Somebody Redux

Only a couple of days after making my somewhat tongue-in-cheek post about being someone because I am listed on Wikipedia, I discovered this volatile article. In it, the unfortunate author launched some poorly-researched negative opinions about Podiobooks.com, which touched off a minor dust-storm of flames. The article maligns authors for releasing Podiobooks of their novels stating:

“If you are a hopeless unpublishable author yourself then the site might get you some exposure, a fan base or even lead up to a book deal. It won’t though.”

The article also states:

“The most popular and downloaded book on the site is Ravenwood by Nathan Lowell, a man so un-famous he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page, unlike – for example – George Kobayashi, a Brazilian footballer who played for Japan in 1972.”

The truly fascinating thing here is that Mr. Lowell was signed by Ridan Publishing (my publisher) in early January 2010 who will be publishing his Solar Clipper series of science fiction novels. Aside from disproving one of the number of mistakes in the article, (which I won’t bother discussing here as there are numerous comments following the original post that do a fine job--kudos to the University Observer.ie for allowing both to remain up,) it brings up the question, why doesn’t Mr. Lowell have a Wikipedia page?

I’ve read his first book—-or rather listened to him read it—-and it’s wonderful. Addictive and insightful in the way you end up interpreting aspects of your life through elements of his story, and yet so original in idea and style that major publishers would have a hard time figuring what to do with it. And the man has a horde of fans. Not the nice quiet, stately and reserved types I have, but the rip-up-the-bleachers, paint-themselves-in-team-colors, wait-in-line-all-night, crazed fans. And there are thousands of them. His books have more than a million downloads!

So yesterday, I thought I was finally somebody, but today I have to wonder about an award from an academy who never gave an Oscar to Richard Burton, Cary Grant, or Steve McQueen.