Fake footnotes?

[Epictetus]

I've seen a lot of scholars cite themselves. They might publish in a journal, later write a book, and cite their own journal article in it. I did it myself in a biography I wrote, citing a newspaper article I had written a couple of years previously. I eventually cut it out because the editor thought I had too many footnotes.

During the writing process I put in a fake footnote just to tease my editor, but I had no intention of leaving it there till publication.