Forget November, Just Vote
November seems to be a month of days to remember.
Obviously there's the 5th, the day this guy ducks for cover in his East London mews while the rest of the city does its best to reenact the surgical strikes of [insert most recent attempt to stop terrorism here] by blowing off firecrackers to remember the Gunpowder Plot. I tried to find a statistic to show how many poor sods injure themselves in memorium, but came up empty handed.
Next up, many of you may have found an email forward in your overloaded inbox for the 4th, Blackout London. Apparently some energy-conscious something or other, The Workface Network, has invites all Londoners to take a stand against global warming for one night by turning off all lights, and switching off all your non-essential electrical equipment from sunset 4.30 pm to 7.30 pm. This rings of the buy nothing day, which as luck would have it (or is it fate?) is on the 25th of...November. Being the entrepreneur that I am, I would have proposed combining the two days so that the rest of us who are not out burning off our digits could maybe read a book, for lack of TV and the Web.
While I am sure there are other November days to remember, I'd rather just skip ahead to my agenda, which is to say that the 3rd of November or rather today is the last day to VOTE for the new title of Charlie Higson's 3rd Young Bond adventure.
About two, maybe three, months ago the wacky children's marketing team came up with the equally wacky idea of letting the fans vote for the title. There were so many good titles being passed around that no one could seem to agree on, so I thought why not let die hard fans decide. What struck me at the time we came up with this scheme was the fact that the whole publishing industry functions four to five months ahead of the world. Booksellers, editors, journalists, critics, buyers, et al get to read the books, see the jackets and decide the winners from the losers well in advance of any reader. This is of course not odd, fashion is decided years in advance.
But if we kept everything a secret until the very day it hits stores—the title, the jacket, the clever strap line—it may actually drive people nuts! One can only hope. Little did we foresee the logistical nightmare this would cause. From confidentiality agreements for printers, editors, designers, delivery men to developing image and title-less ad campaigns, point-of-sale materials, flyers etc, has meant we have essentially been forced to advertise the release of the "new explosive bestseller ______!" I know I'd love to buy "_______". Hey have you heard about the new Young Bond: "______"? Well, maybe not quite. Still, while the voting closes today, no one at Puffin will know (Mr Higson included) the winning title. It will be under lock and key until 4th January. So forget November, just vote.
Justin
..............................................................................
..............................................................................
Comments