After my little rant about author websites the other day, it's nice to see that novelist Tan Twan Eng now has a very nice site up for The Gift of Rain (due out in the UK March 8th).Do come and meet him, and cheer on his first public appearance (outside law courts, I suppose!) on Wednesday night at Central Market Annex. And cheer on our other Malaysian authors too Kam (no website yet) Raslan and Dina Zaman . (These guys should have no stage fright left after all those readings at Seksan's.) 'Tis as good a time to shout Malaysia Boleh! as any.
But while on the subject of web presence and the lack thereof, would love to ask why local publisher Maya Press does not have a website? There is a website for another company with the same name, ironically.
I picked up a collection of Shirley Lim's poems from Silverfish the other day. Listening the the Singer. The book is beautifully produced - nice layout, good paper, gorgeous cover. The poems I know I'm going to enjoy and I have it by my bedside to dip into.But when I wanted a pic of the cover so I could enter it into LibraryThing (geeky me!) couldn't find anything about it online. Couldn't, as I say, find anything about the publisher, even.
The picture you see here is only on the internet because I scanned it in.
Now Maya Press have some excellent local books in their range - do check them out when you drop by Raman's place. But it makes me wonder why the company is so slow to promote its efforts? And is this fair on the writers it represents?
Shirley Lim doesn't have a website either, though she is mentioned on plenty of others (including this). When we heard her speak at Silverfish some months back, she talked about how hard it was to sell copies of her novels. A decent author's website might help her reach a wider audience.
Talking about Dina as I was, she was on Al-Jazeera yesterday. She called me to tell me but I was so blur that I went and forgot and now feel very guilty. Her book is going to attract a lot of international attention, I think.
*Pic nicked from author's website. Since he's a lawyer specialising in intellectual property by day, I have to pray that that he doesn't mind too much!
12 comments:
Shirley Lim's book's cover is absolutely gorgeous!
I'm very much tempted to poke in Raman's next time to pick up Shirley Lim's poetry. Sounds like a wonderful collection.
Good for Dina. I'm quite sure she'll receive international attention, which will likely open many doors overseas, such as research fellowships etc. :) My concern and hope though is that she won't receive a firestorm of criticisms back home, which will be really sad and perhaps limit the good work she wishes to do. Pls send her my regards... (she's in my list of pp to meet in KL)
sharon i am about to cry. they edited one part out. and my sisters said i fidgeted too much. 'macam monyet'. hayoh.
dreamer idiot - thanks. i'm bracing myself though i am telling myself that all will be well....
sympozium - the book is so nice, which is why it seems do daft not to have publicity for it
dreamer idiot - yes, fingers crossed for dina. book is v. enjoyable but also full of fascianting insights
i'm sure you were great, ms d. tv terrifies me. someone offered to pay me good money to do a breakfat tv slot, but i was too freaked out byt the thought
Forgot to further extol the virtues of Jeanette Winterson's website - there are also audio excerpts from her readings of her books. Think all authors should add this to their website - was thrilling for me as a reader to hear her voice (since I can't attend her readings in London) and I think it might help to sell the book too!
Sharon - good post. But better to have no website than a hopelessly out of date one like mine! Congrats to Dina.
Dreamer I says (about dina) ...My concern and hope though is that she won't receive a firestorm of criticisms back home, which will be really sad and perhaps ...
and why not? healthy constructive criticism or even any criticism for that matter is good ...and i for one will not hesitate to crucify her in my friendly manner if she disparages my fellow 'islamists' and the so called islamic terrorists...wait for her 'i'm muslim' with bated breadth...
I will be there. With a friend.
Greenbottle is as controversial as ever. Haha. Yeah, criticism is necessary and very much part of the whole process, especially constructive ones.
greenbottle has a huge big fat crush on me.
you try anything funny, i'll cut off your goolies :D hahahahaha
sharon, thanks so much for your help. am pie eyed from the proof editing and make-up etc. i want my bed!!!
weyhey...reading from previous posts i noticed that you're not an 'item' of anybody ms D, so why not eh?... and anyway i'm polygamous by nature...like ALL males...so...
and somebody mentioned ms D is on David frost ( on as in his program i mean) in al jazeera...my congratulation!!!...anybody know when this will be aired?... wait with bated breadth for this one too...
haha don't think ms d needs polygamous, greenbottle ...
ms d - most welcome. proofreading is a horrible job but i didn't mind because i wanted a sneak preview.
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