Harper Tries for Laughs

by Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 1/9/2006

Following what seems to be the Weird Al Yankovic model of publishing, HarperCollins is dipping into the world of satire with two cheeky paperback originals. The Da Vinci Cod: A Fishy Parody, which hit shelves in October (and was originally published in England), is being followed up in February by Blank. The latter, tagged with all sorts of comedic calling cards spoofing Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller—the subhead reads "The Power of Not Actually Thinking at All" and back-cover "quotes" come from celebrities like O.J. Simpson—is written by journalists Michael Solomon and Lewis Grossberger under the pseudonym Noah Tall. And, like The Da Vinci Cod, which features a back-cover bubble dubbed a "Fishclaimer" stating that the book has no connection to Dan Brown's bestseller, Blank features a front-cover burst further asserting its distance from Blink by claiming it's "a mindless parody."

So do these silly takes really have a place in the market? According to Harper Paperbacks editorial director David Roth-Ey, the timing is right for some light fare. "There's so much difficult news in the air so [these books are] something everyone's ready for," he said.

Relying on a time-honored tradition of satire—Roth-Ey said there aren't any legal sticking points of books like these as long as the parody is obvious—Cod and Blank follow in the footsteps of such titles as 2002's Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody and Bored of the Rings. Bored, which features a hero named Dildo Bugger, remains something of a cult classic among fans of the genre. Written by two Harvard Lampoon staffers in 1969 and published by Signet, the book, according to publicist Catherine Milne, is a very steady seller, with more than a million copies in print. It also, not so surprisingly, saw an uptick in sales after the first Lord of the Rings movie came out. With decently sized print runs behind its two forays into funny land—Cod went to press for 40,000 copies and Blank for 50,000—Harper is betting that Roth-Ey is right about the general public's desire for some light distraction. And who knows, all those Dildo Bugger fans may come out of the woodwork as well.