News Flash: Elaine gives Ed's new book 5 stars

[jsbjoe]

Clearly, this is not about creating drama. Posting a "review" on Amazon without disclosing that it is written by the book author's wife is very misleading and unethical.

Giving your (maiden) name, as opposed to a fake name, doesn't change this in any way.

[XxGodJrxX]

After reading the review, it seems to resemble spam more than anything. Look at the ending! She recommends every Ed Miller title available at the moment. What would the response be if Tom McEvoy were to write a review saying "All 2+2 books suck! Buy Beat Texas Hold Em instead if you're SERIOUS about getting better". The backlash here would be substantial, and warranted in my opinion.

[uDevil]

[ QUOTE ]
Clearly, this is not about creating drama. Posting a "review" on Amazon without disclosing that it is written by the book author's wife is very misleading and unethical.

Giving your (maiden) name, as opposed to a fake name, doesn't change this in any way.

[/ QUOTE ]

It does change things because it's not her maiden name. It's her name. An explicit disclosure would be preferable, but she had to know she would be recognized, so it's not at all clear that she intended to be deceptive. Maybe her intention was to generate this resulting nano-drama, but that's not clear either.

[BradleyT]

Go vote "NO" where it asks if this review was helpful to you. It doesn't affect the book rating it will just piss her off that no one likes her review.

[uDevil]

[ QUOTE ]
After reading the review, it seems to resemble spam more than anything. Look at the ending! She recommends every Ed Miller title available at the moment. What would the response be if Tom McEvoy were to write a review saying "All 2+2 books suck! Buy Beat Texas Hold Em instead if you're SERIOUS about getting better". The backlash here would be substantial, and warranted in my opinion.

[/ QUOTE ]

Come on. That's not the same. She didn't say anything negative about other books, writers, or publishers. Her husband writes poker books. She's selling books.

Her review is weak because it's not actually a review. Amazon encourages people to post reviews so it doesn't quite meet the criteria for spam because it's not unsolicited. The only reasonable objection is that she should have explicitly disclosed her relationship to the author. But since that relationship is well known, at least on 2+2, it hardly merits any substantial backlash.

[jsbjoe]

You obviously have an agenda that entails spinning the wife's "review" in the most favorable light possible. This will be a difficult task for you -- your arguments (and you barely present any) are specious.

It is clearly wrong to post a review of your husband's book without EXPLICITLY identifying yourself as his wife. Nothing is changed by her signature with a name other than Miller (and contrary to what you assert, AT LEAST 95% of the Amazon customers who read the review WILL NOT associate her with the author). Your argument that it is "her name" and not her "maiden name" is totally a red herring ,and is unworthy of any response.

Stop defending something wrong -- tell us she's really a nice lady or whatever it is that you really think.

[bustedromo]

Elaine "Mob Idiots" Vigneault ?

[uDevil]

[ QUOTE ]
You obviously have an agenda that entails spinning the wife's "review" in the most favorable light possible. This will be a difficult task for you -- your arguments (and you barely present any) are specious.


[/ QUOTE ]

Is that the best you can do? Make up whatever agenda you want to imagine I may have, but don't claim that it is "obviously" the case. I've never met Elaine and have only interacted with her in of couple of trivial pm/email exchanges. I wouldn't know who she is except that she's married to Ed Miller, and I've never met him either. I have little motivation for such an agenda.

[ QUOTE ]

It is clearly wrong to post a review of your husband's book without EXPLICITLY identifying yourself as his wife.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree and have said as much. I just don't feel as strongly about it as you do. If you feel as strongly as you seem to, you are perfectly welcome to use your browser to go to the Amazon page for the book and post a comment identifying her and calling her out for this egregious behavior. If this is too much trouble for you, let me know and I'll post the link to the comment form for you.

[ QUOTE ]
Nothing is changed by her signature with a name other than Miller (and contrary to what you assert, AT LEAST 95% of the Amazon customers who read the review WILL NOT associate her with the author). Your argument that it is "her name" and not her "maiden name" is totally a red herring ,and is unworthy of any response.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is her current LEGAL NAME. Is that so hard to understand? It is the name she uses. I presume it is the name she signs. It is HER NAME. Furthermore, a significant number of people WILL recognize her as Ed's wife. If she intended to deceive Amazon's customers, she is surely smart enough to do a better job of it.

[ QUOTE ]
Stop defending something wrong -- tell us she's really a nice lady or whatever it is that you really think.

[/ QUOTE ]

I assume she is a nice lady, but as I said, I've never met her so I don't really know. I'd make the same presumption for pretty much anyone, even you. However, I may change my mind if you don't follow your conviction and do something about this heinous crime.

All sarcasm aside, I suggest you send Elaine an email and inform her of your point of view. If you do that in a courteous and nonconfrontational way, you might find she agrees with you and revises her review. If you like, I will find her email address for you.

[jsbjoe]

Well ok, we seem to agree on most things except her signing with her real name. I think what I am saying is it's fine for her to use her real name (it's hers after all), but she still needs to state that she's married to the author. And I guess you think so as well.

The reality I suppose is that she could have had a friend "sign" the thing and no issue would have arisen. This is especially true since the "review" includes no personal opinion but is a culling of the favorable comments of other people.

It's still wrong though. And I don't want to email anybody or even discuss further. Enough already [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ~!

[Packard]

Ed writes great books. Elaine was just impressed by the new book.

Why are people so focused on the book review? Just buy the book and go out and take some chips off some calling stations.