Any Crazy, Desperate, and Fiendishly Creative Aspiring Authors Out There?
One of my absolute favorite stories, and one that certainly makes editors/agents/record executives/movie producers/anyone-in-a-position-to-greenlight-a-creative-project cringe, is Kris Kristofferson landing a helicopter on Johnny Cash’s lawn in order to convince The Man in Black to record some of his music. The legend goes that Kristofferson was sweeping floors at Nashville area recording studios when Johnny Cash took a shine to the young songwriter. But Cash continually passed on the opportunity to record any Kristofferson tunes. So the determined songwriter, who was also “in the National Guard, flying helicopters, and I took one of the helicopters to deliver a tape to his house. I was lucky he didn’t shoot me out of the sky,” Kristofferson recalled.
I’m looking for similarly crazed and determined aspiring authors. For example, there was a guy who walked around BEA this year with a toilet seat around his neck. What was that guy thinking? Did his stunt attract any attention? Did he get a book deal? I’d like to know about him and other off-kilter attention-seeking authors for a project I have recently started working on.
If you, or anyone you know about, has done some outlandish stunt in your attempt to get published or to attract attention to your book, please email me at editor at slushpile dot net. I’d love to hear your story.