Monday, December 05, 2005

Author goes hi-tec in search of a publisher

Galleycat has a story about how blogs can help publishers to publicise a book. From this I learn, by the way, that there is a US Publishers' Publicity Association which is the equivalent of the UK Publishers Publicity Circle which I mentioned a while back. (Note, by the way, that one uses an apostrophe and one doesn't. And the US one is dead picky about who is allowed to read their stuff.)

Anyway, the point about the Galleycat piece which I want to highlight here is that it mentions a man called Val Landi. Landi was formerly an editor with Bantam and IDG (who?) and then went off to work in dot.com land with LookSmart and Redband Broadcasting. So he knows how to use a mouse. And now he's written a novel. And to help him find a publisher he has set up a flashy web site.

The web site's typeface is far too small for my old eyes, and it doesn't respond to adjustments in the browser, but apart from that the whole site is definitely on the hi-tec and flashy side. You get to download a chapter in pdf, and a whole lot more. And all this, just to get a publisher interested? Jeez. Us guys with the quill pens are going to have to watch ourselves.

There's a blog too, of course. And it is seriously worth reading. This man is not unconnected with the good and the great. He has worked in some top media machines. And here's one of his first comments:
How do first-time authors who are not global brands, break out? We use the power of the Web to create a global market to generate word of mouth and interest on a scale that leapfrogs and transforms the industry as it exists today. We have to pioneer on the creative, pre-publication side, what Jeff Bezos and Barnes & Noble and soon Google, Yahoo, and MSN have pioneered on the distribution side. The Road To... will chronicle this experiment as my weekly blog. I invite you to join me in the adventure, follow the defeats and victories, and the topics and emerging themes of the 21st Century that form the substance and plot of A Woman from Cairo.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting concept

Anonymous said...

As a BlogBeggar perhaps I have no business commenting but his method, while no doubt a brilliant marketing idea, has a whiff of square-jawed-American-media-savvy-gun-toting-desperate-underworld-wind about it. A little 'icky'. But again, I understand why he's doing it and if there is enough humor involved it could be fun.