There’s more drama spilling out in the bookish world (as always), and this time it’s come in the form of The Skimm’s new self help book, How to Skimm Your Life.
The Skimm is a brand you may have heard of — they distribute a newsletter that sums up news headlines in bite-sized pieces with snarky headlines. They are essentially a newsletter marketing service.
As a brand, they’re big among the New York City young, female professional set. It’s a company that’s raised many multi-million-dollar rounds of venture capital.
On June 11, they released a book full of advice for women. The Washington Post seems to think it’s insultingly basic advice, but I haven’t read it yet, so won’t comment.
But that’s not what people are mad about.
Plagiarism?
The gossip started percolating through their Goodreads page. A user noted that a lot of the information that ended up in the book was basically a rehash of information that a brand ambassassador (i.e. a fan, not someone who works for them) posted to their Facebook page.
I haven’t seen either (a) the book or (b) this Facebook post, so initially, I wasn’t too concerned since I didn’t really have enough information to judge either way. But if it’s true, that’s extremely lame. Even if the brand ambassador has no legal claim (you can’t copyright ideas, only the expression of it), it’s still sketch.
And there’s more.
Fake Reviews for How to Skimm Your Life
Right now, the Skimm has a 4+ rating on Goodreads, which seems to indicate that despite the (maybe) plagarism, it might be a decent book. However…
Multiple people have reported that The Skimm asked their army of Skimm’bassadors (what they call their brand ambassadors) to write reviews of the book even though they hadn’t been given a chance to read it yet. Which is pretty skeezy and unethical, obvs.
The whole topic of fake reviews has been bothering me more and more, since I find that I’m increasingly skeptical of early reviews of books. I know a vast majority of people on NetGalley try to be honest, but I think there is some pressure to write good reviews. It’s gotten to the point where I sometimes wish ARC’s weren’t a “thing”, which I know is probably heresy in the bookish world.
That said, authors actively asking people to write fake reviews is so much worse.
Oh, also there’s the whole racism issue
And then as a fetid icing on this shit cake, a number of the Skimm’s ambassadors have been reporting that they refuse to moderate racism in their Facebook group, which is just another reason in the mounting pile of reasons not to buy their book.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the tea, and I’m thinking this book will be a definite skip for me. Even if the advice were good (which WaPo says it’s not), would you consider buying it? I can’t decide which one of these things is worse.
As a sidenote, I’m not a huge fan of people indiscriminately calling each other out on the internet (bloggers to other bloggers, bloggers to indie authors, etc.).
But the Skimm is a company worth somewhere in the 50-100 million dollar range. So I’d consider it fair game.
What do you guys think? Do you have more tea to spill when it comes to How to Skimm Your Life? Drop a comment below or shoot me an e-mail!
I’ve not heard of the Skimm. Maybe that seems odd to many but then my head is always buried in a book, frantically reading to catch up on my review list.
This is because, you know,….I actually read every book I review! So, I am pretty much appalled by their review tactics and in light of the other allegations about them, I would not buy the book nor support them in any way.
Haha I think I tend to assume that people have heard of the things I’ve heard of, which is clearly not always the case. Yay for people who write legitimate reviews! :)
The ONLY reason I even know what theSkimm is is because they have sponsored the Jenna & Julien Podcast a bunch in the past. But even as a person who loves RSS aggregations, I never bothered because I prefer to cultivate my own news sources and never really felt the need to get on another e-mail list. I didn’t know they were putting out a book, and UGH I can’t stand it when authors ask for positive reviews from people without giving them the chance to read the book. Based on the racist culture and apparent plagiarism, this is a company I want to continue to avoid. Thanks for this, Jenn
Yeah I wasn’t sure if I should post this since I didn’t want to give them extra publicity. But stuff like this just drives me nuts since I really rely on reviews to decide how to prioritize my reading and what to buy…to be fair, I really don’t have any idea how serious the racism/plagiarism is apart from what those comments said. But I hate fake reviews either way.
I love Jenna & Julien! I wonder if they know of the issues with the sponsor? Over the years, Jenna has been very solid and attentive to issues (especially knowing a lot of her base is younger).
I have never heard of Skimmer either. I definitely won’t read the book. But I just want to mention that some things in the book world have gotten out of hand. Reviews on Goodreads sometimes appear as if written by people who have an ax to grind and others jump on the bandwagon w/o reading the book. Some authors have been accused of paying for good reviews. I like NetGalley/Edelweiss. But I am only going to review a book honestly. Why be a book blogger if your reviews can’t be trusted? Thanks for bringing Skimmer to my attention.
