Definition of Irony

A recent poster to a service that links journalists with sources wrote that he was looking for suggestions for "eye-popping, mouth-opening, 'nobody in their right mind would ever do this' ideas to help draw attention to (a) ... book on the element of surprise in marketing."

The poster goes on to say that, "a book on this subject MUST be marketed differently, so go ahead...Surprise me!"

Well, color me surprised -- for two reasons -- and I haven't even seen any of the responses.

First, these services position themselves as resources for journalists, not as forums for soliciting free marketing advice for people trying to sell products. I'm surprised that such a blatant request for unpaid consulting services made it to the query list.

More importantly, though, why is the author of a book on the element of surprise in marketing asking others for surprising marketing ideas for his book? Is this the definition of irony or what?

If I were this guy's editor, I would be wondering if I had the right author for this project.