{"id":1987,"date":"2012-12-10T16:46:27","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T22:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2012-12-10T16:46:27","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T22:46:27","slug":"reverse-genetics-ok-but-reverse-shoplifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/2012\/12\/10\/reverse-genetics-ok-but-reverse-shoplifting\/","title":{"rendered":"Reverse genetics, ok, but reverse shoplifting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of us in the biomedical sciences will be familiar with the term coined “reverse genetics-” namely the use of DNA sequences to understand the function of a gene by testing for phenotypes. But how about “reverse shoplifting?!<\/em><\/strong>”<\/p>\n

I recently attended an author showcase (where my own Lab Lit novels, Matter Over Mind<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 and Welcome Home, Sir<\/em><\/a> were prominently featured–and it’s never to late to get a copy in tree or e-reader form! Great holiday gift for your favorite post-doc, student or PI!). But aside from my self-promotion here, I also picked up some rather quirky stories. For example, one about an author who promotes books by “reverse shoplifting<\/em><\/strong>.” Also known as “shopdropping<\/em><\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Well, although familiar with reverse genetics, I had not heard of this new technology–which may or may not be legal. So what is it?<\/p>\n

Reverse shoplifting consists of a technique by which an author walks into a bookstore with several of his\/her own published books, and comes out of the store without them. Why? Here’s the idea: the author places his\/her books facing outwards at eye level in the shelves where the books would be showcased<\/em>–if the book store carried them. The rationale is that eventually customers will pick up the books and decide to buy them.<\/p>\n

Imagine the embarrassment:<\/p>\n

-Sorry sir, it’s odd, but we don’t carry that novel! I just scanned it and don’t see it in the system.<\/p>\n

-Well, could you just do it manually? It’s here in the store, and I’d like to buy it.<\/p>\n

-Uhh, let me call my manager. I’m not sure what to do. Maybe we can call the publisher.<\/p>\n

-Ok, but be quick, I want to buy this and go read.<\/p>\n

I’ve also recently heard of another dubious marketing practice–placing business cards promoting novels in between the pages of best-sellers in the same genre!<\/p>\n

There’s no end to the ingenuity of marketing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of us in the biomedical sciences will be familiar with the term coined “reverse genetics-” namely the use of DNA sequences to understand the function of a gene by testing for phenotypes. But how about “reverse shoplifting?!” I recently … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,50,1],"tags":[70,44,175,604,796,799,797,798],"class_list":["post-1987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-science","category-uncategorized","tag-author","tag-authors","tag-lab-lit","tag-novels","tag-promoting","tag-reverse-genetics","tag-reverse-shoplifting","tag-shopdropping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}