SAN FRANCISCO - The "Fake Steve Jobs" blogger who jealously guarded his anonymity for nearly a year will soon embark on a publicity tour to tout his forthcoming book.
Forbes magazine editor Dan Lyons had intended to publish "oPtion$: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs" under a pseudonym. But in August, after a reporter with The New York Times exposed the satirical alter-ego of Apple Inc.'s CEO, Da Capo Press revamped the galley and added a biography on the back flap.
Meanwhile, a publicity executive at Cambridge, Mass.-based Da Capo Press called bookstores and arranged readings in the San Francisco area around the Nov. 1 publication -- a book tour hadn't been planned because his identity was supposed to remain secret.
Lyons is not planning extensive travels elsewhere, however. Da Capo told him it was too late for a big tour -- and Lyons lamented that the book might bomb outside of Silicon Valley. Lyons' isn't even hopeful about his hometown of Boston.
"Being too insiderish -- it's my biggest concern," Lyons told The Associated Press. "Maybe it's one of those things where if I had a couple more months to make another pass, I could find a way to make it more universal."
Lyons, who wrote "oPtion$" at night and on weekends, belted out the 248-page book in four months to get it to bookstores before the holidays.
The fictional work chronicles Jobs through the stock options backdating scandal in 2006, and it includes appearances by Bono, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton and Bill Gates (who appears in Jobs' crucifixion nightmare). Every character is a buffoon -- from Zune-playing "frigtards" to billionaire megalomaniacs who short-sell their own stock.
Lyons -- far humbler than Fake Steve Jobs -- still seems incredulous of his success. His blog is popular among techies worldwide.
"People in India and Russia, what do they get out of it? Do they really know who all these characters are?" Lyons asked. "My brother-in-law gets most of the jokes, but he's an engineer -- he's in optics, but still."
