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02/18/2008

Thanks for the advice, Amazon.

I usually use Amazon.com's "The Page You Made" when I critique naive views of 'interactivity' in my work.

Today, I received the following email with a suggestion based on a previous purchase:


Dear Amazon.com Customer,

As someone who has purchased or rated books by Roland Barthes, you might like to know that Essential Ways to Relax: M-R-T Massage Therapy is now available. You can order yours for just $14.00 by following the link below.

Book Description
Why is it that the only time some people start to take their health serious is only when there really in pain or laying in a hospital bed? Why are some people stressed out and they do not know how to handle it? Everyone needs to take better care of their body and to avoid stress as much as possible. Essential Ways To Relax by M-R-T Massage Therapy informs people about the danger of stress and the benefits of massage therapy. This book will inform you of ways to relax and unwind. You have to take better care of your body. If you take care of your body, your body will take care of you.


Even better/worse, the book is published by AuthorHouse, a known vanity press / author mill. See, legitimate publishers employ these nice men and women called editors who know when and where to use adverbs ("take their health serious"), especially in book descriptions used to advertise books to a wide audience. Since I'm in the mood to start a new blog-worthy Norse saga, I think I'll email Amazon.com and ask how exactly this content -- an email recommending a scam-publisher published book about massage therapy to customers who purchased books by Roland Barthes -- came to be generated. I will post the results.

Previous posts on publishing scams reside here and here.

10:58 Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: hilarity, interactivity, amazon, publishing scam

Comments

This could be some sort of sign PR. Dare I say it could signify something

Posted by: squib | 02/23/2008

I am now thisclose to emailing the "M-R-T" people and asking them if they feel their book is a "readerly" text or a "writerly" text (kind of like "are you a good witch or a bad witch?").

Posted by: PrimroseRoad | 02/25/2008

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