Cult of Dan Brown: Suing Dan Brown (again)

Well yes, you don't have to be overly cynical to recognize that the profit motive behind all of these lawsuits stems not from the damage claims or settlement hopes, but from the inexpensive publicity. By accusing Dan Brown of plagiarism, an author gets to tell the world, "I wrote a book similar to something that a whole lot of you read and liked," the subtext being, "so it would be great if you ran out and bought a copy of my book as well."

There's an element of vanity to it as well, of course. If The DaVinci Code is a book that millions of people around the world are aware of, it becomes a title to which an author would love to have his own books linked in the public mindset. If a conversation circle at a party starts talking about The DaVinci Code, invariably someone in the group starts asking, "have you read this other book? People are saying it's just like The DaVinci Code..." The ultimate goal is to become a name that gets mentioned within a sentence or two of Dan Brown, such that the mere mention of Brown's name causes people to think of the controversies surrounding Perdue, Baigent, and...yourself!

Certainly a lot of authors (or more often their publishers) have tried to cash in on the success of The DaVinci Code by drawing flattering comparisons on the back covers of their own novels, to the effect that "if you liked The DaVinci Code, you'll love this book!" Taking it to the level of a lawsuit is a means of marketing above the rest of the pack, now that this market has become saturated.

The truth is, it's a business decision on the part of the author and his publisher. They know the spotlight this will shine on their products, and if they can get enough controversy going to drag this out in the press for a few weeks, they'll get the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising for a few tens of thousands of dollars of preliminary court fees. It never needs to go all the way to trial for this to succeed (it was only done in the Baigent case because both books were owned by Random House, so a "show trial" was advertising theatre). The case doesn't even need to be settled out of court for it to be a successful tactic. So long as the plaintiffs get enough free press out of it, they can quietly withdraw their suit. Brown and Random House could counter-sue for damages, of course, but for all intents and purposes that would be paying for more publicity for a competitor, so they're more likely to just let it go.

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