How Writers Build the Brand
看作家如何打造品牌

By Tony Perrottet
托尼·佩羅泰特[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，現(xiàn)如今，寫書本身并不是件難事，倒是臨近出版之前，我們才需要打起精神、全力以赴地應(yīng)對真正的文字工作，即瘋狂的自我宣傳。在新書出版前的幾個星期，我們就得向所有親戚、朋友、以及叫不上名字的泛泛之交，鋪天蓋地地發(fā)送獨(dú)具特色的電子郵件或臉譜（Facebook）快訊；為了能讓個人網(wǎng)站煥然一新，我們不得已還得掛上年輕得令人生疑的作者照片；我們嘗試著通過博客、推特（Twitter）短訊以及優(yōu)土必（YouTube）網(wǎng)站的宣傳片，沒完沒了地向早已深受資訊所累的大眾介紹我們的每場宣讀會、每次簽售、每篇書評、每個訪談以及（當(dāng)然，幻想一下總是可以的）每回在電視上露臉的機(jī)會。

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.?
如今這個時代，對大多數(shù)作家而言，除了不必親自經(jīng)營一家出版社，其他所有與出書相關(guān)的事宜我們都得親力親為。其中，自我宣傳的做法已如此深入人心，人們對它大多已經(jīng)習(xí)以為常。可是，每次自己在新書出版之前，還是會覺得大肆造勢宣傳的做法有些欠妥，總得努力擺脫這種不安的情緒。要我像偉哥銷售員那樣去兜售自己的傾心之作，總歸是會讓人覺得與文學(xué)這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.?
每當(dāng)心中泛起疑惑，我就去從歷史中找尋安慰。每每想到文學(xué)大師們也曾對“文學(xué)賣淫”乖乖就范，我的意思是，也曾進(jìn)行過自我推銷，我總會感覺心里踏實(shí)了許多。

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.?
最富盛名的法國小說家也意識到了公關(guān)的必要性。巴爾扎克在他的經(jīng)典小說《幻滅》中描述了十九世紀(jì)初巴黎文學(xué)界的生活，其中，他寫到：“對于藝術(shù)家而言，亟待解決的問題是如何讓別人知道自己。”而另一位文學(xué)巨匠——司湯達(dá)也曾在自傳《自我中心回憶錄》中談到：“如果沒有一些厚顏無恥的勁頭，甚至是一些不折不扣的“江湖騙術(shù)”，想獲得巨大的成功，簡直是癡人說夢?！边@些話著實(shí)應(yīng)該作為箴言寫進(jìn)作家協(xié)會的徽章。

