Disowning their own books generally is not something authors do for book publicity...but the io9 10 Great Authors Who Disowned Their Own Books list should make an author who's in the midst of a book promotion campaign stop and think. Sure, every author finds it natural to say, "My book is important, and that's why I'm working so hard to enhance its book discovery potential." But what happens when authors specifically ask readers to not buy their books? How does that work out for them?
Consider the case of Stephen King's asking that his book, Rage, be taken out of print (because he felt it had the potential to inspire school shootings). There's a case where Mr. King was likely right -- that particular book was not an asset to our civilization -- and, yet, his desire to see the book eliminated probably inspired as many book sales as the best book publicity campaign might have. ("Oh, yes, I've heard of Rage," book buyers probably all said when they heard King's opinion of his book. "I'll bet I can find a copy now at that online secondhand book shop or the auction site! I'll go for it! And, who knows...if it's out of print, maybe this second-hand edition will someday be pretty valuable!"
So if you ever find yourself in the position of wanting to disown your book, just remember this. If you tell readers, "Please don't buy my book," then you'll probably send sales of that book soaring. That's not the way this book publicist recommends promoting your book...and that's not why this book publicist recommends a book publicity campaign...but, strangely, the tactic probably does increase awareness of books!
