Legitimate question. Let me explain the thinking here.
The original idea was that I’d set up a book forum in the message board for a new site we plan to launch. We think the new site is an exciting idea; you’ll be hearing more about it in the next couple months. But it became clear the site wouldn’t be ready in time for publication of the book. So opening the forum here instead was Plan B.
I think it’s a good Plan B, though. If the book does well and people want to talk about it, they’ll be directed here. (The last page of the book mentions www.edzotti.com, which is merely a landing page that tells people to come here.) That’ll bring new blood into the SDMB. Our user base stopped growing after we went to pay-to-post. We want to boost growth now that we’re going back to free posting. The new forum ideally will help us do that. (And yes, I have every confidence that we’ll be able to accommodate growth once Jerry gets the board upgrade tweaked - Jerry was fine with launching the book forum now.)
Why not just direct people to a thread? Because I want people to understand that they can start threads and post their own great thoughts, not just respond to someone else’s. I need a forum for that. I could have just started a blog; nowadays that’s what most book authors do. Directing people into a message board is more complicated; frankly I’m not sure it’s going to work. This is an experiment - I’m trying to get a conversation going, not give a lecture.
The whole thing could be a fiasco. The book may flop and no one will post here. If it becomes evident after a while that the forum just isn’t working, we’ll pull the plug. As it is we may move the book forum to the new site once we get that launched; we’ll see what makes the most sense.
Anyway that’s the thinking. Bottom line is I get to do it because I’m the site administrator, but this isn’t just an exercise in ego gratification - it may do the SDMB some good.