Publishing innovations: “Bookies” and 2044, the novel

As someone who just published a novel and is looking to market it, I found this idea especially interesting. Deborah Emin of Sullivan Street Press called it to my attention. Now I share it as I can.

Deborah calls the idea an “Itinerant Book Show.” The basic idea is for book lovers to sell books to their friends, and take a commissioned cut of the sales action. The “bookies” can pick their books and pick communities where they want to sell. It’s a hopeful remedy to mainstream publishing and mainstream marketing, which focus on Walmart masses and leave many niches unsatisfied.

In her own words:

Do you like to travel around your community, talk to people about books and create new connections to the people you meet that will lead to a future you cannot in any way predict? If you answer yes to this set of questions, then perhaps you are meant to be a Bookie.

If you’re interested, you can contact Deborah Emin here.

And of course, I have to stump my novel, 2044. 2044 starts where Orwell's 1984 left off. The problem isn't Big Brother and leviathan government. The problem is Big Brother, Inc. and the all-powerful marketplace. If you’re near Washington, DC, I’m doing a book event on January 17 at Busboys and Poets in Shirlington village in Arlington, VA.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future