The latest controversy in publishing
is the book Meternity,
which is a semi-fictional story
(semi-fictional because the writer
holds the same views)
of a woman who wants to take a maternity leave
without having a child,
viewing it as ‘me time’.
This understandably upset
gazillions of working moms
(the birth of another human being
is definitely not ‘me time’
by any stretch of ANYONE’s imagination).
The writer is an editor of a major magazine
with a mom target.
She has worked for several similar magazines.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
I don’t know what her true goal was
but if it was to sell copies of this book,
it isn’t working.
Her Amazon ranking isn’t anything
to be excited about.
However,
this huge group of readers
now know her name.
A year from now,
maybe they won’t remember
how they knew it
and be more likely to buy
whatever she’s selling.
Bad publicity is almost always bad
in the short run.
In the long run?
It depends on how bad the publicity is
and what your goals are.