How to Create a Liberal Bestseller

At the Nation online, I recently read:

"At a time when the right is insisting that the left has no ideas and mainstream media seem unwilling or unable to cover progressive ideas intelligently, we must create our own vehicles to carry our ideas to the American public. And we must build upon what we know is possible when the blogs work together. Progressive membership groups should join in, and help to lift up new voices and ideas. It's not about just selling books. It's about making our ideas successful in the marketplace, so that more Americans can hear about them. Successful ideas spread"

Thank you Jennifer Nix! I'm in the final stages of finishing up my next book, Bring Me the Head of Opal Mehta, a 150-page opinion piece about the connections between the Havard sophomore who got "dinged" for plagiarism, offshore outsourcing, and the Narcissus Machine that causes cultures to replicate the aspects of themselves they deem most valuable.

I've been talking to various book publicists, and I'm getting a "pass" from them. They consider the project, consider the ideas, and they decide we're not a good fit. So it goes. These are publicity folks who are working within the dominant paradigm of publicity -- radio, television, print. But not so much the internet.

I'm not sure how much longer the publishing establishment can survive (or compete), given the ability of the internet to spread word like wildfire, and do it in a very believable format. Because the recommendations arriving online aren't coming from established authorities who have a vested economic interest in spreading the word. They're coming from friends and neighbors who people believe and trust, in the first place, without needing to jump through all the hoops of proving how authoritative they are.

The internet and the world wide web may be new phenomena in terms of how the commercial world does business, but in terms of the consumer world, the internet (including e-mail and the web) are already two steps ahead of "traditional marketing", in that they've already got a critical mass of mutually supportive participants who are willing and able to send some dough and mention the way of folks who need their support.