Are you doing something cool and unique to promote your book?
Are you finding new ways to get your book in the hands of readers?
Please let me know!
Feel free to e-mail me at:
emdashery AT emdashery DOT com
Are you a writer who's looking to create or improve your Web site? Writer's Digest magazine recently held a contest for the best writer's Web site. You can check out their winner and their finalists for ideas:
Morgan Hunt (winner)
Ellen Behrens
Julie K. Cohen
Dawn Copeman
Alyice Edrich
Anna Marie Junus
Kristen King
Richard Maus
Adam Stemple
Here's the latest installment of Tales from the Slush Pile that's been circulating around the e-mail circuits this week (click on the graphic for a clearer version):
Written by Ed Brian, Tales from the Slush Pile is an original comic strip that follows the trials and tribulations of a children's book writer.
Through Publishers Weekly, you can follow the tale of the Mr. Bunny author from the beginning. It can be a sad, sad tale, but alas, very funny. Check it out...
This is an odd story...The french literary scene is currently enthralled with a...[are you ready for this?]...a novel by an American author.
On top of that unlikely ocurrence, the novel's hero is an SS officer who defends and gives horrific details on his wartime atrocities.
And on top of that, a few critics claim Mr. Little couldn't have written the book himself, and the author only adds to the suspicion by avoiding interviews and award ceremonies.
This is from Jack Canfield in his Barnes & Noble Book Club introduction for: You've GOT to Read This Book!: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life:
Motivational speaker and author, Charles “Tremendous” Jones, once said, “You will be the same person in five years that you are today except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read."
It seems Starbucks (earlier post) has been a tad bit successful in selling Mitch Albom's book: For One More Day. That's 45,000 copies in 3 weeks successful.
More here from Publishers Weekly.
A few days ago I posted about a political race in Texas where the democrat candidate was attacking the republican for having penned a romance novel that the democrat considered "pornography."
Now, another one-time author is seeing his novels used against him in a political campaign. James Webb is a democrat running against George Allen for Allen's Senate seat in Virginia. Webb had a long-time military career, and he's written several military novels, which he's talked about during his campaign. However, the novels apparently contain some pretty racy stuff, that now, eleven days before the election, Allen is bringing to the light of day.
So, a lesson to all you writers considering a future in politics. Be careful what you write about. All's fair in love and politics.
But is this fair? James Webb wrote novels. They're not autobiographies. I wouldn't write the stuff, but should it be used against a writer who was trying to paint a "realistic" picture? Or was he just going for the shock effect, and it's fair that what's disturbing to the reader might be more disturbing to the general public?
This USA Today article has more links and comments on the subject.
Second Life is a web-based 3-D game where members or "residents" build their own life in the second "world." It was started in 2003 and now has over 1 million "residents."
People build homes there, start business, take classes, and seek out entertainment. Residents can buy, sell, or trade things in the marketplace by using Linden dollars that can be converted to US dollars at currency exchanges. As double lives tend to be, some of the stuff there seems seedy, but there are some churches. Here's a cathedral that was built there:
Copyright 2006, Linden Research, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Ah, but this is just a enormous and irrelevant distraction just waiting to suck me into a virtual reality neverland, you say?
Maybe not...
Many real worlds companies have set up shop in Second Life, and now the first publisher is checking it out. According to this article:
Penguin, however, is the first major publisher to dip its toe into the virtual world and, appropriately, it has chosen Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash as the book with which to test the waters. With its invention of the notion of a "metaverse" (a contraction of "metaphysical universe") it is acknowledged as the inspiration behind Second Life and other virtual worlds.
Penguin worked with the London-based virtual world design agency Rivers Run Red to create an in-world version of the book - this offers readers excerpts of the text, an audio clip and a link which clicks through to a dedicated Second Life page on the Penguin website, complete with the opportunity to buy the book at a discount. They are now developing a virtual bookshelf of other Penguin titles for the Second Life resident.
MySpace, YouTube, Second Life -- all parts of the brave new world of book promotion.
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