Monday, August 17, 2009

De-Cabbage Yourself! - Step 11

I’ve reached the end, the final step in my Cyclone virtual book tour. Today I’m at New York/Singaporean poet Jee Leong Koh’s excellent Song of a Reformed Headhunter blog. You might get a screen warning you of 'adult content' on Jee's blog, but don't get too excited about that. If anyone is expecting lewd images, they will be disappointed. It's a poetry blog and sometimes poetry has to tackle subjects without worrying whether they will discomfort Google or Blogger or whoever makes these decisions.

I’m talking about beginnings and endings, politics and Scottish nationalism, the promises and dangers of American poetry and culture, the second person, and a shift from narrative.

I’ve enjoyed doing the tour and it’s clearly vital that I publicise my book. I don’t know if the book has sold many copies or not as a direct result (how can anyone measure those things?), but it’s been a good opportunity to reflect on poetry and practice. I’m glad the tour is over though. I’ve felt this blog has become too much like a marketing tool at times, and that’s never how I’d envisaged it. I’ll still try to sell books in other ways, but the blog can now shift from the driving seat.

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