Is Author Tim Ferriss Fanning the Flames of 'No Spec' Debate for Publicity?

Every once in a while, the “no spec” debate flares up again, and so it has once more. This time the controversy surrounds blogger Tim Ferriss, author of the best-selling book The 4-Hour Workweek. As he prepares for the launch of his next book, the writer decided to kick off a short design competition to come up with a cover for said new book. In exchange, he’d pick four winners and give each $250, with perhaps one of the covers actually making it through to publication (Ferriss warns from the start that the publisher might decide to just go with whatever they come up with in-house, in which case nothing gets used).