Jack Daniel's cease-and-desist letter creates Amazon bestseller

Author Patrick Wensink has had quite the week. A week he wholly deserves, due to his keen sense of self-promotion and a particularly friendly cease-and-desist letter. The Jack Daniel's company sent Mr. Wensink the letter on the grounds of a trademark conflict, since the cover of Wensink's novel, Broken Piano for President, resembles the classic black label and design of the oh-so-good Tennessee whiskey. In most trademark dispute cases similar to this one, the problem is quickly solved when the bigger, more established company (Jack Daniel's Properties) impolitely demands the smaller, weaker brand (Patrick Wensink) to immediately alter the image or logo that has caused the conflict. This was not the case here however, as the letter, which has now gone viral as the nicest cease-and-desist letter ever written, has made the author a recognizable name, among much larger publicity.

Since making the letter available to the public, Wensink and his entertaining collision with Jack Daniel's has been covered globally by a number of publications, including The New York Times, Forbes, Yahoo!, and The Huffington Post. Thanks to all the coverage, Broken Piano for President, which was published by the small publisher Lazy Fascist Press (who is now hoping to get Wensink on The Colbert Report) has comfortably nestled itself among Amazon's Top 100 Best Sellers list. Currently sitting at number ten, a small press title stands only nine spots behind Fifty Shades of Grey. A Wikipedia page for the author has even emerged, and he did not even have to create it himself. The sudden jump in popularity, thanks to Jack Daniel's, an extremely friendly lawyer, and a sly marketing coup by the author, may not put Wensink in the same league as Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson when it comes to booze and literature, but he has certainly made his mark for the time being.

You can read the cease-and-desist letter here.