The book advertisement was accused at the end of the 19th century of having killed literary criticism by gradually becoming confused with it. Yet, book advertisements in the press were written following a poetics specific to them. Confusion between the two modes came about through the development of their being inserted within the news in brief sections of the papers, or in the gossip columns, or even within the sections devoted to literary criticism. Journalists got into the habit of inserting these ads not only for profit but also because they were attracted by other possible trade-offs (influence, publishing opportunities for their own books). The writers themselves were involved in the writing of these ads :even as they lash out at them in public, they are often the ones writing them. This article seeks to show how these ads constitute, emerging from the newspapers, a hybrid and collective body of texts heavily scripted by commercial necessities – but showing also in an extraordinarily interesting way how authors could « recapture » their works.