‘So who’s launching your book?’

If you want the media to show up, you must have a celebrity inaugurate it.” Seasoned boutique and jewellery store owners have always known this. Someone innocent once asked, “Why? Do the media buy a lot of clothes and jewellery?”
“No, dummy, the media come marching like a row of ants to a lump of sugar when the celebrity shows up, then buyers come to gawk at who the media is gawking at, and this is how people come to your store,” the seasoned merchant explains.

And the same thing applies to selling books too, now. Books, baubles, blouses... same difference. Beautiful people have to launch them, more beautiful people have to write about them, and only then is a book officially born. Writers may kid themselves, like I once did and say “Hello, I am the celebrity at my own launch, aren’t I?” But that attitude just won’t get the three-ringed circus going. So get with the programme, you writers, musicians and artists who think your job’s done once the creation is done.
 
Full report here Times of India

The Indian book ceremony

Attending a book reading in Bangalore recently, I was struck by how different such events are in India from those in America, and how the contrasting styles epitomize the two cultures. In the United States, the publisher manages the event to celebrate the author and then sell as many books as possible. By contrast, for "the argumentative Indian" it's all about a well-spent evening of discussions and disagreements, regardless of how few copies were sold at the end of it.

Indian book readings are "launches," usually performed by a pair of luminaries who ceremoniously tear open the gift wrapping around a new book and hold it aloft for clicking cameras. Then three to four guests (it helps if they are famous) hold a panel discussion about the work. The book-signing seems almost tacked on, as if selling the book was almost shameful.

In the U.S., everybody accepts that there's a mini cult of personality around the writer. Here is how the Barnes & Noble store in Princeton announced a recent book reading: "Renowned author and Newberry medalist Kate DiCamillo reads and discusses her latest book, 'The Magician's Elephant.'"

Full report here WSJ