How to get a book noticed

Cathy Macleod's Booktaste Blog.
SEX sells. We all know this. Ever since Adam and Eve donned figleafs the world has relished a risqué read. And once again comes the proof, with British newspapers and magazines revelling in muck that's 200 years old. Even straitlaced Aunty, the British Broadcasting Corporation, found naughty bits to pass on to listeners and viewers.
All this from an announcement by a dull academic group which was indexing dull documents of the 18th century. These Oxford University researchers came upon smutty anonymous poems attached within the covers of a wholly respectable book, The Works of the Earls of Rochester and Roscommon.
Published 1714, the title's bestseller status was recorded, yet never explained, in the era when it outsold the genius of Wordsworth, Keats and Coleridge.
Now we know that an astute publisher spiced the dismal talent of the earls by adding The Cabinet of Love, a collection of dirty verse. As word spread, the stodgy Works miscellany went to 20 editions.
Modern reaction to the scholarly find has been no less spectacular. Newspaper editors are well versed in the lure of lusty content. Quotations from the 1714 book were gleefully circulated throughout the nation. Porn does not guarantee a bestseller but it still gets noticed, particularly when tied to literary esteem.
There's an annual reminder of this in The Literary Review, a London magazine that bestows the Bad Sex Award on authors who overdo the passion.
Closer to home, the Darling Newspaper Press was not unhappy recently to discover its most popular book is Murder Piping Hot, a modern whodunit that hinges on some obscene poems by Robert Burns. Author Ann Morven commented this week: "Poets are passionate people, and so are murderers. It was discovering the lewd rhymes by Scotland's great poet that gave me the unusual plot."

Oops!
He seems to be the sort of man who, once he gets an idea into his head, sits on it. - THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER.

Bittersweet Man Booker Prize
HERE is a lovely story worthy of the bittersweet pen of Dame Beryl Bainbridge herself. This popular British author was shortlisted a record five times for the Booker Prize, but lost narrowly each time. She died last year at the age of 75.
Now, as a tribute, the Man Booker Best of Beryl prize has been announced. The only nominations are Dame Beryl's five unlucky novels. The public will vote between The Dressmaker, The Bottle Factory Outing, An Awfully Big Adventure, Every Man For Himself and Master Georgie. The winning title will be announced in April.
For Beryl Bainbridge fans there is also a treat in store. Her final novel, The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, is due for release in June. It cannot enter this year's Man Booker because only living authors qualify. The plot is a double murder mystery set in 1968 in the United States, rocked by the assassination of civil-rights crusader Martin Luther King. Happy reading! from Cathy, www.booktaste.com, 18 Feb 2011.