(Masterfully) Rolling Out Michael Lewis’ New Book

Plugging “Flash Boys” on 60 Minutes, Etc.

[Editor’s Note:  see also this later post, “Michael Lewis’ Growing List of Enemies“]

How good is Michael Lewis’ new book, “Flash Boys?”

I don’t know — I haven’t read it (it’s due to be released later this week).

But, I give his marketing campaign for the new book an “A+”.

(Even though there may be just a teensy bit of writer-ly jealousy in what follows . . . it doesn’t mean I’m wrong).

Marketing Blitz

Actors with a new movie coming out appear on talk shows to plug it.

Authors with new books coming out get spots (if they can) on “60 Minutes” to plug them.

And manage to get excerpted in The New York Times magazine (see, “The Wolf Hunters of Wall Street”).

And in an especially deft touch:  they somehow coordinate the book’s release with the New York state attorney general announcing a new, intensified effort to reform the sordid practice — so-called high frequency (or high-speed) stock trading — at the heart of Lewis’ book.

Finally, market-savvy authors stoke demand by otherwise observing a news embargo on the book’s contents (beyond touting it as “lightning in a bottle“), and refrain from publishing new material for months beforehand (other obvious pages from Lewis’ marketing playbook).

Check, check, and check.

Good Cause, But . . .

To be sure, Lewis is a terrific writer (“Liar’s Poker” and “The Big Short” are amongst the best business books . . . ever).

And high-speed stock trading should have been banned long ago (in essence, high frequency trading is a very sophisticated form of front-running, whereby the same stock market players charged with executing orders first peek at them, and execute their own trades nanoseconds before).

But, none of this exactly qualifies as “new news,” let alone breaking news — high-speed trading has been around for several years.

What’s new, at least this week, is . . .  Lewis’ book on the subject. 

Peeling Back the Curtain

Who gets the credit for this masterful rollout?

Certainly, Lewis’ publicist.

But, you also wonder whether corporate tie-in’s and self-interest factored in, as when actors in a new network sitcom are dispatched to talk shows on the same network.

Eventually, of course, it’s a given that other media will pile on, so as not to be left out covering such a, umm . . . breaking story.

P.S.:  Maybe someone who’s practiced corporate law more recently than I have (1992) can explain why high frequency trading hasn’t spawned the mother of all class action lawsuits — by aggrieved investors — long ago.

My theory:  steal a lot from one person or entity, and you’re toast.

Quietly steal pennies (or fractions thereof) from millions of people, and, well . . 

See also, “Boycott Goldman Sachs?  How??“; and “You’ll Know It’s OK to Get Back in the Stock Market When . . .”