Some time ago, I dug into Patrick Kiger‘s list of literary one-hit wonders to see what they all had in common.  What I found was that none of them followed what has become accepted as the “way things work” in the book biz.

One of the authors on the list, Ross Lockridge, dumped his masterpiece Raintree County inside a beat-up suitcase in a publisher’s lobby. Not only was it read, it was published, recognized as genius, and later adapted for the big screen.

Of course, Lockridge pulled his stunt in the mid-1940s.

Recently in Los Angeles, a writer tried a similar tactic to get his screenplay read by a literary agent.  Rebuffed multiple times, he decided to leave a briefcase containing the screenplay with the lit agent’s front desk.

The result? The police were called, and destroyed the briefcase with explosives.

O brave new world! That has such protocol in it! So long, Raintree County. Hello, vapid celebrity memoir!