"Self-publishing" — eg, paying a vanity press like iUniverse or Xlibris to print and distribute your Veronica Mars slash — has never been bigger. So it's no surprise that, as Slate recently discovered, another mini-industry has arisen alongside it: "authors" of self-published books are now paying to have (real-ish) authors blurb their books, just like how, in traditional publishing, authors are paid in favors and in kind for providing this service. The Slate article singles out one especially prolific paid reviewer: NYT bestselling (paperback romances in the '80s) author Ellen Tanner Marsh, who's employed by BookSurge. For $399, Marsh will write something along these lines:"We are drawn into this seaboard existence, seeing the stars pronging the sails at night, the flying fish that land on deck, and even the birds that fly, unaware, into the mast" (this re: The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin).

We feel bad for the poor suckers who pay for this service. Have they never heard of Fondling Your Muse author John Warner's blurb-o-matic? It's free, and when our first novel is published, we'll be thrilled to let the world know that Warner found it to be "A helpful quest of shark attacks that will leave you thunderstruck!"

Favorable Book Reviews For Sale [Slate]

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