Are you a fledgling writer or are you a robot?
That's the question I have to ask myself every time I moderate my comments, especially those strange spam haikus that sort of make sense but link back to Viagra websites.
Just in case you hadn't noticed, social networking and video sharing are crammed with spammers, robot posts, and sneaky marketing hacks. Over the weekend, one marketer wrote an essay about his alleged efforts to stir up attention for viral video--is Dan Ackerman Greenberg a prophet or a sneak? Steve Bryant has the skinny, along with smart links to other essays:
"To judge from the 400+ mostly-outraged comments on the post, plus the slew of response posts on technology blogs, you'd think Ackerman had revealed the concept of Payola for the first time ... the dependably-rational Matthew Ingram, argued that it's hard to believe "that everyone is so shocked at this company’s 'astro-turfing' and 'sock puppet' approach."
In other publishing news, the next time you write a sex scene, don't write like a spammer, robot or marketing hack. You could end up on the Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Thanks, Literary Saloon.
Finally, Ed Park gets his very own New York Times profile for his work on New York Ghost. Look for his new novel next year. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, my Believer editor for the essay, “Skinning the Americans.”
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