Why authors reach out on the Web

It wasn't long ago that the only way readers could get in touch with their favorite author was to hope for a book tour docking nearby, or else to send a letter - sure to be tossed into a pile with hundreds of other similar missives - to the author's monolithic publishing house.

Today, however, the loyal reader's options are many. With the advent of the Internet, as well as the proliferation of small presses, book aficionados are now seeing more variety in the marketplace than ever before. Many presses now offer chapter excerpts on the Web, as well as other enticements to get people interested in their authors.

Some writers are taking the new connectivity a step further, developing and running their own websites, offering up such goodies as unpublished works, reading lists, e-mail addresses, and more. To have such a site is a no-brainer, as these authors tell it: They provide loyal readers content they can't get anywhere else, allow the authors to plug their friends, and lend a personal - but not too personal - connection between writer and reader. We invited several writers, via e-mail, to explain their reasons for establishing a Web presence.

"For me, it's a way mostly of keeping things 'in print' that would otherwise go swiftly out ... magazine articles, short essays, incidental pieces. The odd failed bit or rejected screenplay," says Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier" and "Clay" (www.michael chabon.com).

"The e-mail was manageable for a very long time," Mr. Chabon says. "Recently it has become more burdensome, but not by any means a deluge.

"I have learned all kinds of interesting things from readers - bits of trivia, items of expertise, startling personal anecdotes. I have encountered unsuspected lost relatives and been propositioned for acts innocent and dubious. Going to a SF Giants game would be an example of the former."

John Jakes, bestselling Civil War writer and author of "The North and South Trilogy," says he prefers to do much of the work on his site himself (www.johnjakes.com).

"I was in advertising and marketing for 17 years before I turned to full-time writing, hence I figure that I can prepare the site copy as well as some copywriter.

"Since I began my site, 'paper' mail reaching me from the publisher has virtually disappeared (I used to get bales of such letters and cards). I don't know whether this means no one is writing in the conventional way any more, or that the publisher's mailroom is simply not forwarding any mail that arrives there for me."

"We have no trouble with correspondence," says Ishmael Reed, the popular African-American author, essayist, and founder of the online Konch and Vine magazines (www.ishmaelreedpub.com). Reed says his site's visitors query mostly with technical advice.

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