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.
海明威別出心裁的自我宣傳手段，為現(xiàn)代社會樹立了珍貴的典范：各種宣傳照記錄下了他的狩獵行程、垂釣之旅以及戰(zhàn)地歷險，這些都被拿一一來提升他的形象。而同時，他也接拍啤酒的廣告。1951年，《生活》雜志刊登了他為百齡壇啤酒代言的跨版廣告，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。馬修?J?布魯克里和朱迪斯?S?褒曼在他們編寫的《海明威與成名之道》中，悉數(shù)了海明威在泛美航空公司以及派克鋼筆廣告中的瀟灑出鏡，他無時無刻不在經(jīng)營自己的知名度，不亞于時下的名人詹妮弗?洛佩茲或勒布朗?詹姆斯。另有一些美國作家顯然是從海明威身上得到了啟發(fā)。約翰?斯坦貝克[2] 在1953年也開始為百齡壇“當(dāng)托兒”代言，建議人們在一天的辛苦耕作之后，來上一杯冰涼的佳釀。就連弗拉基米爾?納博科夫[3]也留意到自我營銷的重要，他含蓄地向攝影編輯提議，把他拍成一名鱗翅目昆蟲學(xué)家——頭戴帽子，身穿短褲，腳蹬長襪，精神飽滿地在林間穿梭。（“其實(shí)，還有一些其他的精彩創(chuàng)意可以拿來拍我：比如，身體健碩而身手敏捷的我，正在小心追逐一只珍稀的昆蟲，或正在將它從花頭上兜入網(wǎng)中，”他饒有興致地說。）大洋彼岸，早在二十世紀(jì)二十年代，布魯姆斯伯里[4]團(tuán)體也已定期為英國《時尚》雜志拍攝時尚照片。1925年，一向不修邊幅的弗吉尼亞?伍爾芙[5]甚至跟隨該雜志的時尚編輯，在倫敦的幾家法國時裝店完成了一次以“漂亮女人”為主打風(fēng)格的購物之旅。
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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.?
其實(shí)，自我宣傳的傳統(tǒng)在相機(jī)發(fā)明之前就已經(jīng)存在了幾千年。公元前440年前后，早期希臘作家希羅多德就出資在愛琴海地區(qū)為自己的新書進(jìn)行巡回宣傳。奧林匹克運(yùn)動會期間，他在宙斯神廟向有錢的社會名流誦讀自己的著作《歷史》，由此便時來運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。到了12世紀(jì)，神職人員威爾士的基拉爾德[6]在牛津舉辦了一場旨在宣傳自己作品的宴會，希望能夠吸引更多的大學(xué)讀者。簡?莫里斯[7]在其編寫的《牛津版之牛津史》一書中針對此事寫道，基拉爾德把各路學(xué)者請至家中，大擺宴席整整三天，席間除了奉上美酒佳肴，更是少不了長篇誦讀他自己的經(jīng)典篇章。不過這些學(xué)者的遭遇與那些受邀參加“葬禮晚宴”的賓客相比，簡直是小巫見大巫。十八世紀(jì)的法國人格利木?德?拉?雷尼埃爾[8]以飲食講究而著稱，此次召集聚會是為了宣傳自己的大作《反思幸?！?。當(dāng)賓客們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己被反鎖在燭光幽暗的大廳里時，他們的好奇即刻變成了恐懼：用餐的餐桌是一口靈柩，服務(wù)員各個身穿黑色長袍，晚宴沒完沒了地繼續(xù)著，而格利木卻一直在二樓的樓廳處像個觀眾一樣，對大廳里的賓客們出言不遜。直到第二天早上七點(diǎn)，賓客們才終于得以脫身，“格利木瘋了”的傳言也不脛而走——而他的新書卻因此大賣，先后兩次被再版。

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).
不過，這些早期的宣傳動作與十九世紀(jì)盛行的招數(shù)比起來，就顯得相形見絀了。歷史學(xué)家保羅?默茨納在他的著作《藝術(shù)大師的登峰造極：革命年代巴黎的表演、技巧與自我宣傳》中講到，由于技術(shù)革新，巴黎報刊的數(shù)量暴漲，這為宣傳提供了更多可供選擇的渠道?！痘脺纭分校蜖栐藢懙?，當(dāng)時的巴黎，到處張貼著宣傳新書發(fā)行的花哨海報，不過作家們還是用金錢和大餐去賄賂編輯和批評家，只是為了求得一個刊登書評的版面，這在當(dāng)時已經(jīng)成為一種慣例。1887年，居伊?德?莫泊桑花錢在塞納河上放飛了一個熱氣球，氣球上赫然印著他最新出版的短篇小說的名字——《奧爾拉》。1884年，莫里斯?巴雷斯[9]雇了一批人，讓他們在胸前背后掛上兩塊廣告牌，沿街宣傳他的文學(xué)評論期刊《墨跡》。1932年，克萊特[10]創(chuàng)立了自己的化妝品品牌，通過一家巴黎的店鋪進(jìn)行銷售。（悲慘的是，這個文人為產(chǎn)品冠名的首次嘗試，最終以失敗收場。）
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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.”?
美國的作家在這方面當(dāng)然也不會甘拜下風(fēng)。沃爾特?惠特曼匿名為自己的作品撰寫書評的做法可謂是臭名昭著，但在今天的亞馬遜網(wǎng)站這種做法卻已見怪不怪。1855年，惠特曼隱匿真實(shí)身份對自己大加贊美：“美國終于出現(xiàn)了一位吟游詩人，他身材魁梧、傲慢不羈，卻鐵漢柔情，他享受口福之樂，飲酒之趣，男女之歡。他穿著粗獷而隨意，膚色黝黑，胡須濃密?！辈贿^談到創(chuàng)意，仍然沒有人能與歐洲人媲美。也許，最令人震驚的公關(guān)招數(shù)莫過于喬治?西默農(nóng)[11]1927年在巴黎的策劃——那是一個會令當(dāng)今作家都感到心悅誠服的招數(shù)。喬治?西默農(nóng)出生在比利時，主要作品有《馬格雷探案》系列。這位著作等身的作家表示，如果給他十萬法郎，他答應(yīng)在玻璃箱中呆上七十二小時，并完成一整部小說的創(chuàng)作。按計劃，玻璃箱將掛在紅磨坊夜總會門口，公眾應(yīng)邀為小說的人物、題材、標(biāo)題給出意見，而西默農(nóng)則用打字機(jī)敲打出一頁一頁的故事。一家報紙為此打出廣告，承諾說“該創(chuàng)意將產(chǎn)生一部空前的作品：空前的寫作速度，空前的作家耐力，恐怕還包括空前的創(chuàng)作才華”。這是一次出色的營銷策劃，正如皮埃爾?阿蘇里[12]在《西默農(nóng)傳記》中描述的那樣，此事成為當(dāng)時巴黎記者“津津樂道的唯一話題”。

