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No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Difference between revisions
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** Also occurs in-story in ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix|The Order of the Phoenix]]'' with Umbridge's ban of Harry's ''Quibbler'' interview. As Hermione [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]], "If there was one thing she could have done to ensure everyone would read [his] article it was banning it." (This is almost certainly a deliberate in-joke by Rowling, who had heard ''a lot'' of this sort of argument after the first four volumes.)
* ''Mein Kampf'', [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s famous screed, is banned in Germany. Despite this, it still makes the bestsellers list there almost every year. Note that the book itself cannot make it to the bestseller list, given that it wasn't openly sold in its entirety in Germany for nearly 60 years now. The Bavarian state has the copyright for that book that will expire in 2015 (70 years after Hitler's death) and tightly controls reprinting and selling of uncommented or complete copies in Germany. The only openly available prints outside of the Internet are either old, commented or cut.
* Al Franken wrote a book called "[[Anvilicious|Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right]]". [[Fox News]], which has a well-known and long-running grudge with Franken, immediately sued for use of the "Fair and Balanced" tagline, in an attempt to prevent the book from being published. As a result, a lot of people bought the book just to see what all the hubbub was about.
** The lawsuit was particularly telling on a number of grounds in and of itself: Fox News did not draw complaints about the portrayals of their anchors (though, to be fair, the book was not yet published at the time), and the suit was for all intents ''laughed out of court'', with the judge essentially telling Fox News that their complaint was entirely baseless. Franken did not miss the opportunity to include that information in the re-publication of his book.
* Chilean writer [[Isabel Allende]] once said something to the effect of (paraphrasing) "My books have been banned by several [[Moral Guardians|parent associations and Christian groups]], and thanks to them, their sales have increased."
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{{quote|"I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak... Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God."}}
** [[The Film of the Book]] was more successful at drawing fire, but this didn't lead to any notable box office assistance.
* [[The Oprah Winfrey Show|Oprah]] praised the book ''A Million Little Pieces'' by James Frey and gave it her bookclub sticker. Then came the reveal that the author had made up a good portion of the book, which he was selling as a non-fiction memoir. The publicity his book got from having Oprah rake him over the coals was amazing, and sales still went on, because everyone wanted to know what pissed off Oprah. The writer may never be able to sell another book, but he probably won't need to.
** Actually, Frey
* Most of the works on this page have aroused a lot of controversy, but how many have provoked national leaders to call for the execution of the writer? Ask [[Salman Rushdie]], author of ''The Satanic Verses''. After the book's publication, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a ''fatwa'' calling on all Muslims to kill Rushdie and his publishers. The book's Japanese translator was killed, the Italian, Norwegian and Turkish translators were attacked, and Rushdie himself had to be put under police protection. Most people would never have heard of the book if not for the ''fatwa''.
** And indeed most people outside the Muslim world would not have heard of a ''fatwa'' if not for the book. This sometimes leads to [[Small Reference Pools]].
* ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]''. If it weren't for all the censorship over the [[Precision F-Strike|swear]] [[Cluster F-Bomb|words]], teenage prostitution and teen drinking, it would not have sold so well, nor would it have found its way into required reading curriculum. Mark David Chapman holding a copy as he killed John Lennon didn't hurt either.
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