How Writers Build the Brand
看作家如何打造品牌

By Tony Perrottet
托尼·佩罗泰特[1]

As every author knows, writing a book is the easy part these days. It’s when the publication date looms that we have to roll up our sleeves and tackle the real literary labor: rabid self-promotion. For weeks beforehand, we are compelled to bombard every friend, relative and vague acquaintance with creative e-mails and Facebook alerts, polish up our Web sites with suspiciously youthful author photos, and, in an orgy of blogs, tweets and YouTube trailers, attempt to inform an already inundated world of our every reading, signing, review, interview and (well, one can dream!) TV -appearance.
正如每位作家都知道的，现如今，写书本身并不是件难事，倒是临近出版之前，我们才需要打起精神、全力以赴地应对真正的文字工作，即疯狂的自我宣传。在新书出版前的几个星期，我们就得向所有亲戚、朋友、以及叫不上名字的泛泛之交，铺天盖地地发送独具特色的电子邮件或脸谱（Facebook）快讯；为了能让个人网站焕然一新，我们不得已还得挂上年轻得令人生疑的作者照片；我们尝试着通过博客、推特（Twitter）短讯以及优土必（YouTube）网站的宣传片，没完没了地向早已深受资讯所累的大众介绍我们的每场宣读会、每次签售、每篇书评、每个访谈以及（当然，幻想一下总是可以的）每回在电视上露脸的机会。

In this era when most writers are expected to do everything but run the printing presses, self-promotion is so accepted that we hardly give it a second thought. And yet, whenever I have a new book about to come out, I have to shake the unpleasant sensation that there is something unseemly about my own clamor for attention. Peddling my work like a Viagra salesman still feels at odds with the high calling of literature. 
如今这个时代，对大多数作家而言，除了不必亲自经营一家出版社，其他所有与出书相关的事宜我们都得亲力亲为。其中，自我宣传的做法已如此深入人心，人们对它大多已经习以为常。可是，每次自己在新书出版之前，还是会觉得大肆造势宣传的做法有些欠妥，总得努力摆脱这种不安的情绪。要我像伟哥销售员那样去兜售自己的倾心之作，总归是会让人觉得与文学这一崇高追求格格不入。

In such moments of doubt, I look to history for reassurance. It’s always comforting to be reminded that literary whoring — I mean, self-marketing — has been practiced by the greats. 
每当心中泛起疑惑，我就去从历史中找寻安慰。每每想到文学大师们也曾对“文学卖淫”乖乖就范，我的意思是，也曾进行过自我推销，我总会感觉心里踏实了许多。

The most revered of French novelists recognized the need for P.R. “For artists, the great problem to solve is how to get oneself noticed,” Balzac observed in “Lost Illusions,” his classic novel about literary life in early 19th-century Paris. As another master, Stendhal, remarked in his autobiography “Memoirs of an Egotist,” “Great success is not possible without a certain degree of shamelessness, and even of out-and-out charlatanism.” Those words should be on the Authors Guild coat of arms. 
最富盛名的法国小说家也意识到了公关的必要性。巴尔扎克在他的经典小说《幻灭》中描述了十九世纪初巴黎文学界的生活，其中，他写到：“对于艺术家而言，亟待解决的问题是如何让别人知道自己。”而另一位文学巨匠——司汤达也曾在自传《自我中心回忆录》中谈到：“如果没有一些厚颜无耻的劲头，甚至是一些不折不扣的“江湖骗术”，想获得巨大的成功，简直是痴人说梦。”这些话着实应该作为箴言写进作家协会的徽章。

