Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Petite Anglaise

Her book looks as if it's destined to be a best seller. And if it is, there will be much ink devoted to the digital self-referentiality of the whole project. Catherine Sanderson's fate was probably sealed when the media picked up on the fact that she'd been sacked by the Paris company which employed her for blogging.

She continued blogging, of course. And she finally won her case for wrongful dismissal. And she found a publisher for the semi-autobiographical book she's written and an agent who is cleverly and extremely rapidly organizing American, Dutch and now even German editions.

But the success of her book will owe much to the community formed by readers of her blog, many of whom, like me, have also embedded a promotional widget in their blog's sidebar.

The German edition I particularly welcome, since my daughter would be less inclined to read the novel in English which is, after all, her second language. I just wish the publishing house had shown courage and gone with cover artwork less cloyingly clichéd. Catherine's spirit and spunkiness deserve better.

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