bucks off the sale of books your readers might buy? Use the Amazon Affiliates program to earn a percentage of sales from links leading to the titles you recommend. Might be worth it to start an Amazon list or something, maybe post a few reviews on the site or elsewhere, just so people can be aware of your enthusiasm about the work(s) in question. To confirm a trust relationship with your website readers, make sure you issue full disclosure that clicking the Amazon links on your site will offer you a commission. I'm not sure if Barnes & Noble or the now-defunct Borders have something similar, but worth looking into anyway. If you go the optional additional route of reviewing on Amazon proper, you might want to say something like "this is why [book] is in my recommendation list on my page xyzsite.com" in your Amazon review or something. That way not only is there a covering of more bases regarding disclosure but people who arrive at the book's page via Amazon (and not by the link) might want to visit your site. It works as free advertising and there's no real conflict of interest, unlike, say, if Tony Robbins was offering you $1,000 to review Ultimate Edge. You'd still have to say that Tony gave you a grand, but there's less speculation that your review/recommendation itself is a "work for hire."

Who knows, there might be more recommendations someday!

Here are the links for more info.

U.S. Copyright Office: Fair Use Doctrine

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Creative Commons: FAQ (full)

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Creative Commons: FAQ (abbreviated; aka "frequently frequently asked questions)

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Creative Commons: Description of Licenses

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Creative Commons: Public Domain

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GNU Public License (GPL): Overview, FAQ, descriptions

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Amazon Help: Listmania Lists

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