Hemingway set the modern gold standard for inventive self-branding, burnishing his image with photo ops from safaris, fishing trips and war zones. But he also posed for beer ads. In 1951, Hem endorsed Ballantine Ale in a double-page spread in Life magazine, complete with a shot of him looking manly in his Havana abode. As recounted in “Hemingway and the Mechanism of Fame,” edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman, he proudly appeared in ads for Pan Am and Parker pens, selling his name with the abandon permitted to Jennifer Lopez or LeBron James today. Other American writers were evidently inspired. In 1953, John Steinbeck also began shilling for Ballantine, recommending a chilled brew after a hard day’s labor in the fields. Even Vladimir Nabokov had an eye for self-marketing, subtly suggesting to photo editors that they feature him as a lepidopterist prancing about the forests in cap, shorts and long socks. (“Some fascinating photos might be also taken of me, a burly but agile man, stalking a rarity or sweeping it into my net from a flowerhead,” he enthused.) Across the pond, the Bloomsbury set regularly posed for fashion shoots in British Vogue in the 1920s. The frumpy Virginia Woolf even went on a “Pretty Woman”-style shopping expedition at French couture houses in London with the magazine’s fashion editor in 1925.
海明威别出心裁的自我宣传手段，为现代社会树立了珍贵的典范：各种宣传照记录下了他的狩猎行程、垂钓之旅以及战地历险，这些都被拿一一来提升他的形象。而同时，他也接拍啤酒的广告。1951年，《生活》杂志刊登了他为百龄坛啤酒代言的跨版广告，其中配有海明威在哈瓦那家中的照片，照片中的他看上去男人味十足。马修•J•布鲁克里和朱迪斯•S•褒曼在他们编写的《海明威与成名之道》中，悉数了海明威在泛美航空公司以及派克钢笔广告中的潇洒出镜，他无时无刻不在经营自己的知名度，不亚于时下的名人詹妮弗•洛佩兹或勒布朗•詹姆斯。另有一些美国作家显然是从海明威身上得到了启发。约翰•斯坦贝克[2] 在1953年也开始为百龄坛“当托儿”代言，建议人们在一天的辛苦耕作之后，来上一杯冰凉的佳酿。就连弗拉基米尔•纳博科夫[3]也留意到自我营销的重要，他含蓄地向摄影编辑提议，把他拍成一名鳞翅目昆虫学家——头戴帽子，身穿短裤，脚蹬长袜，精神饱满地在林间穿梭。（“其实，还有一些其他的精彩创意可以拿来拍我：比如，身体健硕而身手敏捷的我，正在小心追逐一只珍稀的昆虫，或正在将它从花头上兜入网中，”他饶有兴致地说。）大洋彼岸，早在二十世纪二十年代，布鲁姆斯伯里[4]团体也已定期为英国《时尚》杂志拍摄时尚照片。1925年，一向不修边幅的弗吉尼亚•伍尔芙[5]甚至跟随该杂志的时尚编辑，在伦敦的几家法国时装店完成了一次以“漂亮女人”为主打风格的购物之旅。
 

But the tradition of self-promotion predates the camera by millenniums. In 440 B.C. or so, a first-time Greek author named Herodotus paid for his own book tour around the Aegean. His big break came during the Olympic Games, when he stood up in the temple of Zeus and declaimed his “Histories” to the wealthy, influential crowd. In the 12th century, the clergyman Gerald of Wales organized his own book party in Oxford, hoping to appeal to college audiences. According to “The Oxford Book of Oxford,” edited by Jan Morris, he invited scholars to his lodgings, where he plied them with good food and ale for three days, along with long recitations of his golden prose. But they got off easy compared with those invited to the “Funeral Supper” of the 18th-century French bon vivant Grimod de la Reynière, held to promote his opus “Reflections on Pleasure.” The guests’ curiosity turned to horror when they found themselves locked in a candlelit hall with a catafalque for a dining table, and were served an endless meal by black-robed waiters while Grimod insulted them as an audience watched from the balcony. When the diners were finally released at 7 a.m., they spread word that Grimod was mad — and his book quickly went through three -printings. 
其实，自我宣传的传统在相机发明之前就已经存在了几千年。公元前440年前后，早期希腊作家希罗多德就出资在爱琴海地区为自己的新书进行巡回宣传。奥林匹克运动会期间，他在宙斯神庙向有钱的社会名流诵读自己的著作《历史》，由此便时来运转。到了12世纪，神职人员威尔士的基拉尔德[6]在牛津举办了一场旨在宣传自己作品的宴会，希望能够吸引更多的大学读者。简•莫里斯[7]在其编写的《牛津版之牛津史》一书中针对此事写道，基拉尔德把各路学者请至家中，大摆宴席整整三天，席间除了奉上美酒佳肴，更是少不了长篇诵读他自己的经典篇章。不过这些学者的遭遇与那些受邀参加“葬礼晚宴”的宾客相比，简直是小巫见大巫。十八世纪的法国人格利木•德•拉•雷尼埃尔[8]以饮食讲究而著称，此次召集聚会是为了宣传自己的大作《反思幸福》。当宾客们发现自己被反锁在烛光幽暗的大厅里时，他们的好奇即刻变成了恐惧：用餐的餐桌是一口灵柩，服务员各个身穿黑色长袍，晚宴没完没了地继续着，而格利木却一直在二楼的楼厅处像个观众一样，对大厅里的宾客们出言不逊。直到第二天早上七点，宾客们才终于得以脱身，“格利木疯了”的传言也不胫而走——而他的新书却因此大卖，先后两次被再版。

