Following my recent post on the New Yorker review/essay about Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, I was pleased today to receive a short e-mail from the author, Eric Jay Dolin, which I re-print here:
Thanks for mentioning my book..... Although I enjoyed the New Yorker Review, reading it barely scratches the surface of what my book contains. I hope you have a chance to delve a little deeper into the history of American whaling. LEVIATHAN will be coming out in Australia soon. If you have any suggestions for getting the word out about it in your part of the world, please let me know.I had cheekily suggested that reading the New Yorker review made it unnecessary to actually read the book. Of course, I don't want to cause authors of interesting books to lose money, so I think we should all trust Eric's promise that there is much to be gained by reading the book, and go and buy it when it appears here.
As for publicity, I suggested that there would probably be a few ABC Radio National shows that would like to interview him, and they tend to have a very "bookish" audience too. Anyone with a better suggestion can add it below.
I see from Mr Dolin's website that the book has received quite a few favourable reviews. He also has a list of links that lead to a heap of free on line information about the history of whaling. You can read an 1839 magazine article telling the story of Mocha Dick, the real life inspiration for Moby Dick.
All fascinating.
Your suggestion, of course, only works if one can rely on receiving the New Yorker regularly... though I did get this issue.
ReplyDeleteMind if I ask, though - I assume you're a subscriber - have you had problems receiving the magazine, comparable to mine? (I'm two weeks behind, at the moment. Previous issue was THREE weeks and one day behind! Issue before that was about two weeks behind.)
If they can't get it right, I'm going to toss the subscription in.
I guess he could also make sure to send out free copies for the mainstream papers - The Age, The SMH, and The Australian (not sure what the broadsheet for Queensland is) - and make himself available for interviews.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that it is about whaling could risk offending large swathes of the Fairfax audience, though I'd imagine it would positively delight some of The Australian's readers.
The Age and the SMH (also the Herald Sun) are more likely to do interviews, but The Australian might be quite interested in publishing an excerpt.
Tim, no I don't subscribe, I just read their website regularly. It is one of the more generous magazine websites in terms of the amount of content they provide for free, and that's why I recently teased you about my having read the article before you, a poor paying subscriber. (Although it turned out I was wrong in this case.)
ReplyDeleteWell, if it's any consolation to Mr Dolin, I wouldn't ordinarily think to read a review, or a an entire book, about the history of whaling, but your post offered enough intriguing information that I was compelled to pop over to read the full review.
ReplyDeleteFascinating stuff.
Oh, and I'd entirely forget about the Melbourne Herald-Sun, they don't really *do* books. On the other hand, if some interest from them could be garnered, it would certainly capture a more ... eclectic(?) audience. :-)
His publishers would be all over the PR angle, surely?
There is quite a remarkable appetite for non-fiction, even in subject areas that would seem to be of interest to only a few. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the book does well here. (Pity it won't be out in time for Father's Day.)
And yes, the New York Times is very generous with their online content; beaut of them, really, although it can be tiring reading the longer articles online, so I tend to resort to the old-fashioned, and more civilized hardcopy version (I print stuff out).
The reason that I thought of the Herald-Sun is because they do have a book-review section on Saturday in their liftout Arts magazine. There's usually one or two author profiles featured, and an article where an author is interviewed. The paper as a whole gets more readers than The Age, though it's true, the specifically book-interested audience would instinctively turn to The Age. Oh, and in the Herald Sun, the reviews always seem more practical in tone: 'if you are interested in such and such, give this book a go', or 'this would be an interesting book for your children, though be warned, there are some scenes featuring x and some slightly off-colour language'. That sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteTwo arts bloggers that might know a bit more about this sort of thing are Alison Croggon, who I believed worked with the paper before it actually assumed the name 'Herald Sun', and Chris Boyd, who is a current reviewer for the paper.
Ah, well, there ya go, long time since I've bought a Saturday Herald-Sun Tim; normally only get it on a Sunday, as I like their teevee guide!
ReplyDeleteGiven this new information, I have to agree with you entirely, and it would be terrific PR for Mr Dolin's book, because the Herald does have the larger readership (which I sort of alluded to, in an entirely obscure and meaningless manner).