links for 2010-11-07

• Mark Twain's embargo on his autobiography was brilliant brand management. – By Craig Fehrman – Slate Magazine
  "It's all very exciting. It's also nonsense. There have been three previous editions of Twain's autobiography—published in 1924, 1940, and 1959—and each of them has selectively ignored Twain's 100-year embargo. This makes sense—first, because Twain's instructions remain confusing and contradictory; he wrote 50 years by some passages, 75 by others, and even, by the stuff he warned Howells about, 500 years. But it also makes sense from a marketing standpoint. In fact, each edition of Twain's autobiography, thanks in large part to Twain's embargo, has become a literary event, with scads of reviews, bestseller status, and a side-helping of scandal."
  (tags: marketing history)