With thousands of new titles every year, selling books is getting as competitive as running for Congress. New marketing approaches are in order.

Some writers are pushing their books the same way politicians pump their candidacies -- with online video segments on such popular sites as YouTube.com

Among the Net set is Michael Connelly, creator of the Harry Bosch crime series. His latest, "Echo Park," was hyped before publication last month with a 10-minute video shot at a Los Angeles apartment building mentioned in the book.

The video "sharpened excitement" for the book, Connelly told the Los Angeles Times, and helped sales the first week after release.

Other books taking the video approach were "The Mystery Guest," a memoir by French writer Gregoire Bouiller published in August, and "The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid" by Bill Bryson, released last month.

Bryson's effort used his family photos and an audio portion of his book, but Connelly's promotion was professionally filmed and featured experienced actors as it dramatized a chapter from Bosch's latest adventure in Los Angeles.

Mitch Albom tried another technique last month in Seattle to sell more copies of his slight novel, "For One More Day."

Already sold along with travel mugs and music CDs at Starbucks' coffee outlets coast to coast, the book was boosted at an employee party at the chain's headquarters, where Mitch rubbed elbows with middle-management.

The Detroit sportswriter also made his pitch at a coffee chain outlet, then munched crostinis with fans who shelled out $50 to hear him at a ballroom. The event was billed as a "literary salon," despite the lack of similarity between Albom and, say, Flaubert.

Albom never stopped at a bookstore, the traditional site for touring authors to meet readers and sell books. It might be too early to tell if this "salon" technique will hurt stores that count on author visits, something many stores and writers depend on.

The Internet approach holds more promise, I think, as a promotional tool, but a slick video costs money, cash that usually goes to print advertising or travel costs for an author. Something's got to give.

Local flavor

The Southern Review's fall issue includes poems by Pittsburgh writer Kristin Kovacic and an appraisal of W.D. Snodgrass, 80, the Pulitzer-Prize winner who grew up in Beaver Falls.

Kovacic teaches at the Creative and Performing Arts High School, Downtown.

Snodgrass won the prize in 1959 for "Heart's Needle" and read last year at the Contemporary Writers Series at the University of Pittsburgh.

Another fall publication is the "Elections Issue" of 5am, the poetry review edited by Judy Vollmer of Pitt-Greensburg and Ed Ochester, editor of poetry and short fiction at the Pitt Press, and both poets in their own right.

It offers a wide sampling of works by poets local and national. Newstand price is $5.