R.F. Sands asked Werner A. Lind:

Hello Werner, Is Adrian Ferrer your pen name? Assuming it is you that wrote that wrote "Angel of Death", we have written books of a similar genre. Would you be interested in exchanging kindle copies to read? I would be pleased to read your book. We could share private commentary and a simple, kind amazon review for each other, thank you for the consideration, RF Sands "The Missing Apostle" (Robert)

Werner A. Lind No, R.F., Adrian Ferrer is NOT my pen name. Actually, I'd never heard of him or his book until I read your question. Sorry!

The whole idea of "review swaps," while it looks good on paper, has practical problems. In theory, both authors would evaluate each other's work fairly and honestly, and I'm sure many of them do. In practice, there would be a psychological ratchet towards making the review more favorable than it ought to be, for quid pro quo considerations. Because of that, many readers tend to discount "swapped" reviews (and both reviewers would be obliged to explain in their reviews that the arrangement was a swap --not only by ethical considerations, but by FCC regulations), and Amazon won't accept them.

As authors, we want honest reviews of our books, but naturally we also hope for favorable ones. That's why, whenever you offer someone a review copy of your book, it's a VERY good idea to first check out his/her reading tastes (Goodreads makes it easy to do that!), to see if the person would actually have a good chance of liking it. (The same works in reverse; before you offer to review a book, it's advisable to check out the book description, previous reviews, author information, etc., to get an idea as to whether or not you'd actually like it.)

Hope this helps!

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