Such pioneering gestures pale, however, before the promotional stunts of the 19th century. In “Crescendo of the Virtuoso: Spectacle, Skill, and Self-Promotion in Paris During the Age of Revolution,” the historian Paul Metzner notes that new technology led to an explosion in the number of newspapers in Paris, creating an array of publicity options. In “Lost Illusions,” Balzac observes that it was standard practice in Paris to bribe editors and critics with cash and lavish dinners to secure review space, while the city was plastered with loud posters advertising new releases. In 1887, Guy de Maupassant sent up a hot-air balloon over the Seine with the name of his latest short story, “Le Horla,” painted on its side. In 1884, Maurice Barrès hired men to wear sandwich boards promoting his literary review, Les Taches d’Encre. In 1932, Colette created her own line of cosmetics sold through a Paris store. (This first venture into literary name-licensing was, tragically, a flop).
不过，这些早期的宣传动作与十九世纪盛行的招数比起来，就显得相形见绌了。历史学家保罗•默茨纳在他的著作《艺术大师的登峰造极：革命年代巴黎的表演、技巧与自我宣传》中讲到，由于技术革新，巴黎报刊的数量暴涨，这为宣传提供了更多可供选择的渠道。《幻灭》中，巴尔扎克写到，当时的巴黎，到处张贴着宣传新书发行的花哨海报，不过作家们还是用金钱和大餐去贿赂编辑和批评家，只是为了求得一个刊登书评的版面，这在当时已经成为一种惯例。1887年，居伊•德•莫泊桑花钱在塞纳河上放飞了一个热气球，气球上赫然印着他最新出版的短篇小说的名字——《奥尔拉》。1884年，莫里斯•巴雷斯[9]雇了一批人，让他们在胸前背后挂上两块广告牌，沿街宣传他的文学评论期刊《墨迹》。1932年，克莱特[10]创立了自己的化妆品品牌，通过一家巴黎的店铺进行销售。（悲惨的是，这个文人为产品冠名的首次尝试，最终以失败收场。）
 

