Galleycat:  An “associate director for advertising practices at the Federal Trade Commission met with attendees of the 2009 Kidlitosphere Conference to discuss the FTC’s new guidelines for commercial endorsement and how they’ll affect book bloggers when they go into effect on December 1. . . . Mary Engle made . . . what the blog Galleysmith described as ‘a distinction between independent reviewers (that would be us book bloggers y’all) and participants of marketing programs.’ The report goes on to say that “

[Engle] admitted that the FTC probably could have done a better job of drawing this distinction in the guidelines but hoped further clarification would help alleviate concern.”

The upshot of this is simple: “If you are working with a marketing program you must disclose that connection.  If you are an independent reviewer you do not.”