Alison Kent

How much is too much?

This week over at Plotmonkeys, I’m doing a seven day promotion where I’m posting a chapter a day of my upcoming book, PHANTOM PLEASURES. I thought long and hard about what to do to get people excited about this book and when the excerpt idea came to me, I shared it with a few friends, who were worried. Seven chapters? (It’s actually a prologue and six chapters…but really, same difference.)

I based the idea on the fact that lately, it’s been de rigueur for publishers to offer entire books for free on the Internet, concurrently with their print release. You’d think that this would mean that print sales would tank because why buy what you can get for free? However, this hasn’t been the case. Sales for the print books have actually gone up.

Why?

My theory? And it’s only a theory…word of mouth.

Although the Internet permeates the lives of all of us who use it, there are still a whole heck of a lot of people who do not live and die by their Internet connection. They check email, if at all, once a month. They still watch the news on television or read the print news…they still watch television shows when they are on, not on YouTube or streaming from the studio. They buy books by walking into their grocery store or maybe, if we’re lucky, in a Barnes & Noble. They may know what Amazon is, but the word “blog” conjures images of a 50s horror movie.

But by generating excitement for a book online, a writer, I believe, can reach those readers who are otherwise disconnected because they likely have a friend or two who ARE connected.

Imagine this conversation in the car line at the elementary school:

“I just finished the book I was reading for my book club. Very depressing. I want to read something else, but I don’t know what,” says the mother who has, yet again, left her cell phone at home. Though it doesn’t matter. It wasn’t charged anyway.

Mother #2 looks up from her Blackberry. “What? Oh, I read this book online that was really terrific.”

“Online?” gapes Mother #1. “I don’t have time for the Internet. The kids are always on that Webkinz website or Bob is surfing around for that Fantasy Basketball stuff. Sometimes I look for recipes.”

“Well, I read the first quarter of this really great book and I’m going after school to pick up a copy.”

“What’s the title?”

“Phantom Pleasures. It’s about this hotel heiress,” Mother #2 says, then stops to explain, “No, not like Paris Hilton. More like Ivanka Trump.”

Mother #2 nods and smiles.

“Anyway, she inherits this haunted island with a castle and she wants to turn it into a hotel, but she finds there is this very sexy phantom that she has to help free from the gypsy curse that traps him there.”

“Really? Does it have all that hot, trashy sex?”

“Oh, yeah. In chapter four…”

See? Wouldn’t that inspire you to go buy a book? To talk about it to your friends?

I have no idea if my experiment will be effective. I can’t, contractually, offer the entire book. Just short excerpts. So that’s what I’m doing.

Part of the challenge is getting the word out. So if you’re interested, please come over to Plotmonkeys and see what you think. And tell a friend!

*****

Alison here. I’m going to give away two copies of Julie’s book. To be eligible to win, you have to sign up for her newsletter. Here’s the link to do that. You’ll then get a confirmation email, click the link in there, and voila! You’re entered to win! NOTE: Be sure to click the confirmation link in the email or you won’t be signed up, and therefore won’t be eligible for the drawing! I’ll draw the winners’ names Friday, March 28, 2008, at 8:00 p.m.ish CDT.

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