"GLOBAL LITERARY IDOL" -- HOW TO BE A FAMOUS, MAINSTREAM WRITER

On the Flips Listserve, some discussion on mainstream publishing (vs, cough, poetry publishing). Since, while a poet, I also am now a novelist (grin), I deem moiself an expert on such a topic. So, in response to this TIME Magazine article about Modern Book Publishing and Culture (see link below), I suggested in an email entitled "...how you can be a famous mainstream writer", and replicate here:

[Re.] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1873122-1,00.html

Ahhhh....this aspect! So one of the questions, logically, is -- especially as more authors do the smart thing and publish their own works by leveraging off technological advancements -- how one rises from the soup of so many offerings out there. One way is grass roots, as described in the TIME Magazine article, where word-of-mouth can bring attention to a deserving work that initially was self-published but then ended up getting an agent, a mainstream publisher and so on. But, certainly, one can be more proactive. Here's my idea -- a revision of the AMERICAN IDOL talent contest television show! Of, I should say just IDOL since I think the IDOL idea is not original or unique to the U.S....

Anyway, what if we have a GLOBAL LITERARY IDOL talent show conducted through the internet. Anyone can first audition by sending in the first chapter of the novel. These could be whittled down, as they do on IDOL, to the most promising (perhaps by a judge of established literary authors -- please, no Paula equivalent, okay?)....and then, the whole internet world can participate! The semi-finalists or finalists can keep posting subsequent chapters. After each chapter, the internet audience votes....and so on until a winner is declared (presumably, many but not all of the chapters would have been posted so that the winner then would still have the entire book to release....and it'll be released to much attention and curiosity about it based on the IDOL-whittling down process....

And, like the T.V. IDOL, the beauty of this talent contest is how it creates the audience by the time the (winning) book is to be released and it, economically, probably isn't that expensive to do ....

Laugh if you have no vision. Personally, I think this idea would work! Feel free to co-opt, ye struggling mainstream publishers!