I was at the LAT Book Festival this weekend and witnessed some real doozies. I was hard pressed to pick a winner for the funniest BPS moment but I think it's a tie between the lady who had her nine year old kid wearing a sandwich board of her book cover and the genius who put up a pocket file full of "free poetry" on the back of the door to one of the stalls in the ladies room.

The sandwich board idea was obviously a flop, since I remember the unsure look on the little girl's face and the mom leaning in and telling her "It's working, see, people are noticing you!" but I couldn't recall the name of the author or the book with a gun to my head. On the other hand, the pocket folder of free poetry was empty, so clearly somebody took it. Maybe the stall ran out of toilet paper.

Apologies to either of those two ambitious individuals if they are reading this, but honestly kids, that's really a bit much.

What was the silliest, most over-the-top promotional trick you've ever witnessed. Book covers painted on elephants? Tattooed on bellydancers? Custom condom wrappers? (Hey, wait a minute... MONEY SHOT condoms. Hmmm........)

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What the hell was the original question?
BSP---Bull-Shit Personified. ---Word of Mouth---that is how I try on every new writer...
Yeah, they are just like us, only we can try them on, one leg at a time.
A couple of women came to the last Bouchercon dressed as chefs -- complete with whites, aprons and enormous toques, waving spatulas. Everyone averted their eyes. They should have waved knives.
The funniest BSP I've seen: An author friend with a pro-golf tour murder mystery once did a book signing in a lingerie shop for Valentine's Day. She pitched the book as a gift for the sports nut who might share nuts with the one who wore the lingerie. Is that fore! play? As a back-up plan, he can read the mystery while she reads a romance. I think that's called "two-play." I laughed, but she made good sales!

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