I think this is really true about the Goodreads pile-ons. I’ve never left a “spite” review like that, but I guess it’s different for people like you and I who have our own blogs to talk about stuff if they bother us. If you don’t have an outlet, I can see how turning to Goodreads seems like a good option, but I agree that it leads to a situation where people are leaving potentially unfair reviews. I think in general, the bookish community can be a little hive-mindish, even though everyone is acting with good intentions. But I do think some people blog to get free books, which is probably easier if you always leave good reviews unfortunately. :(
I agree though, I wouldn’t bother to spend all this time reviewing books if I wasn’t going to leave honest review, what a waste of time! haha — Thanks for your thoughts! :)
As far as I’ve seen with Netgalley is it’s about turnover. Read, review. I have gotten some very interesting titles that I have requested. And I have read some absolutely shitty books I expected more of. One was so horrendous I refused to finish it, so I refused to post the review to my blog. I did give clear feedback on why.
In the past I only ever read reviews AFTER I read a book because I wanted to stay in the world and see other people’s opinions!
This whole Skimm (not something I’ve heard of until now!) drama more highlights how social media can be used inappropriately.
Thanks for keeping us up to date!
What a bummer. I’m not the target audience, so I would never buy or read this anyway, and I don’t participate in their social media at all, but I really enjoy their weekday 15 minute podcast. Such a great, easy way to keep up with what’s happening in the world. Pretty disappointing to find out that they are not very ethical in other parts of their business.
Yeah, I mean I wouldn’t buy this book, but I also try not to let one thing define how I view people or companies. I agree it’s disappointing and that people considering this book should be aware of it though!
Thanks for the heads up Jennifer! This is honestly just appalling and makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it. I’ve heard of the Skimm due to annoying ads on Youtube and other streaming services but didn’t know that they had a book coming out. Definitely won’t be checking this one out
Thanks for reading Anna! Yeah, I didn’t have much of an opinion on the Skimm either way before but this certainly makes me wary of them.
I am not familiar with them and wasn’t interested in picking up the book, but reading about this earlier today was very disappointing. When there are only a few reviews on Goodreads, I do read them knowing that those most likely to be posting the first few reviews are probably heavily favoring the author/book. That said, I do count on honest reviews! I’ll admit that I don’t like posting negative reviews, but I will still do it (in the most polite way I can) because I wouldn’t want someone else to recommend a book to me that they actually hated or didn’t think worth the purchase!
I personally find negative reviews the most useful. I know it sounds weird, but before I buy a book, I read the 1-star reviews to see what people hated about it. If it’s something I don’t think I’ll mind (“this book was confusing” or “I hated the cover” or something) then at least I know what was the worst thing that could be said about it. They actually help me to make a purchase if I know what people dislike about it.
I’ve been known to do the same thing! As long as someone gives concrete reasons, I really appreciate those reviews.
What tea! Tbh I hadn’t heard of The Skimm before and I just read the WaPo article and it sounds like this book would be a little insulting. Though I won’t know for sure because I don’t think I’d spend money on this. The last few months I’ve really seen a side of the book world that’s a little scary–how quickly in turn an author/book’s life upside down with a few people jumping onto the one-star wagon on GR, whether they’ve read a book or not. It escalates quickly! Thanks for sharing :)
Wow! I almost feel old sometimes. Since I think that I have seen all kinds of low and that people couldn’t go any lower. This is a new level. I am sorry but this is the first time I am hearing of this Skimm thingy. Gonna Google for more information.
I think the Skimm is popular among a certain demographic and less so among others. Probably not something you need to worry about if you haven’t heard of them. Thanks for dropping by!
I actually used to subscribe to The Skimm, but I stopped after that Chelsea Manning post/reference in their newsletter a few years ago – I get that the majority of their consumer base just wants to stay updated about the news and what’s going on, but some of their pop culture references/ways to make the news… “palatable” (for lack of a better term) was just too much for me. That being said, this book is 100% a definite skip for me. Plus, there are SO many good (and free!) options for work/travel/life advice nowadays!
I’m not really into the Skimm’s style of news, but if other people are then to each their own. And yeah I think even if there weren’t fake reviews, I doubt I’d read this either way, I’m all about free google-able advice haha
Not heard of Skimm but I have heard of this practice. It seems a lot of influences turned ‘authors’ do similar things. It is a very big warning sign to me that they don’t moderate their groups as well as they should. To me it seems that it’s more about the money than actually giving a crap about their fans or about common decency.