Dan Brown Billboard

Is it only me or is there something strange in spending millions on a campaign to promote a book that is guaranteed to fly off the shelves without any publicity?
In Cape Town a building - one where people live and work - has been transformed into a billboard. This building is well-known as an advertising space. A number of products have been advertised on it already. But. Why, why, why a book that is already successful?
The book is Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Yes, the author who penned The Da Vinci Code and pocketed millions of dollars. The book that one could not escape. You saw people reading it everywhere - from the beaches in Kenya to aid workers in the refugee camps of the Sudan to commuters on the London underground.
The first print run of The Lost Symbol (published by Bantam Press) is a staggering 5 million copies. Five million. Just imagine the author getting R10 per book. The mind boggles at how much he is going to earn with just the first print run. And then there is the added income generators; public appearances, acting as MC at functions etc. etc.
Good for Brown, I say. He has found a recipe that works. That makes people want to read his books.
But back to my grief. Why is the huge building not rather used for promoting other books? There are hundreds of South African authors struggling to make a living. This country has a relatively low liteeracy rate. And those who can read often don't. The sad fact is that many who do buy books, spend their cash on works by well-established foreign authors. It is great to spend money on promoting a book, but imagine how many readers could potentially be guided to local authors by this building-as-billboard.
Cape Town is a city with thousands of tourists. Wouldn't it be great if their interest in lesser known South African authors could be piqued by the billboard?
There is renewed interest in South African fiction thanks to the fact that J.M Coetzee (he of Disgrace fame) is in line to receive the Man Booker Prize for the third time. Shouldn't South African publishers cash in on the interest in South African literature?
Here's to hoping that we will soon see truly South African literary products being promoted in public spaces. © Copyright Stephanie Nieuwoudt.