Fake Business Gurus Are Chinese Bestsellers

(I found this on Publishers Marketplace. The LA Times requires a subscription to see the whole article, but I just thought the blurb was amusing!)

"China has gone past simple counterfeit books: the new trend is "fake management books by fake authors," with invented Harvard credentials and fake blurbs attributed to the Wall Street Journal. The LA Times reports, "management books are so popular that they take up huge sections in bookstores, often in the very front."

Some publishers complain that they have trouble discerning the validity of authors' credentials and other claims. One says, "We lack the experience to distinguish these new fake books."

I guess if the advice is sound, a fake guru is really a real guru, right? Who says whether someone is a guru? The fans do. In this case, it's a guru with made up credentials, but I'm guessing that many of the buyers actually know this. (A counter-guru guru, kind of like bloggers and journalists...oops I didn't say that)

It might be fun to do a guru book under an assumed name and back story...

If you could create any back story for yourself, what would you make up?

Comments

[Management Study in London]

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