Ethics and the Writer

There's been a lot of press lately about paid reviews, people who try to damage an author's career by leaving one-star reviews, and authors who use a pseudonym "similar" or the same as a famous author. 

Let me add one more--authors who hijack an existing popular title and use it in part or whole for their own work. I'm not talking about parody books, but books that are simply using the title to catch unsuspecting readers.

But here's the thing about all these gray areas of ethical behavior. It's been happening since the beginning. No one has ever cornered the market on questionable behavior. It isn't new. It's just gone digital.

And what might seem vulgar to me might look like brilliant strategy to someone else. 

The other day, I caught an ad on Craigslist from a guy begging people to give his books five-stars. Can we get any more brazen than to ask the man and woman on the street to give you five stars for a book they've never read? He didn't care if you read the books or even if you liked them. Maybe he thought this was smart marketing, but I was embarrassed for him.

But let's bring it closer to home. How many of you have left a "kind" review because that person was your friend and you didn't want to hurt his feelings? Is that any less ethical?

While I've never lied on a review, I once left off an issue that bugged me in a friend's book. No one else mentioned it, so it seems it was just a personal bugaboo. Still, if I were completely honest, I'd reveal warts and all.

On someone else's book, I found some grievous formatting errors. I opted to write the author rather than put it in my review so she could fix them. Whether she did or not, I don't know.

Manipulation of the system is a constantly shifting beast subject to interpretation.

You're welcome to disagree with me if you think maneuvering readers to try a book is a means to the end.

As a tool, manipulation is successful in the short term. But if the writing turns out to be less than stellar, it'll hurt you for a lot longer than it helped.

It' a gamble. Are you that good--or that lucky? How do you feel about the current crop of "incentives"? Would you try any of them as an experiment? 

Have you ever been unduly kind in a review to spare someone's feelings? 

And for God's sakes, please don't say you did that for me. LOL!