Misinformation campaign/consipiracy by respected authors

[BigBuffet]

Doubt it. Book writing is an exercise in ego gratification and money, in different order for different authors. It's time consuming to put out a quality product originally, and also if you update it.

Some people like Slim may put out a crock just for fun and not care about his reputation, but most authors want to prove their expertise in general and in relation to other player/authors, not waste their time and effort in putting out schlock.

My brother is co-author of Preventing Malpractice (Smith). In the early days he seemed to enjoy doing the book, but with each new volume the time and effort in relation to the money has become -ev. The only reason he does it is for ego. It's the book on malpractice.

I also doubt a group of poker players could plan a conspiracy in the pre-boom days. And they don't need to in the post-boom days. and unless poker authors can self-publish and get satisfactory distribution, they will have to deal with publishers who usually care about the quality of the books they publish.