'Book reviewing' as a business

       In The New York Times David Streitfeld reports on The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy, with a lengthy case study of someone who was willing to tap into everyone's lowest instincts and make an actual (if rather brief-lived) business out of 'book reviewing' -- generating positive reviews for those willing to pay for them (and posting these on Amazon, etc.).
       Sure:

There were immediate complaints in online forums that the service was violating the sacred arm's-length relationship between reviewer and author. But there were also orders, a lot of them. Before he knew it, he was taking in $28,000 a month.

       (Damn, I should have known my model -- actual reviews ! links to other actual reviews ! what a stupid concept ! -- here at the complete review was not the way to go. (And, for the record, the site does not generate $28,000 a month. Or a year. Not even close.))
       Yes:

"I was creating reviews that pointed out the positive things, not the negative things," Mr. Rutherford said. "These were marketing reviews, not editorial reviews."

       Oh, well in that case ..... 'Marketing reviews', not 'editorial reviews'. I'm sure that was made clear to all the readers who read them, too, right ?
       (By the way, I'd be happy to embrace the assembly-line production of 'marketing reviews' -- a concept I was unfortunately not previously familiar with -- here at the complete review if that's what you'd like (especially if I can rake in $28,000 a month doing so ... hell, I'd be satisfied with $25,000 a month). Who needs or wants these 'editorial reviews' currently on offer, right ? (It'll take me a while to adapt to this terminology, though -- 'editorial reviews', that's a new one for me too.))
       As for how these 'marketing reviews' were churned out:

For a 50-word review, she said she could find "enough information on the Internet so that I didn't need to read anything, really." For a 300-word review, she said, "I spent about 15 minutes reading the book." She wrote three of each every week as well as press releases. In a few months, she earned $12,500.

       Despite being such a fantastic business model this venture somehow im- or exploded; oddly, The New York Times links to the site's former address, but there's no trace of the actual business left. All those invaluable 'marketing reviews' -- 4531 of them, apparently -- lost forever (well, except for those ones that remain on Amazon, etc). Oh, the humanity !