Whining as Marketing

Tim Ferriss has done a fair amount of whining that many bookstores won't carry his latest book. Why would that be, as he's such as successful author?

It's because he chose to publish his latest with a small competitor of bookstores called amazon.com.

Thus he has built a marketing campaign around his complaint that he is being unfairly boycotted.  As Brett indicates in this nice takedown, it works, at least to a degree.

Yet, I don't think this approach is a smart one in the long run. It will leave a bad taste with many, and that taste will remain for a long time.