[MikeCraig]

I don't know if anybody reads these replies weeks after the original posts but this thread grabbed my attention. I have a suspicion that peoples' dislike of Annie Duke is creating this business about "fake reviews." My basis: first, posters are suspecting they are fake because they are short and well-written, as if that's somehow inconsistent with "real Amazon.com reviews." Then someone points out that there was a typo, but that's just the work of a PR firm to make it seem less fishy.

How brilliant and insidious are these PR firms? Smart enough to make them short and proper in spelling and punctuation, then smarter by NOT doing that sometimes? Yet not as smart as you guys, or smart enough to make them longer or with worse spelling?

My own "evidence" is anecdotal but my experience with one book and a big publisher is inconsistent with this theory of Evil PR Super Geniuses.

A. Publishers generally think Amazon.com results in relatively few sales (of mainstream-publisher books; specialty houses could be an entirely different situation)and is not a good indicator of success. My editor told me, "If you're in the top 100 and you're there for a long time, that means your book is doing well. Otherwise, it's too small a sample to matter."

B. Publishers are very cheap about publicity. I've got my own experiences to support that, the policies of Time Warner as they were explained to me, and stories from other authors (even some big-name celebrities) who were paying their own expenses on book tours because the publisher wouldn't spring for it.

C. The risk is far too great. There is a sub-industry of people who follow the publishing business. If such a practice really went on and had some impact, it would be a huge story inside the industry. And unless this book was the only book where this PR firm (publishers don't even hire PR firms for most books, and are notoriously cheap on publicity) did such a thing, word would get out.

I think we should be a little more critical of conspiracy theories.

Michael Craig