The Most Diabolical Game of Pass It On EVER

[Karen Dionne]

What started out as a marketing idea in 2004 as a fund raiser for the International Thriller Writers has now become that organization's latest publication, making its national media debut in USA Today. As with THRILLER, published in 2005 which was the first-ever pure thriller anthology, THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT is the first-ever serial thriller and the first-ever serial novel created for audio.

Jeffery Deaver agreed to write an opening chapter establishing the characters and the premise of the story. He passed it along to 15 colleagues, including Lee Child (Bad Luck and Trouble), Joseph Finder (Power Play), Lisa Scottoline (Daddy's Girl) and Jim Fusilli (Hard Hard City).

Each wrote a successive chapter before sending it back to Deaver, who tied things up in the last two chapters.

This is a VERY cool project. The authors worked hard to pull this together, as you can see from watching the promo video on Audible's site. If you're an ITW member, this project deserves your support. And if you're a thriller lover, you'll definitely want to check it out!

[Jeremy James]

I'm pretty sure several authors over at www.podiobooks.com beat THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT to the punch as the legitimate "first-ever serial novel created for audio." Scott Sigler's EARTHCORE comes to mind, among others...

[Karen Dionne]

I'm sure you're probably right on that, Jeremy - I didn't check my facts, just regurgitated the info ITW sent around in a news bulletin to members. The project is cool, though - I bought my copy, and can't wait to listen!

[Jeremy James]

Hi Karen,

It does sound like a cool project... Hope I didn't come off sounding like a smart ass or anything. My intent (not so clearly articulated) was to encourage you to check out www.podiobooks.com because there you will find many similar projects that just so happen to be FREE. And the quality is right up there with Deaver in many cases, as there are quite a few published authors who've been posting podiobooks as of late. (Mine is called THE VEINGEL if you're curious).

All the best.

[Karen Dionne]

Hey, Jeremy -

No worries - I went to the site, very interesting! I notice they don't have a category for "thriller," so maybe The Chopin Manuscript IS the first-every serial thriller (kidding!).

I listened to a little bit of your book - nice work, and nice presentation as well. Can I ask a question? What are the advantages to the author of putting their book on a site like this and making it available for free? Are you hoping to build a readership? Is this a novel that didn't get any takers for traditional publishing? Or are you just an edgy guy who likes the idea of trying something new?

[Jeremy James]

Thanks for the kind words.

To answer your questions: the advantages are what you make of it, I guess. Scott Sigler leveraged his podcast novel audience to land a six-figure book deal with Random House.

I would like to start building an audience for my work, sure. Who wouldn't? I have around 400 subscribers to my story as of episode 013 (there will probably be close to 100 episodes by the time I'm finished). Nothing big yet, but who knows?

I'm also very interested in how the digitization of entertainment effects authorship and reading, so a podiobook seemed like a fun experiment. If you want to know where the publishing industry is headed, look to the music industry. Publishing seems to lag behind about 8-10 years. For example, look how .mp3s and file sharing have impacted the record label's business model...

Since I haven't even finished writing THE VEINGEL yet, it's too soon to know if publishers will be interested. But if I'm honest, I don't think I'll have an inordinate amount of difficulty finding a publisher. I'm confident in my work.

As far as me being "edgy..." Like Hannibal Lecter selling aftershave.

P.S. I like your website.

[Karen Dionne]

"Hannibal Lecter selling aftershave" - now THERE'S an interesting image!

Thanks for answering my questions. Naturally, I'm interested in where publishing seems to be heading. Literary agent Richard Curtis expressed some interesting opinions in the keynote address he gave at my Backspace conference a year or so ago ("The Subscription Revolution" and if you enjoy that, be sure to read his entire "Publishing in the Twenty-First Century" series, particularly the second article).

One part of me would love to be doing cool, experimental things out at the forefront; yet the current business model (theirs, not mine) is the one that gets the book in the stores and pays the bills, so for now, it makes sense from my perspective to go the traditional route. I agree, the publishing houses are slow to change, but on the other hand, not being quick to adopt new trends and technologies (thinking here of how they're just now getting into blogging and podcasts and book trailers) means they can see which ones are going to stick before they make the switch, which if you're a big corporation and not an independent, also makes sense. Regardless, it will be interesting to see what develops in the next few years!

Oh, and thanks for the nice words about my website! This site is a temporary placeholder, since the novel is still a year from publication. We're supposed to get cover art around the end of this October, and then my webperson can start to build a permanent site based on that.

BTW - our discussion here made me realize I could upload an audio excerpt of my book to my Crimespace page. This is not me reading, but a friend who's a professional voice actress. Her book, WHISTLING IN THE DARK, came out this spring. It's not crime fiction, but I just have to give her a little plug: this week, her novel debuted at #30 on the NYTimes list!

[Jeremy James]

Hi Karen,

Richard Curtis: I love the guy! I came across the articles you mentioned while reading up on one of my favorite authors, Dan Simmons, a few months ago. Maybe someday I'll be lucky enough to have an agent like him...

You know Karen, I have to admit, I'm much more traditional in my approach to writing (and eventually publishing) than some of my experiments might suggest. Alternative publishing business models and new trends in reading *do* fascinate me on an intellectual level (I have an MS in Information Science & Technology), but at the end of the day, I'm with you, and much more committed to a get-the-paper-book-on-the-shelves approach...at least until something else proves to be more profitable for authors, and a better experience for readers.

And I LOVE bookstores! So I don't want them to be replaced entirely by my PC or some type of mail order service. What would be cool, is if bookstores could take the "cafe + browsing" concept (that Barnes & Noble does fairly well) to the Nth-degree... Because really, that's where physical stores have the advantage: in the *experience.*

Look at how some of the nicer urban grocery stores have changed the experience of buying a carton of milk: It's like a going on a damn safari compared to the typical boxy rows-of-corn-flakes and bins-of-produce layout...

Instead of B&N or Borders adding a token Starbucks, why don't they (or an independent) make the entire store more like a hip cafe? ...Have tables everywhere, and hire beautiful servers to *bring* you your coffee / scone / $5.00 bottle of water, so you can read in peace...and on those over priced water bottles, why not advertise the books they're selling in the store? Plus, they could cater better to geeks like me who actually prefer reading from a digital device sometimes. They could provide e-book download stations throughout the store. They could even bundle the e-book with the purchase of the hardcover or paperback, so for one price, you get all the formats. They could also provide laptops to use for online browsing while customers are in the store, with free WiFi. Heck, while they're at it, why not serve pizza! Beer! Wine!

Well, sorry to ramble. And though I forgot to mention it previously, kudos to you for organizing such an amazing group for writers with BackSpace! I really wanted to go to the conference this year, but had traveling conflicts. Thanks also for helping organize ITW. We need more people like you fighting for authors.

Although I'm not the best organizer of people, one of my dreams is to make being a novelist cool again. We need to get back to the days when writers were like rock stars. We're entertainers--no different than actors, athletes, or musicians--but they seem to have most of the fun and make most of the money. Many writers, unfortunately, seem perfectly happy with this state of affairs. But the way I see it, we need authors kids can look up to, and aspire to emulate. Especially given the decline of reading among young people. If kids were pinning up posters of their favorite writers like they do Eminem and Marilyn Manson and Tiger Woods and Paris Hilton, then more kids would be writing and reading. We need someone like James Ellroy, only more accessible to younger readers and better looking.

Anyway, it's a goal.

Great audio excerpt! Very vivid descriptions.