Barry Max

Max Barry is an Australian who pretended to sell high-end computer systems for Hewlett-Packard while secretly writing his first novel, Syrup (1999). In fact, he still has the laptop he wrote it on because HP forgot to ask for it back, but keep that to yourself. He put an extra X in his name for Syrup because he thought it was a funny joke about marketing and failed to realize everyone would assume he was a pretentious jerk. Jennifer Government, his second novel, was published in 2003 without any superfluous Xs and sold much better. Max's third novel, Company, was published in 2006, and his fourth, Machine Man, is due in 2011.