WHY IS IT THAT BANDS SUCH as Arctic Monkeys and Gnarls Barkley have been so much more successful at exploiting the potential of the internet than people in the book trade, who seem to look on it with a high degree of suspicion? By going direct to the public with their music, through the internet, musicians have transformed the way that record companies reach their market. Publishing companies seem a long way behind when it comes to realising the potential of the net.

In December 2005 I finished a book, The Libertines: Bound Together. Yet, because I was a first-time author, there was no advertising campaign and no guarantee that the book that I had spent three years writing would get media coverage.

The Libertines were internet pioneers, releasing early and alternative versions of songs on the web and regularly communicating directly with fans via e-mails. It was obvious — to me, anyway — that a book about them should be just as accessible. Arctic Monkeys had sold more than a million albums as a result of word spread on the internet, while Sandi Thom’s series of bedsit webcasts had resulted in a No 1 debut single.

Sure, other books have had webpages but often they are perfunctory. And as a former editor of the music website nme.com, I knew I had to do something different. Bound Together would have its own site: pages from the book showing Roger Sargent’s intimate photographs of the band; quotes that served as previews; and a countdown to its publication — days, hours, minutes and seconds. It made the book’s appearance an event.

This website was based on the design of the book and looked pretty slick. But the slickest website in the world can do nothing if nobody knows anything about it. Like Arctic Monkeys and many bands since, we decided to move into MySpace, an online community site (owned by News Corporation, the parent company of The Times) for people to meet and make friends.

I imagined that interest would be minimal — after all, the book wasn’t due out for two months and no one knew it was coming. In the course of the first week a handful of people “made friends” with the book: close mates, hardcore Libertines fans and those who stumbled on it by mistake (some looking for De Sade sites). I sent a message to each one thanking them: it was a simple cour tesy. Suddenly, it mushroomed: first there were five people a day, then 10, then 15 then 25 people wanting to be “friends” with the book. Some asked questions: each received a reply. All my spare hours were spent talking to people who seemed almost as excited about the publication as I was.

Two weeks before publication, the book hit Amazon’s Top Ten bestselling pre-orders.

But would sales wither and die a couple of days after the countdown switched to “Out Now”? Well, the first week’s sales — mostly on the internet — put it into the Top Twenty. Then, two weeks after the book appeared, I was returning by train from one of the first gigs by Dirty Pretty Things, a band born out of the ashes of the Libertines, when I saw that the book had made The Sunday Times best seller list, in at No8.

It had leapfrogged many books with huge amounts of money spent on advertising and marketing. It had become a bestseller thanks to direct, personal communication with potential readers that has been made possible by the internet.

It’s a future where authors are there for their readers. Bound Together continues to sell, and I still reply to e-mails and answer questions. It’s a pleasure, being able to receive instant feedback. For nonfiction writers in particular, the internet will become a forum to talk about their book. Readers’ reactions may change the very nature of books themselves. Readers’ suggestions could be incorporated into later editions, and ideas, chapters and even whole manuscripts could be road-tested online, making readers part of the writing process.

In the meantime, I will carry on putting unpublished reportage, interviews and anecdotes online. http://www.thelibertines-boundtogether.co.uk/

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

• Audio Books

Times Recommends

• The 100 Best Books of the Decade
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• The conversation: James Ellroy