Steal This Title
This is an illustration I did a few months ago for Publisher’s Weekly “Soapbox” column. This is a regular feature where authors, editors and other publishing figures get a chance to rant, rave or tell a personal anecdote about the industry.
This installment of the column was a particularly painful (yet funny) account by the author Liam Callanan who had just published his book “The Cloud Atlas”. Thinking he had coined a clever and unique title, he was more than disappointed when he found that his own publisher had just released David Mitchell’s “Cloud Atlas” (one of my favorite books in the past few years by the way). Worse yet, Mitchell’s “Atlas” went on to receive heaps of praise and critical acclaim (even a breathless mention on a soap opera). This all lead to confusion at the book store, and misguided letters to the author. He took it all in good spirits though, and had a good sense of humor about the whole affair, noting how this has happened to many authors in the past.
So for the illustration, I imagined Callanan engaging on a guerrilla street campaign to alter the promotional campaign for Mitchell’s book, and co-opting it for his own title.
See more of my work for Publisher’s Weekly here