[RagnarokAuthor]

Hey everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster here.

I'm an aspiring fantasy author who has recently finished a polish on a novel (first in a series) that's been in the works for over seven years. The series was envisioned to go hand and hand with a new media marketing plan that I wanted to get some opinions on before implementing.

Here's the gist: Each main novel entry in the series is accompanied by 3-5 companion short pieces that I planned to distribute at regular intervals between publication of the novels. I noticed that one of the main complaints readers had with the genre was the long wait between releases and concocted this plan as a solution. The companion shorts would distributed for free through my website.

All shorts are non-essential to the main plot of the novels, but they do a lot to flesh out plot backstory and add depth to characterization.

In order to kick off this idea I was thinking of releasing the first three chapters of the novel (one by one) a few months before publication of the novel. That way readers might get enticed to purchase the novel AND would get used to the idea of checking the website for content.

Does this plan sound enticing to anyone? Would you be interested in a series marketed and produced in this manner? Is there some big catch here that I'm missing?

All input, positive or negative, is welcome.

Thanks,

RA

[swords]

I think it would be cool to have the backstory continually evolving online inbetween novels. If you have a complete and polished novel I would look for a known publisher with good distribution, save the self publishing as a last resort.

[kissmequick]

I've done something similar myself - I have three free reads up on my website and blog, all of them shorts that show backstory incidents mentioned but not elaborated on in novel one. When I run a contest, I usually make the entry question 'what happens to X in story Y on my blog?'

They are the most viewed things there by FAR ( people love free stuff lol), and I've had a couple of people say they bought my book because they liked the shorts.

Can't hurt, that's for sure

As for releasing the first three chapters, that'll be up to your publisher. Mine has the first chapter up for free as standard, but there is a limit to the word count of excerpts I can use for promo.

[kmtolan]

Releasing just the first chapter should do what you want. If it is good, they will sniff at your book. If it isn't, then no amount of free chapters will help. I would also think that any publisher (and I do not include printing services - aka self publishing) will frown at having more than the first chapter released.

Also, there is something in many contracts (mine included) that talk about "first refusal". This basically says that if you are continuing any storyline with the same characters as the published book, your publisher gets to be the first in line to consider it. If you are writing a series, I wouldn't be surprised to see such a clause pop up - and you "may" run afoul of it with these short stories if your publisher would prefer to put them out as novellas or part of an anthology. Again, I am assuming when you mean "published" you actually do mean "published professionally" and not simply printed.

Kerry