Unique Gift Idea

The article's opening line made me smile:

Like many aspiring authors, Marrit Ingman had a tough time convincing publishers that her big book idea - a wry, downbeat memoir of postpartum depression - could sell.

["A New Forum (Blogging) Inspires the Old (Books)," New York Times, December 15, 2004.]

How any publisher could resist such a scintillating subject is beyond me, I thought.

I was turning the page when the following paragraphs stopped me:

But Ms. Ingman had her own persuader: her Web log. She'd been writing it for two years and had attracted a following of mothers.

"I turned to readers of my blog," she said. "I asked them to comment.... Readers wrote back expressing why they wanted to read about the experience of maternal anger." Her readers were convincing. She sold her memoir, "Inconsolable," to Seal Press in August.

This instantly set me to wondering: might tapping into anger be a way to sell Inside China's Diplomacy School?

Coincidentally, this feedback from a reader hit my inbox almost simultaneously:

When you are on a roll to demonstrate the rightness of Uriel, you become tedious and irritating, which leads to your reader either switching off or screaming at you.

If anger's what's called for, it seems to me I have every right to pull off a sale here.

Incidentally, I also received another message recently, this one from one of China's freshly minted diplomats. He is Li ("Fuck off!") Ming, a young man whose education I can claim credit for having participated in -- a former student who figures among my story's cast of characters:

You are the most nasty and shameless man I have ever seen on earth!!!
You have damaged the image of the American people!!
Every person who has seen you including westerns said you are son of a beach!
So go to hell!!

As I dutifully added this new contribution to my Readers' Comments page, I pondered whether contriving some kind of screamfest might impress a would-be publisher. It's a promising idea ... but I eventually dismissed it due to the potential risk of embarrassment to myself.

However, I've now arranged a standard print job with The Printing House (a Toronto printing service), making it easy and cheap to order a printed copy of "Inside China's Diplomacy School" in a convenient bound format which I've vetted. Details at Diplomacy School, Printed & Bound.

Screams or no, isn't this a "unique gift idea"?