[QUOTED TEXT]

> I am really not sure what kind of drugs critics are
> smoking, or what kind of payola may be involved. But
> regardless of what Entertainment Weekly says, whatever
> this newspaper or that magazine says, you shouldn't
> waste your money. Download it for free from Corey's
> (sic) site, read the first page, and look away in
> disgust -- this book is for people who think Dan
> Brown's Da Vinci Code is great writing.

Back in the old days, this kind of thing would have really pissed
me off. Axe-grinding, mouth-breathing yahoos, defaming my good
name! My stars and mittens! But take a closer look at that
damning passage:

[PULL-QUOTE]

> Download it for free from Corey's site, read the first
> page

You see that? Hell, this guy is *working for me*! [ADDITIONAL
PULL QUOTES] Someone accuses a writer I'm thinking of reading of
paying off Entertainment Weekly to say nice things about his
novel, "a surprisingly bad writer," no less, whose writing is
"stiff, amateurish, and uninspired!" I wanna check that writer
out. And I can. In one click. And then I can make up my own mind.

You don't get far in the arts without healthy doses of both ego
and insecurity, and the downside of being able to google up all