‘All publicity is good publicity,” Susan Meachen thought to herself as she prepared to stage her suicide. In September 2020, Meachen, the self-published author of what she described as “perfectly flawed” romance novels, logged on to Facebook, pretended to be her daughter and wrote a post declaring herself dead. Meachen’s “daughter” continued to post numerous times after that. She suggested that Meachen was “bullied in the book world to the point of suicide” and encouraged people to buy Meachen’s “final” book. Then, plot twist: last week, Meachen posted on Facebook again to declare that she wasn’t actually dead. Surprise! “Let the fun begin,” she added.
My very first sentence, by the way, was – like Meachen’s death – part fiction. I have no idea what the romance writer was thinking when she offed herself online. Nobody does. But people have a lot of questions. Meachen has alluded to mental health problems, which should obviously be taken seriously – but that still wouldn’t excuse using your fake death to try to hawk books, as has been suggested in the days since she announced her resurrection. People in Meachen’s writing community are furious. “I think she believed that if she died, her books would get attention,” an author in Meachen’s writing circle told the BBC. “Now, this is a new gamble: ‘Hey, if I come back, that will get everybody stirred up and maybe that will get my books popular,’ instead of just being a good author.”
Faking your own death is unethical. But you know the most twisted part of it all? The stunt may actually help Meachen sell books. We’re often told that hard work and talent pay off, but the unfortunate reality in media is that getting yourself loads of PR is probably more effective. Just look at Anna Sorokin, the convicted con artist known as the “SoHo scammer”, for example. The fake heiress may have spent time in prison for her scams, but she also got her life turned into a Netflix series – and was reportedly paid $320,000 for that privilege. The moral of this story? Sometimes it pays not to have any morals.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
