Dave Hill is a novelist, journalist, and now blogger. His site is the place to go for the discerning reader; it’s brilliantly written and wonderfully eclectic. Go see. Anyway, Dave has a new novel out, The Adoption, and I went into Newark on Saturday to try my luck at buying a copy (I avoid, where possible, buying books online). No luck. WHSmiths didn’t have it, and Buy the Book, our local coffee-shop/booksellers, didn’t have a copy either. Bad form you two, bad form.
Now of course it may be that Dave’s tome has not yet been unpacked (or maybe it’s not been sent to these two stores), after all, it has only recently been published and will not be ‘officially launched’ until Monday, but that hasn’t stopped Amazon or Tesco from shipping it (since 24th November), so what are you waiting for? I’ll be popping into town next week to check…
Anyway, this got me thinking: just how powerful can the blogosphere be? Could a blogger campaign actually get more of Mr. Hill’s books in our stores? Aren’t you just a bit pissed off that your local bookseller sells the same old chaff by the same old writers? Wouldn’t you like them to take a gamble on someone different, someone fresh, someone like, oh I don’t know, say… Dave Hill? Take a look in your local booksellers and see if one Mr. Hill’s books are in stock. If it is, email me, and the bookshop will get some praise here for its impeccable taste. If not, then the store gets a very stern dressing down.
I have posted pics of the Dave Hill-less shelves, taken with my cell-phone, on the tygerland photoblog - keep an eye out for more. Oh, and feel free to contribute and email in your pics. If the plan works, then we’ll get other books written by bloggers into stores and literary democracy will be ours.
Newark County Library has two copies on order. Good form, good form indeed.
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Thanks for drawing Dave’s work to my attention. I must get a copy myself.
If you’ve got the time, please launch a similarly vociferous campaign to get my own book, Welcome To The Machine: OK Computer And The Death Of The Classic Album into shops by Christmas. It’s not due for publication until April, and I’m still correcting the proofs, but there’s nothing like a bit of cross-media synergy to assist the marketing effort.
Tim,
If we can raise the profile of Dave’s book, then I’m sure we can look at doing the same for others. It should be fun, so let’s make it happen.
Take a look in your own booksellers next week and report back!
Tim, your book sounds awesome. Definitely drop us a comment when the time is nigh, I’ll be willing to plug it.