Justine, never one to shy away from the Big Questions in Life, asks:
If you could only choose one which would you choose: the publishing house with a wonderful editor who brings out the best in you, or the house with fabulous publicity, marketing and sales departments?
And then the opinions pour in. From editors, some of whom said “publicity,” having felt the sting of editing wonderful books that died on the vine; from writers who longed for that genius revision letter, and others.
Best quote in the discussion was from Doselle Young, who said:
If you want great publicity, just leave copies of your book at the scenes of violent crimes with your key passages of sex and violence underlined. That’ll pretty much always work.
As a conspiracy theorist by trade, I must say, I adore this idea. If only I weren’t so adverse to hanging out with serial killers (except for maybe Sylar. I don’t have special powers to entice him to eat my brains, and he’s so cute).
So, let’s play a game. Say you are going to leave a copy of Secret Society Girl at the scene of a crime. What kind of crime would you choose? What key passages would you underline as potential clues for the media to pounce upon?
I’m thinking a probably a museum heist of some sort. And probably the bit on page 133 about what kind of stuff Rose & Grave has hidden in their tombs.
Anyone else have an idea? Best entry wins a prize, TBD by Sailor Boy. Leave your comments here.
14 Comments
March 22, 2007 at 10:45 am
When I came out Saint-Merry, the Church where I went to pray my mother, I wanted to forget I just had, perharps, three hours to live left, wanted to forget that man and the absurd bargain he had proposed to me, and concentrate on my job
March 22, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I would leave it inside a room (that can only be locked from the inside) splattered with blood…but there is no body.
March 22, 2007 at 1:24 pm
What was it, no sulfur, no metal?
Underline that heavily and leave it outside of a cult mass murder/suicide by arson.
March 22, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I would leave it at the scene of a half dozen oddly coincidental deaths of obscure political figures (an accidental drowing, a supposed heart attack, a drug overdose, a random mugging, an apparently self-inflicted gunshot, and a fall from a ten story balcony), all occuring on the same day, and underline the passage where the patriarchs are standing silently in front of the tomb.
March 22, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I would leave it at the crime scene but would make sure it was signed to the killer from Diana
March 22, 2007 at 4:43 pm
HEY THERE, DIANA:
It’s rather nice to know my vision for guerilla marketing is making the rounds. I’ve never read one of your books before, but I will now. After all, with the crime rate in Los Angeles being what it is, a terrific marketing opportunity could be just around the corner.
Cheers,
Doselle
March 22, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I would place it by the dead body of a nosy journalist who was infamous for trying to unlock the secrets of the R&G tomb for tabloid publication. Underlined would be the part about “we could tell you, but then we’d have to kill you.”
March 22, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I would leave it at a murder scene where the victim was buried alive in a cementary.
March 23, 2007 at 4:14 am
I would leave it at the scene of a hit and run with the second name on every twentieth page underlined in red (and the third name on every sixty-seventh page in purple) just to really make them nuts.
March 23, 2007 at 1:00 pm
What concerns me most is that I had no brilliant ideas for a crime, but that I came back this morning to see what else had been written.
March 23, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I love Gina’s. LMAO.
I could leave a flaming bag of poo on a nsaty person’s door step and underline the Crap Crappity crap crap line.
March 23, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I’m with Celeste. I can’t think of anything good lol
March 24, 2007 at 1:56 am
I think the word you’re looking for is “averse,” not “adverse.”
March 24, 2007 at 2:33 am
Good thing we have the anonymous typos brigade on patrol! Let’s leave it up and see how long it takes to drive poor A completely batty!