Pay James Patterson $300 Thousand and He’ll Destroy His Latest Book
Having successfully transitioned from author to brand, the famed James Patterson is now trying a new business model: not writing at all.
He’s offering a unique opportunity for a single individual to pay $294,038 for the privilege of destroying the next Patterson-branded book. The package includes a first-class flight to an undisclosed location, two nights’ stay in a luxury hotel, a 14-karat gold-plated binoculars, a five-course dinner with Mr. Patterson, and a complete autographed set of the Alex Cross series, including the books Patterson wrote himself.
And at the end of your trip, you’ll get to read Private Vegas, shortly before watching it be wiped from this Earth.
I don’t know about you, but $300 thousand sounds like a good deal if it keeps the next Patterson book out of circulation, so much so that I am about to go launch a crowd funding campaign to raise funds.
Who’s with me?
No, wait – scratch that idea.
Apparently I misunderstood the story in the NY Times; the $300 thousand only give you the privilege of destroying a single copy, not the book itself. My bad.
Yes, Patterson is offering some rich fan the opportunity to spend a lot of money to blow up a single copy of Private Vegas (and no, Patterson won’t be holding it at the time).
Why?
According to the NY Times:
Susan Holden, managing director of the promotion at the advertising agency Mother New York, said she asked Mr. Patterson that very question.
“He said to me that he wouldn’t be surprised if one in his circle of friends might be interested,” Ms. Holden said. “He’s a super down-to-earth guy, but he runs with a billion-dollar crowd, so for some person that’s a huge Patterson fan, this could be chump change and could be funny.”
Patterson is also offering a promotion for those with tamer interests. Starting Wednesday at noon, Patterson’e website at selfdestructingbook.com has been giving away codes which will enable a limited number of fans to read for free. It’s only open to US residents, apparently, and the codes will expire after 24 hours.
Edit: A reader pointed out a connection I missed that renders this story even more absurd. As you may recall, about a month ago Patterson released this video where he uses the allegory of a book burning to represent how book culture is being killed off in the US:
And now he’s literally destroying a book. The irony is delightful, no?
image by Alexandre Dulaunoy
No Comments