Today, I'd like to direct you to The Venus Fix. The author (and blogger and internet advertising guru) M.J. Rose, is looking to match J.A. Konrath's 500 bookstore tour by dropping by 500 blogs. So now she's dropped by mine!

Although Mary and I don't go in for audacious campaigns like J.A. or M.J., we enjoy reading their thoughts on advertising, looking for ideas we can adapt to our own understated style.

Mary and I almost never engage in conventional publicity such as book signings, but we do maintain a presence in cyberspace. In fact, for small press authors like us, the internet probably represents the best opportunity, not necessarily to advertise in the usual sense, but simply to let people know we exist. If we weren't online we wouldn't be...well...anywhere.

And, unlike, The New York Times or Oprah's show, the internet isn't closed to authors without one of the big publishers behind them. M.J., for instance, recently ran Mary's essay on her Backstory Blog.

However, I've noticed that not all bloggers take such an egalitarian approach. Some seem to be a lot more aware of the size of one's publisher than others. In fact, I reckon I've been snubbed a few times. Not often. Not by anyone you'll see in my list of blogs.

I do my best to treat other writers evenhandedly. Cyberspace is immense. A small action can create big ripples. Over the course of a few years you can pile up a lot of good karma or more bad karma than you might think, if you're not careful.

The Venus Fix tackles an entirely different aspect of the internet:

"Despite all our focus on online sexual predators, we are ignoring a very disturbing aspect of the internet pornography problem: the teenage boys who are becoming fixated with women who perform sexually via web cams and the young girls competing with those women.

"When a fifteen-year-old boy can find thousands of beautiful women willing to perform porn 24/7 via web cams, how can a fifteen-year-old girl compete? Comparing herself to a model in the pages of a fashion magazine is one thing… but can she fight for the attention the boys are paying to the online Venus'?"

There's a trailer available which I might be able to see someday if I ever move up to a 21st century computer!