http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/business/book-reviewers-for-hire-meet-a-demand-for-online-raves.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
this article is about self publishers and the questionable business of paying for favorable book reviews...to me, from an integrity of advertising standpoint, there doesn't seem to be much difference between paying $99 for a slanted review on amazon vs paying a celebrity millions of dollars to endorse some product that he/she may not even like...if anything, the latter is worse, yet celebrity endorsements aren't questioned
most self-publishers probably have limited ways to market their work, and paying for reviews seems like a legitimate way to get "seed" reviews on sites to get more people to read their books and provide unsolicited reviews...if enough people read and review them, then they will even out the five-star paid reviews, and it solves the issue of not being able to get anyone to read your book because no one else has...however, i can see how self-publishers who do not pay for reviews and happen to have some good reviews might be hurt by this practice since people who read the good ones might immediately dismiss them as false...since these reviews might be the only source for buyers to get more information about the book, they may also have greater influence on someone's decision to buy than a review for a typical book that is from a major publisher...still not a big issue in my opinion, and it is better than it used be when there was very little self-publishing and no online reviews...fake online book reviews #firstworldproblems
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