by the way, if anyone wants to see an example of
an experiment aimed at eliciting reader interaction
at the stage of a "finished first draft" of a book, see:
>   http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/

this project of "the institute for the future of the book"
just went up today.  in addition to an ability to comment
on any _paragraph_ of the book, there is a general forum.

i'm of the opinion that most books probably will not be able
to find a sufficiently large number of commenters to warrant
the work that an author will have to do to open up the process
of writing to such interaction.  but it's an interesting experiment.

and then of course there will always be some _major_ exceptions,
on the order of chris anderson and the blog he has been keeping
while writing his "long tail" book.  because of the great exposure
the idea got from its description in a "wired" cover story last year,
and because anderson just happens to be the editor of "wired",
and because -- let's face it -- the idea is a _very_ compelling one
that therefore subsequently has been written up all over the place,
anderson's "long tail" blog has been a tremendously exciting space.
but my sense is that this will be the _exception_, rather than the rule.

-bowerbird