As someone elsewhere on this thread has pointed out: If this guy sold the books under his own name, and his own name happened not to be "Joe Smith" but rather "Rajesh Bhatnagar"... people in Middle America [1] would not be as likely to buy his book. Despite the fact that there could obviously be plenty of people with Indian-sounding names, great writing skill, and a knowledge of parrots.
If working under a pseudonym is a "fraud" then a lot of great writers were frauds: Charles Dodgson, Samuel Clemens, Stephen King, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, a sizeable percentage of the artists who draw your newspaper's comic strips, and 100% of the authors of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, among others. Many musicians are "frauds" (Farrokh Bulsara, Robert Zimmermann, Reginald Dwight), including most famous rap musicians. Half of Hollywood is a a "fraud": Frances Gumm, Archibald Leach, Margarita Cansino, Marion Morrison, Allen Konigsberg, Carlos Estévez, Maurice Mickelwhite.
(Sorry about the flood of examples. I just can't resist them. Isn't it fun how much less bland the world looks if we just remove the whitewash? But, alas, I can't blame Marion Morrison for deciding that he'd sell more tickets as "John Wayne", because I don't doubt that fact for a minute.)
As we've seen, many pseudonyms were chosen precisely to hide the author's true race or gender from the buying public: George Sand, George Eliot. And there's an analogous practice: the creative use of initials. (Especially common for women trying to break in to SF/F. Isn't that interesting?) Thus, Joanne Rowling publishes as "J.K. Rowling" [2], Carolyn Cherry's 60-odd works of SF are published as "C.J. Cherryh" [3], and Celia Friedman writes as "C.S. Friedman".
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[1] I single out Middle America because it's the place I know -- I was born and raised in Ohio. I'm sure Middle America isn't the only place where this is true.
[2] Of course, this doesn't fool anyone anymore in her case.
[3] According to Wikipedia, the extra "h" is there because "Cherry" sounded too much like a romance novelist's name.
You make a good point. However the author goes beyond just taking a pseudonym. He pretends to have 12 years of experiences with parrots, when the reality is zero. This is where overcoming bias turns into deceptive marketing practices.
If working under a pseudonym is a "fraud" then a lot of great writers were frauds: Charles Dodgson, Samuel Clemens, Stephen King, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, a sizeable percentage of the artists who draw your newspaper's comic strips, and 100% of the authors of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, among others. Many musicians are "frauds" (Farrokh Bulsara, Robert Zimmermann, Reginald Dwight), including most famous rap musicians. Half of Hollywood is a a "fraud": Frances Gumm, Archibald Leach, Margarita Cansino, Marion Morrison, Allen Konigsberg, Carlos Estévez, Maurice Mickelwhite.
(Sorry about the flood of examples. I just can't resist them. Isn't it fun how much less bland the world looks if we just remove the whitewash? But, alas, I can't blame Marion Morrison for deciding that he'd sell more tickets as "John Wayne", because I don't doubt that fact for a minute.)
As we've seen, many pseudonyms were chosen precisely to hide the author's true race or gender from the buying public: George Sand, George Eliot. And there's an analogous practice: the creative use of initials. (Especially common for women trying to break in to SF/F. Isn't that interesting?) Thus, Joanne Rowling publishes as "J.K. Rowling" [2], Carolyn Cherry's 60-odd works of SF are published as "C.J. Cherryh" [3], and Celia Friedman writes as "C.S. Friedman".
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[1] I single out Middle America because it's the place I know -- I was born and raised in Ohio. I'm sure Middle America isn't the only place where this is true.
[2] Of course, this doesn't fool anyone anymore in her case.
[3] According to Wikipedia, the extra "h" is there because "Cherry" sounded too much like a romance novelist's name.