Isn't there an extent to which this worked for this author simply because his actions were more of an outlier within the industry, rather than the norm? And it

Isn't there an extent to which this worked for this author simply because his actions were more of an outlier within the industry, rather than the norm? And it was perhaps entirely because it was an unusual exception (though not without precedent) that 4chan resulted in a surge of sales. If this were standard marketing behaviour, I don't believe it would be nearly as effective.