American authors did try to keep up. Walt Whitman notoriously wrote his own anonymous reviews, which would not be out of place today on Amazon. “An American bard at last!” he raved in 1855. “Large, proud, affectionate, eating, drinking and breeding, his costume manly and free, his face sunburnt and bearded.” But nobody could quite match the creativity of the Europeans. Perhaps the most astonishing P.R. stunt — one that must inspire awe among authors today — was plotted in Paris in 1927 by Georges Simenon, the Belgian-born author of the Inspector Maigret novels. For 100,000 francs, the wildly prolific Simenon agreed to write an entire novel while suspended in a glass cage outside the Moulin Rouge nightclub for 72 hours. Members of the public would be invited to choose the novel’s characters, subject matter and title, while Simenon hammered out the pages on a typewriter. A newspaper advertisement promised the result would be “a record novel: record speed, record endurance and, dare we add, record talent!” It was a marketing coup. As Pierre Assouline notes in “Simenon: A Biography,” journalists in Paris “talked of nothing else.” 
美国的作家在这方面当然也不会甘拜下风。沃尔特•惠特曼匿名为自己的作品撰写书评的做法可谓是臭名昭著，但在今天的亚马逊网站这种做法却已见怪不怪。1855年，惠特曼隐匿真实身份对自己大加赞美：“美国终于出现了一位吟游诗人，他身材魁梧、傲慢不羁，却铁汉柔情，他享受口福之乐，饮酒之趣，男女之欢。他穿着粗犷而随意，肤色黝黑，胡须浓密。”不过谈到创意，仍然没有人能与欧洲人媲美。也许，最令人震惊的公关招数莫过于乔治•西默农[11]1927年在巴黎的策划——那是一个会令当今作家都感到心悦诚服的招数。乔治•西默农出生在比利时，主要作品有《马格雷探案》系列。这位著作等身的作家表示，如果给他十万法郎，他答应在玻璃箱中呆上七十二小时，并完成一整部小说的创作。按计划，玻璃箱将挂在红磨坊夜总会门口，公众应邀为小说的人物、题材、标题给出意见，而西默农则用打字机敲打出一页一页的故事。一家报纸为此打出广告，承诺说“该创意将产生一部空前的作品：空前的写作速度，空前的作家耐力，恐怕还包括空前的创作才华”。这是一次出色的营销策划，正如皮埃尔•阿苏里[12]在《西默农传记》中描述的那样，此事成为当时巴黎记者“津津乐道的唯一话题”。

As it happens, Simenon never went through with the glass-cage stunt, because the newspaper financing it went bankrupt. Still, he achieved huge publicity (and got to pocket 25,000 francs of the advance), and the idea took on a life of its own. It was simply too good a story for Parisians to drop. For decades, French journalists would describe the Moulin Rouge event in elaborate detail, as if they had actually attended it. (The British essayist Alain de Botton matched Simenon’s chutzpah, if not quite his glamour, a few years ago when he set up shop in Heathrow for a week and became the airport’s first “writer in residence.” But then he actually got a book out of it, along with prime placement in Heathrow’s bookshops.)
事实上，因为承诺出资的那家报社不幸破产，西默农玻璃箱里著书的噱头未能成行。不过，他还是因此声名鹊起（并把两万五千法郎的预付款收入囊中）。而这个点子自身也有太多的发挥空间，故事实在太精彩了，巴黎人想不谈它都难。几十年过去了，法国记者依然能对红磨坊玻璃房一事的细节娓娓道来，就好似在讲述他们的亲身经历一般。（几年前，英国作家阿兰•德波顿[13]也上演了同样的戏码，如果非要说其影响力无法匹敌西默农事件的话，其劲爆程度却丝毫不亚于后者。德波顿在希斯罗机场搭起一间工作室，足足在里面待了一个星期，成为首位“入住该机场的作家”。不过与西默农所不同的是，其间，他真地完成了一部作品，并且一出版，就被摆在了机场书店最显眼的地方。）

What lessons can we draw from all this? Probably none, except that even the most egregious act of self-¬promotion will be forgiven in time. So writers today should take heart. We could dress like Lady Gaga and hang from a cage at a Yankees game — if any of us looked as good near-naked, that is.
比照上述的例子，有哪些是我们可以借鉴的呢？或许没有什么，但是至少我们可以了解，即便是那些最恶劣的自我宣传手段，也会随着时间的推移而得到的谅解。所以，作家同仁们应该振作起来。我们可以效仿雷迪•嘎嘎扮上出位的造型，把自己关进笼子，并将其挂在洋基队赛场的上方——如果哪位同仁不穿什么衣服会更上镜的话，那也不要浪费了身材。
 

On second thought, maybe there’s a reason we have agents to rein in our P.R. ideas.
再仔细想想，或许我们还真的有必要聘请经纪人，好让他们对我们的公关点子严格把关。