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.)
事實(shí)上，因?yàn)槌兄Z出資的那家報社不幸破產(chǎn)，西默農(nóng)玻璃箱里著書的噱頭未能成行。不過，他還是因此聲名鵲起（并把兩萬五千法郎的預(yù)付款收入囊中）。而這個點(diǎn)子自身也有太多的發(fā)揮空間，故事實(shí)在太精彩了，巴黎人想不談它都難。幾十年過去了，法國記者依然能對紅磨坊玻璃房一事的細(xì)節(jié)娓娓道來，就好似在講述他們的親身經(jīng)歷一般。（幾年前，英國作家阿蘭?德波頓[13]也上演了同樣的戲碼，如果非要說其影響力無法匹敵西默農(nóng)事件的話，其勁爆程度卻絲毫不亞于后者。德波頓在希斯羅機(jī)場搭起一間工作室，足足在里面待了一個星期，成為首位“入住該機(jī)場的作家”。不過與西默農(nóng)所不同的是，其間，他真地完成了一部作品，并且一出版，就被擺在了機(jī)場書店最顯眼的地方。）

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，有哪些是我們可以借鑒的呢？或許沒有什么，但是至少我們可以了解，即便是那些最惡劣的自我宣傳手段，也會隨著時間的推移而得到的諒解。所以，作家同仁們應(yīng)該振作起來。我們可以效仿雷迪?嘎嘎扮上出位的造型，把自己關(guān)進(jìn)籠子，并將其掛在洋基隊賽場的上方——如果哪位同仁不穿什么衣服會更上鏡的話，那也不要浪費(fèi)了身材。
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On second thought, maybe there’s a reason we have agents to rein in our P.R. ideas.
再仔細(xì)想想，或許我們還真的有必要聘請經(jīng)紀(jì)人，好讓他們對我們的公關(guān)點(diǎn)子嚴(yán)格把關(guān)。

