Weird book/author promotion idea--feedback please

[Ses]

Maybe this is a dumb idea.

Most of you have heard of the novel in three days contest.

What about something like this:
Write a novel (60,000) in 3 days, but....
Let readers register prior to the writing, say they register for ninety-nine cents. For their registration fee, they get to give the writer ideas for the book as it is being written. Not all ideas would necessarily have to be used. When the book is finished, it goes through a couple of edits, and is given away to those who registered.

[katci13]

20,000 words a day seems a bit much. I like the idea of readers giving ideas as the book is being written, but I'm not sure how the writer would choose which ideas to follow. They couldn't follow them all.

[robertbevan]

well, my brain's tapped out, but if you guys give me some money, i'll allow you to give me some ideas for a novel that i'm going to slap out in three days' time.


i gotta say, i'm not really feeling this one.

[Ses]

I didn't say it was necessarily a brilliant idea!

They did this a few years back in movie format during a film festival. And the logistics of the thing/stunt would have to be worked out yet.

[robertbevan]

never hurts to spitball ideas. and while i'd be surprised if this one panned out to anything, i'll readily admit... i've been surprised before.

[Filigree]

I'd be afraid to touch it for legal reasons. The people offering the ideas could claim part ownership of them, and demand compensation if the book actually earned anything. And signing a waiver is poor protection, if somebody really got fired up.

[Old Hack]

I'm pretty sure it's been tried before, with disastrous results--but I've Googled and Googled and can't find anything.

I'd not try it, I'm afraid. I can see more problems than potential benefits.

[BenPanced]

Yeah, this one's fraught with so many legal landmines, I'd give it a pass, too.

[lorna_w]

on the other hand, it's a better idea than the idea generated by the guy who shot himself in the foot to get publicity.

Maybe 3K words a day, maybe have them suggest names, or cities, or something they can't claim is an idea.

[Maryn]

Or a Choose Your Own Adventure, in which the author offers directions the story could now go, and reader polls determine what comes next--but the ideas were the author's.

Maryn, who wrote an erotic one long ago

[merrihiatt]

I asked readers to name a coffee shop in one of my books and folks had a lot of fun coming up with names. I chose one and gave the winner a free paperback copy of the book.

It could be fun to offer up three scenarios and have readers pick which one they find most interesting.

Sixty thousands words in three days is a ton of words and time. I'd keel over after the second day!

[writerjohnb]

As a reader, I'd be very leery, even for 99 cents.You're going to write it in 3 days, but then how long will it take to edit it to get rid of all the rush-job, caffeine-high poor writing?
Seems to me you've got it backwards. Write it, then promote it, not promote then write.

JohnB

[Turndog-Millionaire]

60,000 words in 3 days :-0

And if you get enough people participating, you'll struggle to get all the ideas in. This may make a few people feel a little duped

Matthew (Turndog Millionaire)

[juniper]

If it were a "famous author" type, someone whose writing I liked (or didn't like but knew of) writing the novel in 3 days then yeah, I'd contribute $$$. Just to see what came out of it.

But for someone I don't know, whose writing I don't know, then I'd pass.

[Fuchsia Groan]

Originally Posted by Ses

They did this a few years back in movie format during a film festival. And the logistics of the thing/stunt would have to be worked out yet.

Do you mean 24-hour "film slams"? Those are really popular at film fests these days. Teams of filmmakers have to complete a short in 24 hours, all using certain ideas contributed by the organizers beforehand (but NOT while the films are in progress). The results can be really fun to watch.

But the key difference is, they are making shorts, usually under ten minutes. It's possible to make a decent film short (or short story!) in 24 hours. A novel in three days, with constant crowd sourcing going on? I have my doubts.

Now, if someone did it in a more plausible time frame, like a month, it would be interesting to see what happened. Why three days? Is this supposed to be a "stunt" that attracts reader/investors because it seems so unlikely? Would people really bother to get on board if the author didn't have a track record, though? If I didn't already know and trust the author, I'd assume that he or she would just pound out 60k words of randomness with people's ideas inserted here and there.

[AnneGlynn]

I love a new promotion idea (so, good on you).

However, it takes me a month to write 20,000 words. (Yes, I know. I'm slow.) I admire the writer who can write a solid novel in three days -- especially while incorporating random reader suggestions.

[Old Hack]

You're not slow, Anne.

Writing fast isn't the same as writing good: the latter that'll get you readers regardless of how fast you write. Fast writing on its own won't get you anywhere.

[Katrina S. Forest]

As a reader, I would never do this. I've read what I wrote at half that pace and most of it was useless. (By the way, I consider half that pace to be extremely fast. I've only done it once, though I came close a second time.)

No way would I pay someone a dollar to write mostly unusable prose when the only reward is they might use my idea if it suited them.

I could see this being an interesting fundraiser if a bunch of well-known authors did it for charity or something. But even then, the writing pace seems insane.

[victoriafoyt]

60,000 in three days seems like a lot!

I do think that the audience participation part is interesting... sort of like a 'choose your own adventure' but it's 'write your own adventure' (you can steal that title from me if you'd like.