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My book of poetry, Appassionata, was published
earlier this year. That’s when it occurred to me that in the absence
of marketing, there might not be too many takers for new poetry. One
needs to plan an elaborate launch, and in effect, spend oodles of money
on book tours, advertising, publicity et al.
All this is gradually changing. Thanks to cyberspace. I recently discovered
a fascinating website which undertakes the Virtual Book Tour (VBT) at
www.kevinsmokler.com.
It strives to bring together the world of web logging and the world
of publishing, which is waking up to the idea of the personal web to
connect readers and books.
Now pray, what is a VBT? Simply, it consists of an author “stopping”
at a given number of websites in a given amount of time, getting interviewed
there, taking over the site for a day and generally hanging out with
the surfers (potential readers). Basically, it’s like a traditional
book tour, except that concrete cities are replaced by neon-lit websites.
It is essentially cost-effective and you don’t need to book flights,
hotel rooms, rental cars and all the paraphernalia that a young author
or a publishing house may find difficult to manage.
The VBT is the brainchild of Kevin Smokler, who is a writer and a performer,
specialising in literary and popular culture and personal story telling.
He also founded CentralBooking.com—an online community of book
lovers.
Incidentally, Kevin regularly tells stories and monologues at www.frayday.com
and The Edinburgh Castle at www.castlenews.com.
Though a brilliant writer, Kevin is humble about the success of the
VBT. He says he got the idea from Ben Brown (www.benbrown.com)
of the micropublishing house, So New Media (www.sonewmedia.com).
So New Media is an ultra-micro-mini publishing house whose
goal is “to seek out, publish and promote new authors.”
There are thousands of authors worldwide who will never publish a book,
not because they lack talent, but because the gates to the publishing
world have grown too high. Whether it’s an issue of money, courage,
or marketability, hundreds of brilliant pieces of writing go unseen
every year.
I browsed through Ben Brown’s site and experienced its cutting-edge
feel. Ben says that at a young age, he developed strange and wonderful
powers. He wishes he could “shoot webs from his wrists and swing
through the concrete valleys of a major metropolis.” He's not
too sure about the crime fighting bits, though. Ben also edits a daily
webzine called Uber (http://uber.nu).
Thanks to these enterprising guys, you needn’t let that novel
stay put in your hard drive anymore or that killer idea remain sitting
in your brain. If you’re an author interested in receiving a virtual
book tour or a publicist/agent/publisher representing an author or even
a website owner keen on being a stop on the VBT, get in touch with Kevin.
Carry on surfing!
strehan@hindustantimes.com
