Strange goings on in the world of books and writing. This morning I listened to a Radio 4 programme about a U.S based company called Resultsource that, for a price, will promote sales of your book. They do this, apparently, by buying thousands of copies which gets the book in the best seller list. The author then does a book tour and it is said, buys the same books from resultssource and then sells them on during the book tour. Clever, but not very ethical.

Now I had heard about a small company that sells 5* reviews for e-books at 10$ per review, but this takes things to a whole new level.

I had a close brush with ethics myself just yesterday. A friend pointed me in the direction of YattarYattar magazine, who do book reviews. I spoke to them and they said they would like to do an interview and review. Then came the crunch, they sent me an invoice! They want me to pay £150 plus VAT to be written about in the magazine.

I decided to pass on this ‘golden’ opportunity.

But, from the reviews in Yattar, it seems there are authors who will pay up. Just have to question the validity of the reviews now, and maybe I will bear that in mind before I part with my hard-earned cash to buy a book they recommend.