Lee Goldberg writes about Lewis Perdue‘s new book, The Perfect Killer, and the reader extras he includes–a page-specific online index.

I don’t know about you, but I do stuff like this as I’m writing the book anyway. I know Holly Lisle makes a lot of extras available on her site. Just this morning, PBW blogged about Inky, and some of the artistic talents of various authors. Tambo, author of Ghosts in the Snow and the soon-to-be-released, Threads of Malice, makes quilts for fun and relaxation (and the occasional editor, author, and reader) and weaves her own bookmarks.

This is an interesting idea, but I’m trying to sort out what makes it particularly unique, so I’m going to think in public (sometimes a dangerous thing).

1. The links on Perfect Killer appear to be a compilation of the types of information, imagery, etc. that I gather as I put my novel together. Of course, it’s much better organized, and designed for a public appeal. The devoted website (which Mr. Perdue readily admits on a comment to Mr. Goldberg’s blog that his publisher didn’t include in the book, for some inexplicable reason–I suspect because the publisher may believe the author site is more universal and possibly long-lived than the book site. Also, it can serve as a single point of reference, and Mr. Perdue can emphasize or de-emphasize this particular book as he sees fit . It also doesn’t lock him in to maintaining the Perfect Killer site for fear readers down the road will get a dead link and not find out about his other work.)

2. A blog devoted to Perfect Killer that opens with a Publisher’s Weekly review back in July 2005. So, I guess this would be called a publication blog? The first entry begins with a bang when he says he had to wait for his mother to die to write this book. If you want to spawn questions, that sounds like a great observation to make. Oh, and whether by accident or design, in naming the blog, he chose to call it perfectkillerthriller. I suspect that was to head off legal questions about what he was talking about. The latest discussion focuses on whether or not to create a virtual tour for iPod. Mr. Perdue is soliciting opinions on that idea. (I have more reading to do–if I got something wrong, it’s because I read the opening few entries and the most recent few entries. I have a few more to go to catchup.)

3. He includes a synopsis and a Q&A section for the book. Very interesting.

It isn’t that other authors don’t do some of these things; they do. Mr. Perdue has created a very focused package, much like is done for a new film release. Mr. Perdue is not a new author. Perfect Killer is his 20th book. Oddly, I’ve never heard of him before (or if I did, he didn’t register on my radar), and I like this genre. Looks like I have some new books to look into adding to the TBR pile.