It’s not only unethical for an author to submit a review of his/her own book using a fictitious screen name, it shows the type of individual who would do so to be pathetic. More to the point, it’s a great injustice to the users of Amazon .com who look to reviews as a way to decide upon whether or not to purchase a book. There are many people who get to "know" the likes and dislikes of certain reviewers, and/or take a chance on reading a highly recommended book due to the reviews.
I believe whenever an author has a book sold on Amazon .com or any other book site, i.e. , Barnes and Noble, the author must have some type of contract which expects the author to adhere to the policies and standards of Amazon .com. I’m confident Amazon .com frowns upon authors using aliases to write reviews of their own books.
After all, the review of books by average readers is an integral part of what makes Amazon .com unique. If we, the purchasing public, cannot depend on Amazon .com to uphold ethical standards we expect from a large and well respected company, then the fraud committed by authors has an effect on Amazon . Com’s bottom line.
If one, unethical/morally bankrupt, author is proven to have written glowing reviews of his/her books under an assumed name Amazon .com has it’s reputation besmirched as well. In some ways, I do feel a bit of pity for an author who would do something like that. How insecure most the author be about his/her book legitimately earning glowing reviews?
In addition, if the reviewers identity is revealed to be that of the author, how in the world would the author be able to be trusted to be ethical in other parts of his/her life? If that were to happen, would one glowing review written by the author himself be worth the humiliation he/she would feel after the fact? One would have to question the authors reasons for being so underhanded.
Was it done for fame? For booklist rankings? To feed an insecure ego?
Greed? Or, all of the above? I did a Google search looking for authors who used aliases to write glowing reviews of their own book.
Here’s a blurb from one of the articles I found about an author who did exactly that on Amazon .com. Once Amazon .com learned of this the review was deleted from their site.
I guess you asked the question because you think it might be happening; but I guess that an author could only do it once (unless they made a career of creating false noms-de-reviewer) and therefore that one good review out of lots of poor ones - or the only review - would stand out.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.