Blogger Confession: The New FTC Rules and Review Books
Time for a blogger confession, friends. The new FTC disclosure guidance has me spiraling a little, and I know I am not alone, so let us talk about it.
The Confession
Here it is plain: I have been sloppy about disclosures. Not maliciously, but I have absolutely run reviews where my disclosure language was buried at the bottom in a tiny italicized line, or where I assumed “everyone knows bloggers get review copies” was disclosure enough. It is not. The FTC has been sharpening their guidance on endorsements, and the bar is higher than a lot of us have been clearing.
What Actually Changed
The FTC has been emphasizing for a while now that disclosures need to be “clear and conspicuous.” That is the magic phrase. It means:
- Disclosure has to be near the endorsement, not buried at the bottom of a 1,500-word review.
- It has to be in language a regular reader would understand. Not “ARC provided” if your audience does not know what an ARC is.
- It has to be visible without scrolling past the body of the review on most reasonable screen sizes.
- It applies on social media too. A tweet about a book you got for free needs disclosure in the tweet itself, not in your bio.
The newer guidance makes clear that hashtags like #ad or #sponsored need to be visible without “click for more.” For us as book bloggers, that translates to making sure #gifted, #review, or “I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review” actually shows up in the body of the post and the body of the social share.
Where I Was Getting It Wrong
I had three habits I am cleaning up:
- Bottom-of-post disclosure only. I would write 1,200 words about a book and then drop a one-line italics disclosure at the very end. Now I am putting it at the top, in normal-weight text, in plain language.
- Vague Twitter language. I would tweet a glowing quote from a book and not mention I was sent it. Now I add “audiobook gifted by the publisher for review” or similar.
- No disclosure on Instagram captions. This one I know a lot of bloggers are still missing. If the book in your photo was gifted, the caption needs to say so.
What I Am Doing Going Forward
I have updated my review template. Every review now opens with a clear, plain-language disclosure line above the review itself. Something like: “I received a free audiobook copy of this title from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.”
I have also updated my About page and my “review policy” page to spell out my relationships with publishers, audio promo services, and any affiliate programs I am part of.
Why This Matters
The FTC framework exists because readers deserve to know whether the person recommending something is being compensated (in money, in books, in early access). I want my readers to trust that when I rave about an audiobook, the rave is honest. Disclosure does not undermine that trust. It builds it.
This is not scary. It is not punitive. It is just the cost of doing this hobby like a grownup. If I am going to keep accepting review copies (which I am, gladly), I owe my readers full transparency about it.
So consider this me coming clean and recommitting. If you have been sloppy too, let us upgrade together. Update your templates, update your About page, and double-check your social posts. We can do this.
How are you handling FTC disclosure on your blog? Any tools or language you have found especially useful? Drop them in the comments.