Recently I started reading books. I was browsing online looking to buy a book when I came across 2 different shops. One was selling a book (I won’t name it) cheap then the other, more expensive (but still the same book). I wondered, are they the same and is the cheaper one “fake” or are there such thing as “fake” books?
Not the kind of fake book you’re asking about, but your question reminded me of I, Libertine, which started off as a prank by Jean Shepherd where he and his late-night radio audience created such demand for a nonexistent book that it made the New York Times Best Seller list. (Theodore Sturgeon was later commissioned to write the formerly fake book, so it now exists.)