About one month ago, the Romanian publisher of The Book & The Eye contacted me asking if I'd be interested in the organization of an event related to the two books, as The Eye has recently been released on the Romanian market. Of course I instantly said yes - how could I have been so foolish? I had written the most wonderful book-party-proposal for The Book, but the party never happened. So I let myself fooled for the second time, and came up with another idea for a book party. This time, it was even better, as the event was to take place during the Book Fair in Bucharest. So I got all excited and wrote the proposal, from the general concept of the party down to the details about posters and other printed materials.
In the meantime, they gave up the whole book party thing and replaced it with a presentation of the book(s) on the fairground, together with the other books in the SF & Fantasy collection. They still wanted me to speak at the event. I, on the other hand, didn't.
No wonder book events never manage to have a (numerous) public. Because publishers still think their job is done once the book is printed, and most of the times they lack strategy, innitiative and courage. And a business plan. Literature does need these things, at least from time to time, but it is advisable to have them on a regular basis, if we expect people to buy books and, well, read them.
No comments:
Post a Comment