Cult of Dan Brown: The "Kryptos" Statue

Granted, we seem to have run out of things to discuss and debate about Dan's existing books, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that the readership here has lost interest in his next book (whatever it turns out to be). There's no shortage of interest, I suspect, just a shortage of substance to talk about until that book arrives. All we can do is speculate, and even that gets boring after a while.

Have no fear, KT--if/when Dan has another book to publish you can be sure the marketing machine will be kicked into high gear a few months ahead of time to make sure everybody remembers The DaVinci Code. There'll be interviews, documentaries, and a whole new slew of critics and debunkers (and most of the old ones) will come out of the woodwork to remind us all about the controversies and lawsuits. Even those who've forgotten Dan Brown's name by then will surely recognize the book title (and possibly the film). Then they'll get dutifully back in line to snap up copies of his latest book to find out which sacred cow he means to slaughter this time around

If I were in charge of marketing for his publisher, I'd be doing three things:

(1) Looking at the forthcoming film releases of National Treasure 2 and Angels & Demons, both of which should keep the masses in the mood for another Brown opus. Timing the release of the book somewhere between these two films would be ideal from a marketing standpoint, particularly with Angels & Demons coming out later. That lets someone else's marketing dollars fuel the sales of Brown's next book, which in turn fuels the box office demand for Angels & Demons some months later. As the copyright holder, the publisher also has a stake in the Angels & Demons film, so it just makes good sense to capitalize on one property to enhance the returns on another.

(2) I'd also be looking into ways to keep Brown's name in the court system--even a frivolous lawsuit sponsored by a religious zealot would suffice, if it really proves that difficult to find someone willing to try another plagiarism suit. If nothing else, I'm sure that Random House has learned that suing itself is a relatively inexpensive way to obtain free publicity. And make no mistake, the more times an author/publisher has been taken to court over a book, the more "important" the subject matter is seen to be by the general public.

(3) Finally, I'd start courting the groups that are likely to be offended by the upcoming book, and get them stirred up about it with hints about its controversial content. I'd arrange interviews and media events for them, so they can tell my customers why they shouldn't read my book--everyone wants to read "the book they don't want you to read!" The DaVinci Code's sales went through the roof in large part because of the Catholic Church's defensive reaction to it, which in the minds of the readership said "there must really be something to this."

About the only thing that Brown's next book could do to hurt sales is to fail to be controversial enough. Ancient mysteries and clever puzzles are all well and good, but they're also a dime a dozen. The magic of The DaVinci Code was its ability to get a billion people foaming at the mouth and another billion buying books just to see it happen. It's going to be very hard to top--or even come close--to that level of global outrage without featuring a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings be upon him) on the cover

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