Want to be in a novel?

The First Amendment Project is sponsoring an auction on ebay at which you can bid to become a "character" in a famous author's next book. Two children's authors will include winners' names in their next offerings--Lemony Snicket and Neil Gaiman.

You may bid to be in Snicket's last volume of Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Thirteenth. Snicket writes that your winning will be, "an utterance by Sunny Baudelaire in Book the Thirteenth. Pronunciation and/or spelling may be slightly 'mutilated.' An example of this is in The Grim Grotto when Sunny utters 'Bushcheney.'" Auction takes place on ebay from September 8-18.

Neil Gaiman is offering your name on a gravestone. Yikes!

This is what he proposes: "My next novel will be called THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. It's a children's novel, and will be published, er, when it's published. Maybe in 2007 or failing that, 2008. It will have lots of gravestones in it. Your name, or the name of someone you love (who won't mind) can be on a gravestone." Auction begins September 15.

I adore Coraline, but I think I'd rather be mentioned by Sunny Baudelaire!