A Different Agenda

The publishing giant, Warner Little Brown, must have a problem with its new author, Ashok Banker. For, Banker, despite a whopping advance, has refused to go on a tour to promote his yet-to-be launched book. He wants his book to be sold solely on the merit of his writing. He is also against giving interviews to the media at this moment.

Judging by the current standards, this is something new and unexpected of a market savvy writer. Book tours are quite a norm now-a-days. Salman Rushdie almost always takes a promotonal tour whenever his new book is released. Arundhati Roy did it. Even V.S. Naipaul - our new Nobel-laureate - has, for the first time though, been recently on a tour to promote his latest novel.

Banker is of course no naive nor a mad nut. As one who has been in the writing busines for many years, he must be familiar with the new ways of the publishing world. So why does he a take a different stand and risk his career? Why is he up to a different agenda?

If you take a close look at his attitude and think about it, there is an understated message in it. Why must a writer get down to marketing his own work when a big publisher is handling the project? Is not the marketing a waste of time for a writer who knows nothing about it and could use it more usefully to planning or writing something new? And finally how far is it worth the trouble in terms of real business?

Contrary to our popular conception, the book reading sessions are attended mostly by people who are least related to books. These people rarely ever read or buy books. They come down to such sessions for the sheer fun of seeing an author, to get an idea of his or her looks, dresses or his speaking style. What they invariably love are food and drinks associated with such sessions.

The author is possibly the most pathetic figure in such book sessions. Surrounded by a crowd of smart and well-dressed idiots who grill him with all kinds of silly questions, he does not only feel knocked down, he also gets hurt by the feeling that he's being paraded by his publishing house like an animal in the circus. It is demeaning and crushing for a writer's senses and sensibilities.

What's however more alarming is that more and more writers, especially the female ones, are being forced to become public performers on their so-called book tours. A young Canadian writer, Michelle Berry, had to pose as a corpse to promote her first novel. Yet another writer Margaret Drabble was persuaded sometime back to jump off a huge pile of stacked books to entertain the audience. How outrageous!

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