Strange Ads Promote an Author Who Isn't Real and a Book That Doesn't Exist

IFC's upcoming The Spoils of Bablyon, a comedy miniseries that spoofs serious miniseries, is based on a book that seems to be sold out in Hudson News stores around the country. The problem with keeping the book in stock, though, is that there were never any printed copies. Eric Jonrosh (and the jig will be up when he shows up on TV and looks a lot like Will Ferrell, who produces the series along with the rest of the Funny or Die crew) is the megalomaniacal author of the book, and his persona has become the avatar of IFC's marketing for the show. "[Andrew Steele and Matt Piedmont, who wrote the series] created a character—well, we don't even like to call him a character," head of marketing Blake Callaway tells AdFreak. "We like to pretend he's real. We've written the fake book reviews. He's committed to literacy, because if you can't read, you can't read Jonrosh." The writer's megalomaniacal streak is borne out in the ambitions of the miniseries, which appears to span a period from the 1930s to the 1980s, if the trailer (see below) is any indication. So IFC has an appropriately grandiose ad campaign, with the book-focused executions littering bookstores and branded Little Free Libraries installed in cities like Dallas and Minneapolis in partnership with that organization. Callaway says he hopes to entice writers from the blockbuster-ier end of the literary spectrum to turn out for the show's Los Angeles premiere in January. "[James Patterson] is on our wish list,"... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'

[ AdWeek | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Stuff | 2018-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's high time I retired: 94-year-old acclaimed author launches his final book

It's hard enough getting John Dunmore to stop and sit down; getting him to talk about himself is almost impossible. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2018-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors and publishers donate thousands of books to Oxfam

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[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Want to earn more as a book author? A male name will help

In a groundbreaking study of more than two million books published in North America between 2002 and 2012, scholars found that books by women authors are priced 45% less than those of their male counterparts. The researchers, sociologist Dana Beth Weinberg and mathematician Adam Kapelner, both... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2018-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Guardian | 2018-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London Book Fair 2018: Meet the World’s First #1 Bestselling ‘Blockchain’ Author

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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