The Woman Who Paid Actresses to Read Her Book

By Maryann Yin on August 3, 2010 2:30 PM

Novelist Jennifer Belle decided to be proactively hands-on with the publicity for her latest release, The Seven Year Bitch, by hiring actresses to read from it in the subway and various NYC landmarks. Belle’s publicity strategy garnered the attention of The New York Times, The NY Post, Judith Regan‘s Sirius radio show, and several blogs.

Belle requested that respondents be ages 25-75 and possessed infectious laughs. More than 600 actresses applied for the job sending headshots, resumes, and cover letters with anecdotes about their “compelling laughs.”

Some of those “laughs” were recorded and uploaded online with links provided for Belle’s viewing pleasure. A smart few professed a love for the author’s previous publications and were brought to the top of Belle’s list. The actresses were hired for an hourly salary of $8.

In a blog post for Publishing Perspectives, Belle explains how she conceived the idea: “In China, and in many countries, when a loved one died, you hired people to sit in the back and cry–sob, weep, bellow, really, really grieve … I joked with my writer friends that one day, if I got desperate enough, I would hire people to read my book on the subway and laugh. Then, this year when the independent publicist my publisher hired to promote my new book The Seven Year Bitch got me no publicity whatsoever, I decided to do it.”