#WisdomWednesday – Is bad publicity good publicity?

There are some things that most writers have on their bucket list, including hitting the NY Times Bestseller List. If you write anything other than romance, you might also have “appear in the New York Times Book Review” on that list. As a romance writer, being in the Book Review was not on my list mainly because the NY Times normally doesn’t pay much attention to us. They even got rid of the Mass Market Fiction list which is where a lot of romance writers might appear on a list.

Imagine my surprise when I got a note from my publisher that I might be in the Times. It was like a WHAT? REALLY? And sure enough, Mr. Robert Gottlieb included ONE SUMMER NIGHT in his “Round Up of Romance” http://nyti.ms/2xxXZ78.

I have to admit that when I first read the review, I didn’t know what to make of it (besides the weirdness factor of having an 86 year old man think that ” The sex between Maggie and Owen is equally delicious . . .”)

And then came all the commentary about the “Round Up of Romance” and the ensuing justification by the NY Times Editor for choosing Mr. Gottlieb to review romance and the manner in which he reviewed it (see below).

So for today, I’d be interested in hearing your take on the “Round Up of Romance” and whether bad publicity is just as good as good publicity.