Virginia Author Stages Kidnapping, Sells Book

Have you ever considered staging a kidnapping to get your book out there? Mark A. Davis not only has thought about it -- he's done it.

His new book, Rejection, is about a failed novelist who takes the initiative after years of rebuffs from publishers, finds an über-successful agent, kidnaps her daughter, and gives her 90 days to get his latest novel in print, The News & Advance of Lynchburg, Virginia reports.

In a very meta mix of fiction and real life, Davis became his main character, Perno Morris, and vented about how unfair the publishing business was on various chat rooms, the newspaper says.

Then I told them I had a plan, and started a countdown to when I would reveal it. That sent a lot of traffic to my website (www.thelastrejection.com), where I had posted the first three chapters of the novel, Davis told the paper.

To top things off, Davis filmed a brief kidnapping video to post on his website -- and emailed agents a message that began, By the time you receive this, I will have already kidnapped your child, Darrell Laurant of The News & Advance writes.

The first phone call I received the next day was at 7:30 in the morning, from an agent, Davis told him. She was yelling at me, saying, 'Are you crazy?'

Crazy enough to sell his book -- to Poinsettia Publications, a small publisher in South Carolina.

On his site, Davis writes that we are in a new world of publishing, especially when it comes to selling novels. No kidding.

His previous novel, End of the Line, was published by Virginia Ghost Publishing in 2007.

Publishers hesitate to dump thousands of advertising and marketing dollars into the work of a first time author. Social networking is the new and best way to reach millions of people and thousands of the reading audience, Davis writes. I hope I provided enough intrigue.

What do you think of Davis' approach? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

And here is his video, titled Do You Know Where Christine McCarthy Is? The footage is pretty innocuous, but grainy enough to be sort of creepy: