They can, however, contact Tao Lin quite easily, and in most cases he'll respond.Īnd then there's Lin's writing, which aims to capture the aimlessness and tedium of today's Web-obsessed 20-somethings: The average fiction lover can't just shoot John Irving an e-mail, or friend request Martin Amis on Facebook. In a recent HTMLGIANT comment thread, someone under the user name "Attractive skinny girl" asked Lin for his phone number. Lin says, "I probably make $700 a month from selling stupid things on my blog."īeyond raising funds and buzz for his antics - and unlike the majority of successful novelists - Lin is also willing to use the Web as a tool for engaging with his readers directly. He is making real money off of this shwag. One finds all of this thoroughly ridiculous until learning that the last Moleskine notebook he sold on eBay went for $80. "You can find out exactly what I do by getting this and looking at my to-do list," he declares in the video. Lin posted a video that showed off the prizes: A "unique drawing of a Sasquatch holding a hamburger," which he notes has the "crying hamster stamp of authenticity" (a small doodle Lin puts on all his artwork and also signs books with) a Tao Lin T-shirt an unpublished draft of a short story an error-filled galley copy of "Shoplifting From American Apparel" and a small Moleskine journal filled with Lin's notes. The catch: Lin's prizes would go to the highest bidder, but entrants would not get their money back if their bid lost. In early November 2009, Lin held an "experimental contest" on his blog that invited users to bid a certain amount of money via Paypal - any amount they chose - on a prize package of Tao Lin goodies. James Frey has endorsed "Yates," and the New York Observer recently published a profile of Lin written in his own distinctive style. The winning bidders gave him $2,000 each in exchange for 10 percent of the domestic profits that come from "Yates." As he says with a laugh, "If it doesn't make very much, that's their loss." Inevitably, Stephen Elliott's Lin-adoring online outlet the Rumpus named "Richard Yates" the August selection for its newly launched book club, four months before the book's publication. In July 2008, Lin sold six shares of "Richard Yates" online. What fame Lin has already achieved is a testament to his ability to master viral and unconventional publicity techniques. But can it break him into the publishing mainstream? His guerrilla-style online marketing has made him a Web phenomenon. It's no wonder, then, that he has successfully used the Web to manage his career and push his name onto computer screens everywhere. Through all of this, Lin's writing, despite its shortcomings, has perfectly captured the aimless malaise of the Internet generation. 7 release of his new book, "Richard Yates," approaches, Lin once again garnered Gawker headlines - and annoyed scores of commenters - thanks to his trespassing arrest at the NYU bookstore in lower Manhattan.
And finally, in January 2009, New York magazine's book critic Sam Anderson christened Lin the "New Lit Boy," though he nonetheless acknowledged, "It's tempting, from a distance, to dismiss him." As the Sept. In 2008, he earned some infamy when Gawker posted about his annoying promotional tactics.
His earlier collections of poetry and stories, published by the independent press Melville House, went generally unnoticed, though championed by bloggers here and there. For years, Lin wrote for small literary magazines and online outlets like the Nervous Breakdown, NOON and 3:AM. "Shoplifting" was Lin's fifth major published work, but with it he pushed himself closer to mainstream recognition than ever before. Of course this exchange happened on the L train, which moves through the heart of hipster Brooklyn, and of course the guy was wearing Converse Chucks, skinny jeans and a tight flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up. The book he showed off was "Shoplifting From American Apparel," the novella by 26-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., author Tao Lin.
"That guy is the next big thing," announced one last fall to a stranger eyeing his book. At least, so say the people that read his books on the subway. Tao Lin is the next big thing in urban hipster lit.
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