We’ve been following the Laura Ling/Euna Lee story here since day one. We were here when they were first caught, when they were sentenced (hilarious conversation under this blog post!), and when they were freed (search “Euna” to see all eight of our blog posts). And as many of us predicted early in the game, one of them has co-authored a book about their ordeal: Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home.
For a student of mass media, however, here is the interesting part. When I first heard that Laura and Lisa, as opposed to Laura and Euna, were releasing a book, I asked, “What happened to Euna? Did they somehow cut her out of the picture?” I know–I think we all know–that Lisa Ling is the major player in all of this. Certainly there were lots of people behind the release, but the description “sister of Lisa Ling” certainly helped to bring much more attention to their plight. I figured that Lisa would be wholly necessary to sell books like crazy, and when I heard that Euna wasn’t involved with the book, I thought maybe she either got cut out or somehow fell out.
However, a quick look on the web revealed that Euna got her own lucrative book deal, and she got it before Laura and Lisa. The wonders of capitalism! Let that be a lesson to all you future entrepreneurs–there’s always enough money to go around.
It may not be a bad strategy. Even though she’s not co-authoring with Lisa, Euna’s book will come out after Laura’s, which means that if they play it right, Laura’s book right now will open up some new questions which may create some demand for when Euna’s story comes out in September. And if I were more entrepreneurial, I’d launch bigWOWO’s view of the incident in December. Yeah.
Anyway, you can buy Lisa and Laura’s book here, and you can pre-order Euna’s book here.
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But here is an...
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Oh yeah, please buy their books and give them more publicity and money.
Nevermind the fact that Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s foolish little adventure in North Korea endangered the lives of refugees and jeopardized underground humanitarian organizations not to mention causing a huge headache for at least two governments dealing with the Norks.
Can it be? Am I actually agreeing with kobukson?
Ditto, smacks of get rich quick by doing something notoriously stupid and hoping you live to sell a book about it.
Beyond that, does their experience really justify 2 full books??!!
.. Day 72 … woke up, fed some rice, slept till noon, ate more rice, armpit smells, went to sleep…
… Day 95 … big daddy Bill came and rescued us… hooray! …
I’m still looking for a stunt to pull. If anyone knows of one, please tell me.
There was a fascinating article in the New Yorker about a woman who escaped from North Korea to South Korea. If I find it, I’ll post it here. In general I agree with you all–it was irresponsible–but at the same time, there probably are some great stories from North Korea that people want to hear.