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"You can buy 55 gallons of lube on Amazon. If you want to know if it's worth buying, you can read a review by James O. Thach.\nThach likes to leave reviews, more akin to short stories, on bizarre Amazon products (like the aforementioned lube, Justin Bieber singing toothbrushes and fake vomit). But instead of merely trolling, he turns it into a creative writing exercise.\nSee also: 10 Things You Didn't Know Amazon Prime Could Do\nIt all started when Amazon \"recommended\" he buy a $40,000 TV last November.\n\"My wife and I bought this after selling our daughter Amanda into white slavery,\" his comment begins. \"Amanda, if you're reading this, hang in there, honey! We'll see you in a year.\"\nAnd a trolling star was born. Currently, the lengthy comment has been rated by 23,062 people, 22,641 of whom \"found it helpful.\" In his creative comments, Thach has pretended to be a weary mother of three boys (which lit up the Internet), a hardcore Ann Coulter fan and a judge who secretly loves mankinis.\nThach is a writer by trade. He's written three children's books, the last of which is The Seal Pup (which happens to have four and a half stars on Amazon).\nMashable chatted with this Internet wizard, and we found out that writing silly Amazon reviews can actually help you profit in the real world.\n\nAuthor and Amazon reviewer James O. Thach. Image:  James O. ThachMashable: What appeals to you about the format?\nThach: I like that you can write something and get a pretty immediate audience, and that the audience can comment. And I like how big the canvas is. Amazon sells just about everything, so there\u2019s a lot of room to move. I also like that the stories are short. They\u2019re like haiku, only not as boring.\nTell us about your career outside of Amazon. Are you a full-time children's author?\nI\u2019m a part-time children\u2019s author. The last one I wrote (and my favorite) is The Seal Pup. I'm working on a couple of picture books and a new chapter book series. I really love doing that.\nBeyond that, my career has been pretty much all education \u2014 running a tutoring company, working with kids with learning differences, and teaching students about environmental and energy issues. Why do I do it? I like the glamor and fast money.\nDo you have more potential fans or customers because of the Amazon popularity?\nSome people have emailed me through the website, telling me they like the reviews. And some of them have gone on to buy the books, and come back and said how much their kids enjoyed them. Which I think is awesome. If you can read the Amazon reviews and then say, 'I trust this man to entertain my children,' you\u2019re my kind of people.\nI\u2019ve also gotten quite a few emails from people asking me to review their products. They\u2019re clearly nuts.\nHow do you pick the items you review?\nIt\u2019s a very scientific process. It involves algorithms, random Amazon searches and people suggesting stuff. Mainly those last two.\nHow long does it take to write reviews?\nThat varies a lot. Sometimes an hour, sometimes quite a bit longer. A really long one, like the 55 gallon drum of lube or the John Mayer album, might take a day. Most of the time I tinker with a few for a week, on and off, until I think they\u2019re funny.\nWhat has been your favorite review thus far?\nOh, man. Choices. I really love that first one, about the Samsung TV. And I love the one about Cardamom. And the axe murderer. And the Bieber one's pretty funny. And the Kleenex one\u2026\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/07/03/amazon-reviewer-james-thach/>