New route for publishing?

EastSouthWestNorth reports on the publication of How Can I Not Slaughter You (叫我如何不宰你), a book about Shenzhen tour guides “slaughtering” tourists:

“This is an example of a business model in the Internet age.  First, one develops a concept for a book.  Under normal circumstances, it would be hard to find a publisher for a controversial proposal from an unknown writer.  So Wu Jingmin published the 90,000-word “How Can I Not Slaughter You” on his blog, and this was subsequently cross-posted in many forums and bulletin board systems.  By now, this lengthy book has received the hype (including a CCTV interview) and gotten the interests from the publishers.  Even though many people have read the book on the Internet, it is not easy to read a 90,000-word book on a computer monitor.  Thus, the printed book still has a market.  Besides, the mainstream media attention has also gotten him a previously unknown audience.”

As was the case with the wuxia novel by the high school droput (blogged here), the internet’s being used to publicize and test the waters for a book that would otherwise be ignored.

Source: EastSouthWestNorth