Monday, March 25, 2002, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
Katie Couric not needed if you've got Net
Whether or not you agree with the acid punditry of Michael Moore, his "Stupid White Men" experience is a telling case study in the marketing power of the Internet.
Moore is the "Roger and Me" filmmaker and "Awful Truth" TV producer whose latest book about the Bush administration and American politics has become the publishing phenomenon of 2002.
In three months, "Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation" has gone from a potential date with the shredder to 15 printings and the top of The New York Times' bestseller listings.
What makes "Stupid's" ascension remarkable is that it was accomplished almost entirely outside the publicity mill of mainstream media. Moore's book may be the first Internet-enabled No. 1 bestseller — a work whose author and audience connected directly via the Net and forged an online publicity campaign that carried the book to the top.
Hardly anyone had even heard of "Stupid White Men" before last month. Apart from a few brief stories in Publisher's Weekly, there had been little print mention of Moore's months-long battle to get HarperCollins to release the book.
On Feb. 2, Moore posted a message detailing the entire saga on his MichaelMoore.com Web site, which at the time averaged 70,000 visits a month. The message also was distributed by an e-mail list to about 100,000 Moore fans.
Moore wrote in his message: "I was told that, unless I rewrote large sections of my book, plus changed the title and the cover, then the powers that be might actually destroy the entire run of 50,000 copies that had already been printed" before Sept. 11.
The publisher was concerned the book's message might not sit well with the postattack reading public, Moore said. But he thought, with the Enron scandal and other events, " 'Stupid White Men' seemed even more relevant than before."
By mid-December, the publisher (Regan Books, a HarperCollins imprint) decided to go ahead as Moore had written it. The book was set for a Feb. 19 release.
Normally a book with No. 1 potential will get a big marketing boost from publishers, including tours of major cities, full-page newspaper ads, reviews in major newspapers and magazines and appearances on TV talk shows.
By contrast, Moore had no "Today Show" appearance or New York Times book review. CNN anchor Aaron Brown and Fox's "O'Reilly Factor" were as marquee as he got.
But Moore did have the Net. His Web message got re-circulated through private e-mails and mail lists, as well as on personal Web sites and Web logs. The links created an Internet "buzz" that vaulted "Stupid White Men" to
No. 1 on Amazon.com just three days after its official release. It remains at or near the top of Amazon bestsellers.
Books have become bestsellers before without traditional advertising or publicity, and word of mouth long has been recognized as a primary factor for success.
Moore may have capitalized on a new modus: Word of Web. Since the mid-1990s, the Web's force as a marketing tool has been touted by public-relations types and celebrated in books like "The Cluetrain Manifesto."
Still, the Web always has been assumed second fiddle, an adjunct to traditional publicity mechanisms. Moore's campaign may be the most dramatic evidence so far that the Web in and of itself can spawn a No. 1 bestseller.
"Moore's success really demonstrates the power of the Web for tapping into demand, if it's there," said Deborah Branscum, who runs an annual conference on "Buzz" marketing.
In a way, Moore's success might have been even more revolutionary had HarperCollins suppressed the book. Publication rights would have reverted to him, and he might have been able to post the book on the Internet with various Web-enabled payment options.
It would have been interesting to see what numbers followed. Instead, Moore has reminded traditional publishing of the follies of censorship while proving a new path to marketing success.
Paul Andrews is a free-lance technology writer and co-author of "Gates," a biography of the Microsoft chairman. He can be reached at pandrews@seattletimes.com.