I have been thinking lately about why an author would put a gimmick in a book to make people buy it. I worked for a retail book chain and once heard tell of a book that did not contain the letter ‘e’. Not once. Google the book if you don’t believe me. Apparently not done for any “literary merit” but merely to attempt it and write a grammatically correct book without it.
I haven’t read that book.
But I did read another when, moving to a new branch, I mentioned the ‘no ‘e’ book’. A colleague pointed me in the direction of a different tome (I have forgotten the title, more fool me) where a letter of the alphabet and the bizarre plot are linked; in the end the writing halted due to there being not one letter left. Not a bad book, but clearly not one that remained in the mind, or I would remember the title.
Why would an author employ a device like that? Only to get people to buy the book, I’ve no doubt. I think whether I could try it too, give my book a unique variation that would provide a platform on which to market the book. Maybe only one paragraph in the whole thing? That would hurt my brain, by the end, and that of anyone who tried to read it.
Little wonder that few elect to go down that path, taking an age to write a word or two, mulling over it all day and night. It would take away from the telling, the dialogue, the action. No writer would like to be tied to a weary chore like that. We thrive on making the plot juicy, each character believable, each word uttered gripping.
I might go back and read that ‘no ‘e’ book’. I might learn a thing or two about writing a grammatically correct paragraph, making a choice about each word. In that regard, it might end up being a valuable experience and move me on in my writing. Even if I don’t then write a book with no letter ‘e’.
I think I’ll remain an ordinary writer, thank you. I don’t want the headache after all.
* My blog today – brought to you without application of the initial letter of my name. *
