And so it is with the same spirit of pilfering someone else’s good idea that I present the latest gimmicky idea to promote my novel Infoquake.

It’s simple. If your book group wants to read Infoquake, I want to talk to you. If you’ve got a group of four or more and you’re planning on discussing Infoquake, just e-mail me at dedelman@gmail.com and I’ll join the discussion by phone.

If the members of your book group have purchased five or more copies of Infoquake, then I’ll throw in a signed sixth copy for free to the member of your choice.

Now for some nitty-gritty details.

I don’t really care how “official” your book group is. Call it a book group, a book club, a reading group, what have you. If you and three of your friends feel like calling yourself a club for the purposes of talking to me about Infoquake, then that’s just fine. If you want to call a group of people scattered around the country a book group, then we can chat via free conference calling (I personally use freeconference.com). In case you haven’t figured it out, my ulterior motive here is to inspire you to buy four or more copies of the book.

It doesn’t matter how formal the discussion is. If you’re industrious enough to come up with prepared questions to ask me, great, I’ll answer ‘em. If you just want to chat, that’s fine too. And as long as you’re not some group of religious zealots screaming at me for throwing all the remaining followers of major religions into the Pharisee Territories and walling them off, I’m happy to hear any criticisms of Infoquake you have. (In other words: you don’t all have to like the book to talk to me. You just have to buy it.)

Obviously I’m not going to insist on seeing everybody’s receipt for the book and calling up your credit card company to verify the transaction. And I know plenty of people pass around books at groups like this or borrow them from the library. So all I ask is that you try to be honest with me. I’m just a poor working schmuck, after all, and while I don’t exactly bill hundreds of dollars an hour like my wife, my time is worth something.

I’ll try to accommodate your schedule, but can’t make any promises. If your group likes to discuss SF over tea at 3 in the morning my time, fuhgeddaboudit.

You’ll probably want to have a speakerphone handy, obviously. And feel free to record our little chat or transcribe it or what have you, as long as you promise to edit out anything that makes me sound like a complete idiot before posting it for the whole world to hear.

One last detail: I’d be happy to chat with anyone outside the U.S. about the book, but I’ll have to ask you to pay the long distance (or we can chat online or via Skype). Unfortunately I’m going to have to restrict the “free book” part to the U.S. and Canada alone.

I really have no idea what kind of response I’m going to get to this. So let’s see, shall we?

(Oh, and apologies to the ladies in the pic I found on Flickr who have fallen victim to my mad Photoshopping skillz, and who were actually holding someone else’s book. But I don’t apologize too much. Their book looked really, really boring.)

• Rave Intergalactic Medicine Show Review for Infoquake. John Joseph “Slush God” Adams has given Infoquake a superlative review in the latest issue of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, saying: “If all novels were as chockfull of ideas as Infoquake is, then science fiction would never have to worry about a shortage of sense of wonder…. Few first novelists manage as assured a debut as Infoquake; almost all new authors stumble around a bit in their first novel, but Edelman comes off as a seasoned professional.”
• Long Author Interview on LiveJournal Talk Show. Dean Anderson of the LiveJournal Talk Show has published a very long instant messaging interview with me in four separate parts. Most of the discussion about Infoquake appears in part two, with chat about writing, blogging, promotion, and lots more in parts one, three, and four.
• Entire First Section of Infoquake Now Online. The entire first section of the novel, titled “Number One on Primo’s” and consisting of chapters 1 through 7, can now be read online at the Infoquake website. All seven chapters are also available for download in Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, and plain text formats. “Number One on Primo’s” will soon be available in its entirety on MP3 podcast read by me as well.
• Upcoming Appearances. Here’s where I’m going to be over the next couple of weeks:
  • August 25 at 2:30 PM: Group appearance with other Pyr authors, WorldCon in Anaheim, CA
  • August 26 at 2:00 PM: Group signing with other Pyr authors, Borderlands Books tables, WorldCon in Anaheim, CA
  • August 27 at 10:00 AM: Unofficial DeepGenre blog reading at Kevin Andrew Murphy’s scheduled slot at WorldCon in Anaheim, CA
  • September 1-4: Miscellaneous and sundry appearances at Dragon-Con in Atlanta, GA
  • September 5: Reading and signing at Barnes & Noble in White Marsh, MD at 7:00 PM
  • September 7: Reading and signing at Barnes & Noble in Reston, VA at 7:30 PM
  • October 20-22: Panel appearance(s) at CapClave in Silver Spring, MD

While I’ve got your attention, I’d also like to give a shout-out to my friend and former co-worker Steven Oliverez. I recently discovered that Steve published a fantasy novel called The Elder Staves, and, solely through his own promotional wizardry, got the book up to the #25 slot on the Amazon Fantasy Bestseller list. I’ll let the copy of the back cover of The Elder Staves speak for itself:

“The sky-city of Tyr, floating above the frozen wasteland of a dead world, is a place of spells and skyscrapers, where the ruling council of elders struggles to maintain its power against the growing influence of technology. A clandestine rebellion is underway, assassinating nobles and threatening to topple the Council entirely, while far beneath the city a haunting, malevolent presence from Tyr’s mystical past silently gathers strength. But a far more pressing issue is at hand — for the first time since its founding millennia ago, Tyr has begun falling toward the surface.”

Lastly, a few quick links for Infoquake:

• Buy /Review at Amazon
• Buy/Review at Barnes & Noble
• Join the Mailing List
• Discussion Forums