注釋：

[1] 托尼?佩羅泰特(Tony Perrottet, )是美國著名自由媒體人、歷史學(xué)家，出生于澳大利亞，畢業(yè)于悉尼大學(xué)歷史系，現(xiàn)居美國曼哈頓。他曾著有《追尋古羅馬旅行者的足跡》等四本游記叢書，三次被評為“美國最好的旅行類作品”。其中《天體奧運(yùn)》一書，開創(chuàng)性地敘述了古代奧運(yùn)會的諸多細(xì)節(jié)。
[2] 約翰?斯坦貝克（John Steinbeck，1902-1968）美國作家。生于加利福尼亞州的一個中產(chǎn)階級家庭。小時候生活在小鎮(zhèn)、鄉(xiāng)村和牧場，熱愛鄉(xiāng)野的自然風(fēng)光。受其母親的熏陶，很早就接觸歐洲古典文學(xué)作品，深愛《圣經(jīng)》亞瑟王傳奇故事的影響。1919年，進(jìn)入斯坦福大學(xué)攻讀大學(xué)。他熟悉并嶼社會底層的人們，他的許多作品都以他們?yōu)橹魅斯憩F(xiàn)了底層人的善良、質(zhì)樸的品格，創(chuàng)造了“斯坦貝克式的英雄”形象。30年代末，蓬勃發(fā)展的工人運(yùn)動使斯坦貝克受到很大的影響。1937年和1947年，斯坦貝克兩次訪問北歐和蘇聯(lián)。
[3] 弗拉基米爾?納博科夫(Vladimir Nabokov，1899-1977)，俄裔美國小說家、詩人、文學(xué)批評家、翻譯家、文體家，其代表作有《洛麗塔》、《微暗的火》等，1973年因其終身成就被美國授予國家文學(xué)金獎。鱗翅昆蟲學(xué)家，國際象棋、網(wǎng)球和拳擊高手，精通并熟練運(yùn)用俄、法、英三門語言，納博科夫是一個奇妙的混合體。
[4] 布魯姆斯伯里團(tuán)體（the Bloomsbury Group）是一個英國二十世紀(jì)初號稱“無限靈感，無限激情，無限才華”知識分子的小團(tuán)體。有作家福斯特E.M. Forster、女作家弗吉尼亞?沃爾夫Virginia Woolf、英國歷史學(xué)家和傳記家里頓?斯特拉奇Lytton Strachey、大名鼎鼎的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家約翰?梅納德?凱恩斯J.Maynard Keynes等。
[5] 弗吉尼亞?伍爾芙 （Virginia Woolf，或譯弗吉尼亞?伍爾夫，1882－1941）英國女作家，被譽(yù)為二十世紀(jì)現(xiàn)代主義與女性主義的先鋒。兩次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，她是倫敦文學(xué)界的核心人物，同時也是布盧姆茨伯里派（Bloomsbury Group）的成員之一。最知名的小說包括《戴洛維夫人》、《燈塔行》、《雅各的房間》。
[6] 威爾士的基拉爾德(Gerald of Wales,1146–1223) 是中世紀(jì)的神職人員及年代記編(記錄)者。
[7] 簡?莫里斯 (Jan Morris,1926.10- ）被歐洲文學(xué)界譽(yù)為“20世紀(jì)最優(yōu)秀的敘事作家”。
[8] 格利木?德?拉?雷尼埃爾(Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière, 1758–1837)學(xué)所的是法律,在拿破侖時期因其講究美食的生活方式而聞名。
[9] 莫里斯?巴雷斯(Maurice Barrès, 1862-1923) 法國小說家、散文家。早年受到浪漫主義作家特別是波德萊爾的影響。他觀察事物,覺得能捉摸到的唯一現(xiàn)實(shí)是自我。最初出版的小說是總題為《自我崇拜》的三部曲：《在野人眼前》(1888)《自由人》(1889)《貝麗妮絲的花園》(1891)。他的作品提倡有系統(tǒng)的自我修養(yǎng)。
[10] 科萊特(Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette 1873–1954) 原名西朵妮-加布麗埃爾?科萊特，不但是法國二十世紀(jì)煊赫一時的大作家，還是記者、演員、劇作家和戲劇評論家。她創(chuàng)作了五十部反映法國社會生活的文學(xué)作品，今天依然膾炙人口，廣為流傳。
[11] 喬治?西默農(nóng)（Georges Simenon，1903-1989），世界聞名的法語偵探小說家，作品超過450部，全球銷售超過五億冊，是全世界最多產(chǎn)與最暢銷的作家。他的作品還被翻譯成50多國語言，改編成50多部電影及電視劇。當(dāng)代史學(xué)大師霍布斯邦贊揚(yáng)西默農(nóng)是唯一將偵探小說轉(zhuǎn)變成真文學(xué)的作家。
[12] 皮埃爾?阿蘇里 (Pierre Assouline,1953-) 作家兼記者，曾出版過幾部小說和傳記，也曾為報刊及廣播節(jié)目投稿。
[13] 阿蘭?德波頓（Alain de Botton, 1969-）畢業(yè)于劍橋大學(xué)，現(xiàn)住倫敦。著有小說《愛情筆記》、《愛上浪漫》及散文作品《擁抱逝水年華》、《哲學(xué)的慰藉》等。