The June/July issue of Poets and Writers features a profile of "young writers to watch for," or some such title of enthusiastic promise. Among the writers discussed is James Kaelan, who will be biking up the coast of California to promote his new book. Not only is Kaelan a "young writer to watch" he also sports an impressive tattoo on his chest and a physique most writers only write about.
Perhaps then it's not surprising that P&W used a photo of the shirtless author on their frontcover. Yet it makes me wonder if the new paradigm of book marketing is based on the appearance of the author. It used to be that an author's photo was plastered on the cover of a book or the cover of a magazine because her or his work was well known or respected. I wonder, based on P&W's latest cover, if the same beauty-based model that has infiltrated the music business is creeping into publishing as well.
I suspect, way down in my potbelly, that aesthetic marketing of books and authors has always been. It's just that most authors are too homely to market for anything but their work.
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