注释：

[1] 托尼•佩罗泰特(Tony Perrottet, )是美国著名自由媒体人、历史学家，出生于澳大利亚，毕业于悉尼大学历史系，现居美国曼哈顿。他曾著有《追寻古罗马旅行者的足迹》等四本游记丛书，三次被评为“美国最好的旅行类作品”。其中《天体奥运》一书，开创性地叙述了古代奥运会的诸多细节。
[2] 约翰•斯坦贝克（John Steinbeck，1902-1968）美国作家。生于加利福尼亚州的一个中产阶级家庭。小时候生活在小镇、乡村和牧场，热爱乡野的自然风光。受其母亲的熏陶，很早就接触欧洲古典文学作品，深爱《圣经》亚瑟王传奇故事的影响。1919年，进入斯坦福大学攻读大学。他熟悉并屿社会底层的人们，他的许多作品都以他们为主人公，表现了底层人的善良、质朴的品格，创造了“斯坦贝克式的英雄”形象。30年代末，蓬勃发展的工人运动使斯坦贝克受到很大的影响。1937年和1947年，斯坦贝克两次访问北欧和苏联。
[3] 弗拉基米尔•纳博科夫(Vladimir Nabokov，1899-1977)，俄裔美国小说家、诗人、文学批评家、翻译家、文体家，其代表作有《洛丽塔》、《微暗的火》等，1973年因其终身成就被美国授予国家文学金奖。鳞翅昆虫学家，国际象棋、网球和拳击高手，精通并熟练运用俄、法、英三门语言，纳博科夫是一个奇妙的混合体。
[4] 布鲁姆斯伯里团体（the Bloomsbury Group）是一个英国二十世纪初号称“无限灵感，无限激情，无限才华”知识分子的小团体。有作家福斯特E.M. Forster、女作家弗吉尼亚•沃尔夫Virginia Woolf、英国历史学家和传记家里顿•斯特拉奇Lytton Strachey、大名鼎鼎的经济学家约翰•梅纳德•凯恩斯J.Maynard Keynes等。
[5] 弗吉尼亚•伍尔芙 （Virginia Woolf，或译弗吉尼亚•伍尔夫，1882－1941）英国女作家，被誉为二十世纪现代主义与女性主义的先锋。两次世界大战期间，她是伦敦文学界的核心人物，同时也是布卢姆茨伯里派（Bloomsbury Group）的成员之一。最知名的小说包括《戴洛维夫人》、《灯塔行》、《雅各的房间》。
[6] 威尔士的基拉尔德(Gerald of Wales,1146–1223) 是中世纪的神职人员及年代记编(记录)者。
[7] 简•莫里斯 (Jan Morris,1926.10- ）被欧洲文学界誉为“20世纪最优秀的叙事作家”。
[8] 格利木•德•拉•雷尼埃尔(Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière, 1758–1837)学所的是法律,在拿破仑时期因其讲究美食的生活方式而闻名。
[9] 莫里斯•巴雷斯(Maurice Barrès, 1862-1923) 法国小说家、散文家。早年受到浪漫主义作家特别是波德莱尔的影响。他观察事物,觉得能捉摸到的唯一现实是自我。最初出版的小说是总题为《自我崇拜》的三部曲：《在野人眼前》(1888)《自由人》(1889)《贝丽妮丝的花园》(1891)。他的作品提倡有系统的自我修养。
[10] 科莱特(Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette 1873–1954) 原名西朵妮-加布丽埃尔•科莱特，不但是法国二十世纪煊赫一时的大作家，还是记者、演员、剧作家和戏剧评论家。她创作了五十部反映法国社会生活的文学作品，今天依然脍炙人口，广为流传。
[11] 乔治•西默农（Georges Simenon，1903-1989），世界闻名的法语侦探小说家，作品超过450部，全球销售超过五亿册，是全世界最多产与最畅销的作家。他的作品还被翻译成50多国语言，改编成50多部电影及电视剧。当代史学大师霍布斯邦赞扬西默农是唯一将侦探小说转变成真文学的作家。
[12] 皮埃尔•阿苏里 (Pierre Assouline,1953-) 作家兼记者，曾出版过几部小说和传记，也曾为报刊及广播节目投稿。
[13] 阿兰•德波顿（Alain de Botton, 1969-）毕业于剑桥大学，现住伦敦。著有小说《爱情笔记》、《爱上浪漫》及散文作品《拥抱逝水年华》、《哲学的慰藉》等。