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Dismayed authors respond to the news that a fancy jeweler paid a noted novelist to put its products front and center in her new book.

By M.J. Rose

Sept. 5, 2001 | There's nothing novel about art patronage. Prince Esterhazy paid Haydn to write music, and Pope Julius II engaged Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of a chapel -- and, as the New York Times reported on Monday, last year an Italian jewelry firm hired British author Fay Weldon ("The Life and Loves of a She-Devil") to write a novel that was privately published and given to 750 special clients.

Now, this fall, that novel will go public when "The Bulgari Connection" is published in England and in America (November, Atlantic Monthly Press). And as well-written, witty and wicked as Weldon's 22nd book may be, its genesis is guaranteed to get even more attention than its literary merit. While Jane Friedman, chief executive of HarperCollins Publishers enthused about the deal to the Times, calling it "fantastic" and saying it has given her "lots of ideas," not everyone sees literary product placement as a nifty new marketing tool.

"For a novelist to celebrate a corporation for a fee is a revolting idea," said Jason Epstein, author of "Book Business: Past, Present and Future" and former editorial director of Random House.

Never mind that Epstein has been reporting on the death of publishing as we know it since late 1999, calling for a revolution that includes authors' turning to self-publishing and the prediction that print-on-demand kiosks in Kinko's will replace many bookstores.

He still feels that what Weldon has done is going too far. And Epstein is not alone. Dozens of authors reacted negatively as well, when they learned of this new form of product placement. However brilliant the lines Weldon may have penned to tell this story, it is the line she may have crossed by writing the book itself that has become cause for comment.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon ("The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay") called it a "lame idea."

Rick Moody ("The Ice Storm," "Demonology") said: "You don't want to judge another writer, and certainly not a British writer of considerable standing, and yet you do sort of want to say, uh, don't your books sell enough copies already? Don't be a jerk!"

And Ron Hansen ("Mariette in Ecstasy," "A Stay Against Confusion") doesn't just think it's the author who will find her reputation damaged or diminished by the deal. He argues that any corporation involved in such a sponsorship will suffer for making such a craven attempt to manipulate buyers.

"It would be one thing for Philip Morris, say, to award $500,000 to a writer because the corporate board was knocked out by the writer's art and wanted to see more of it, and quite another for them to expect a protagonist to light up after sex or whenever he's in a quandary," said Hansen.

But she who will be seen as the devil by purists laughs off her critics. Weldon declares, "Product placement or none, this is as good a novel as I've ever written."

Admitting that she probably would have turned down the offer if it had come from the makers of a less prestigious product, such as Wrigley's Chewing Gum, Weldon said that Bulgari offered her total artistic control and a nice amount of money for three months' work.

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