Levels of shamelessness

Last week a slip-up by Amazon's Canadian site revealed that some positive "reader reviews" on Amazon were secretly written by the authors themselves. John Rechy is among those who anonymously praised their own works; a behind-the-scenes goof mistakenly published the "reviewers'" real names instead of their anonymous handles, e.g. "A reader from Chicago."

Embarrassing. I have to say I've never stooped that low. What I have done is, once or twice, submitted a glowing review for a friend's book, and why not? If it's a good book and I like it a lot, why shouldn't I say so? But anonymously praising my own books, or buying them at quantity to affect their placement on bestseller lists? Seesh.

Here's a British perspective on the fuss. Pretty minor fuss as things go.