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Online book promotion: The French strike again! 9/7/2010 7:10:43 PM
While in Paris earlier this month I met with the publisher who is going to publish my latest novel, "Metaphore du rapide". I've written it in French, so it was only natural that I'd be using a French publisher (There are excellent publishers in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland, but I don't know them well.). We discussed the story, the writing and other aspects of the manuscript, but of course, the conversation quickly moved on to more prosaic aspects of the publishing process, distribution, marketing, and promotion. Authors are usually heavily involved in promoting their books, unless they're JK Rowling or Stephenie Meyer. We spoke of a book launch, of book signing sessions, press interviews and other events, but I was quite surprised that no mention was made of the Internet. When marketing and promoting works in English, I've always been asked by my publishers to establish an electronic presence, ranging from a personal website to this self-indulgent blog or sites such as goodreads.com or authorsden.com. My French publisher smiled when I mentioned this and assured me that no such thing would be required from me for my latest work. The French, as he kindly explained, do not use electronic promotion as much as we do in the Anglo-Saxon world - at least as far as books are concerned. No presence in numerous websites is required. I was shocked, but delighted, I must admit. I love the Net and my rantings on it, but I was more than a little worried about having to duplicate my work in another language. My free time is limited and I was reluctant to see it disappear in a French Web presence. My publisher went on to tell me that the French are not very sensitive to online promotion. As it happens, e-reading is not developed there either. Yet. I doubt this will last. I predict a great future for French e-books, too. But until the French wake up to online book promotion, I can breathe a little.
