Authors and publishers who are still wondering what kind of information they should be putting on this thing called the Internet should take a look at the website D.F. Bailey has built for his new novel, The Good Lie (Turnstone Press). He’s got a detailed synopsis of the book, the first page of text, and book club questions – but that’s only scratching the surface. Also on the site are an essay about the genesis of the book, a “novel diary” with notes made during the years Bailey was writing the novel – including material that he cut from it – plus a bio of Turnstone editor Wayne Tefs, some of the e-mails that Tefs and Bailey traded regarding the editing of the book, and more.
He also links to Turnstone, though, sadly, his book doesn’t seem to appear anywhere on the publisher’s own site. Sigh.
Anyway, Quillblog is impressed – blown away, even. And we have to wonder, if Bailey can do this without the support of a multinational publisher, why is a site like this one such a rarity?
We also can’t help contrasting such a generous, content-rich initiative with the recent embargo trend we’re seeing among large and medium-sized presses – the apparent desire to cling to information jealously.
Writers with some computer savvy and lots of time can compete quite well with industry-supported sites, thank goodness. Given the sorry state of the promotion departments in many publishing houses, doing-it-yourself may be the only way to go. (Oh, I know, I know, promotion people are terribly overworked, but really…)
Mary Novik and her friends at the writer trio SPIN have a very nice site, with lots of info. Here’s what Random House has put up for her: http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385662055
And here’s her own site:
http://www.marynovik.com/
And here’s SPIN’s”
http://www.spinwrites.com/mary.htm
Don’t know if she got supprot from Random House in doing this, but it is very, very nice.
Mary
Hello Derek,
I just happened across your post about my web site (thegoodlie.com) this evening. I’m flattered to read your generous comments about the site — and astounded to see the traffic your blog has generated from Q&Q readers around the world.
Thanks for featuring my site. Let me know if I can provide you with more information about the novel — which should be launched sometime next month, here in Victoria.
Cheers, Don
PS — If you’re in town, let me know, and we’ll invite you to the launch party.