The hand fed me; I bit it

Grateful to the wonderful people at Elliott & Thompson for turning round the book of The Banned List, published today, so well and so quickly.

I have repaid their wonderfulness by writing a bitter and twisted critique of their business, for the excellent Book Brunch, a publishing news website. This is how it starts:

You obviously didn’t get the memo. The one that said the following words and phrases are compulsory throughout the publishing industry. By compulsory, of course, we mean you are compelled to use them. Which is why all new fiction is described as compelling.

Go and read the rest over there.

Meanwhile, continuing my series of celebrity endorsements, here is Louise Mensch MP, formerly Bagshawe (above), who contributed her least favourite word and phrase to the feature in The Independent on Sunday about the book:

Stakeholders – loathe it. I also hate “beyond imagination” used to trail movies, since, patently, it isn’t.

Make your nominations in the comments, or on Twitter, marked #bannedlist.

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• LancashreLad

  Wasn’t she the one who wanted to know if the news Of the world had hacked Dr David Kelly’s ‘phone ? And if so what did they discover?

• porkfright

  How on earth are you managing to do all this advertising [presumably for free] in a respectable daily paper?

• http://twitter.com/EdwardJBrown Edward Brown

  Are “massive heart attack” and “turned the gun on himself” already on the list?

• sceptic64

  Worse than that – I believe he even gets paid for pushing his own products. Quite incredible, isn’t it?

  I have my own Banned List, when it comes to books: it consisted of all Harry Potter books; and that abomination published by Blair (“A Journey?”).

  The list has grown by one.

• Jake_K

  Careful – I asked the same question and John set the Mods onto me!

• hunfred

  I have always hated the sight of Harry Potter books,bloody middle class propaganda,and just legal, rip off.
  Have encouraged kids,grand kids to read Terry Pratchett,now there is an original story teller.

• ARealJournalist

  >>The hand fed me; I bit it

  This title is a good description of the way Rentokill is abusing his position at the Independent to promote his failed book.

  >>Stakeholders – loathe it. I also hate “beyond imagination” used to trail movies, since, patently, it isn’t.

  This is not an “endorsement” of your book. And Louise Mensch is not a “celebrity”.

• coventrian

  Elliott & Thompson take vanity publishing to a new level.

• porkfright

  When [if] my book on Motivic Theme-Development in Western Music 1850-1920 comes out I will be paying for the advertising myself-unless the Indy undertakes to do it, since a precedent has been set.

• porkfright

  yYs, I too have my Banned List-any book by, for, or about Oxbridge politicians who have never had a proper job and don’t intend to get one.