Several authors are giving eBay users the opportunity to bid on having their names put in upcoming novels. It varies a bit with each author, but that’s the gist. The money will go to The First Amendment Project (FAP), a legal defense group which I hope defends all infringements on free speech, free press, free religious exercise and gathering, not just liberal ones. The most recent example I found on FAP’s site is a defense of a political artist whose printing company destroyed or rejected a couple offensive compositions regarding Bush and Abu Graib. But maybe FAP defends more than the reprehensible. If you don’t care to bid on placement in a book, you can donate $35 to receive an FAP “Generate Degenerate Art” thong.
But back to the authors. Bidding on several authors has already ended. One person won placement in Stephen King’s next zombie thriller, Cell, with a donation of $25,100.
Dave Eggers offers: “The winner will be featured in a strange illustrated story I’m working on called The Journey of the Fishes Overland. The winner, or someone of her/his choosing, will be encountered by the traveling fish in question, as they travel over land. It could also be a family, a house, an address, whatever. I get to decide why the fishes see this person/place, and what’s said by/to or done by/to the person/place. This story will be finished and published in the fall. The name/s have to be tasteful and be undisruptive to the narrative. I reserve the right to refuse using a name I find offensive.”