Read A New Author Month

My friend Roger Morris, whose novel Taking Comfort is released next April as part of the first wave of titles to be published under Macmillan's controversial New Writing venture, has come up with the idea of "Read A New Author Month" or RANAM.

Simple idea: Starting in 2006, people will read only novels (or short story collections) by debut writers during the month of April. Of course, Roger's first novel will be published in April 2006... It is not entirely impossible that he initially came up with the idea for RANAM as a bit of a cheeky gag to promote his novel but he has quite rightly realised that the concept is a good one (besides, he will only be eligible to promote his novel once - nothing he subsequently publishes will be by a new author, will it?). It is difficult for new writers to get noticed these days so anything that can give them a chance for some publicity is a great thing.

Roger has set up a Read A New Author Month website that will feature lists of books by new writers currently available and forums where people can suggest titles and discuss the books they are reading. He is also hoping to drum up interest from publishers and maybe even some big-name writers - after all, every author was a new author seeking attention at some point.

It sounds like a splendid idea to me, an idea that could really take off and become a significant event on the literary calendar.

To find out more, go visit Roger's Plog (blog + plug = plog... geddit?).

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