Is giving away an unpublished book a good marketing idea?

I have two novels represented by my literary agent. He's been pretty good at getting them to editors -- We the Enemy, a speculative thriller, is at several publishers/imprints. And the wait goes on. It's been at one place since last August.

I am poised on emotional running blocks, eager to spring forward the second the contract gun sounds to do whatever it takes to get my book into the hands and minds of readers.

The wait, the hope, the fear make me nuts. Is there anything I can do to tighten an editor's finger on the trigger? This leads us to an idea I'm formulating.

I'd really like your input.

Really. Please.

What if I offered a FREE e-book version of my unpublished novel? The only requirement would be that readers give me feedback.

Or maybe offered the e-book for $1 and begged for feedback? But wait, there's more.

I'm thinking about a full-disclosure offer here, not just a blurb and a cover. What if an author tells potential readers about the "real" book instead of just lathering up a high-concept pitch that titillates with sensational story elements?

For example, this novel began (and finished) as a novel of ideas. Try telling that to an agent or an editor. Just the label alone, I suspect, provokes thoughts of ewwww, gonna preach at me, get thee behind me, dullard!

But, you see, I wrote this particular novel with the following idea in mind -- no one will be interested in reading a diatribe from me about my ideas for how the world ought to be. Nope, not gonna work.

So what might work? How about creating characters that could benefit from my ideas but would resist them, and then let those characters "experience" a world in which those ideas are operative?

And then put those characters in a suspenseful, action-filled, page-turner firecracker of a good read? So what if the foundation is "ideas" if they're wrapped in a damned good story?

That's what I wrote. I, of course, think it works on both levels. Readers think it works on both levels. My agent may think it does, but I only know that, for him, it works on the story level, and that's good enough for him. And that's how he pitches it to acquisition editors. (Even though it's a "tough market" out there for thrillers in particular and for fiction in general, and I keep wondering if the novel-of-ideas-wrapped-in-suspense aspect of We the Enemy wouldn't work to separate it from the crowd and catch the eye of thoughtful editors.)

So, am I interesting you in the book with this kind of insight? Here, let me try a blurb out on you…

What if the President of the United States is so fixated on winning his re-election that he will stop at nothing to remain in the White House for a second term? What if he hires a former CIA operative who is now a deadly gun for hire to stop his political adversary?

We the Enemy is a story of vision and scope told in the style of a thriller, and it delivers on a premise that touches each of us -- how can we prosper in this troubled world?

What if the blurb included this:

We the Enemy is a speculative thriller that tackles crime and guns with action & ideas.

Does that add or detract appeal?

What if my in-depth pitch included this from a draft for a preface…

Frustration wrote this book, with powerlessness as inspiration.

Like you, I could do nothing about the assault on us by madmen (and madchildren) and criminals with guns.

Like you, I could do nothing about the revolving doors in our justice system that spit criminals back into our faces almost as soon as they are arrested.

I felt increasingly isolated in our society of chaotic differences, a fragment in the midst of increasing fragmentation.

But hope had a part, too, because human beings can be powerful when they ally, and can do prodigious good.

That's what We the Enemy is about.

Too much? Better?

On top of that, I'll throw in a sample chapter or two.

So tell me. Let's say I create a .pdf version of the book that can be read with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software, and even printed out. It can be emailed to you in a flash.

I set up a web page with stuff like the above and give you a link on this blog.

Seriously now…

1. Would you ask for a copy?
2. Would you promise to give feedback?
3. Would it deter you if I asked for $1 through PayPal?
4. What of the above stuff would you NOT include in my offering copy?
   

The marketing angle: Here's where I would hope this to go -- if a sufficient number of people asked for the book, maybe my agent could use that to kindle extra interest in an editor. If word spread and a few thousand copies were requested, I'm thinking that adds name recognition and buzz to the novel's appeal. And maybe that would be the push that gets the manuscript over the hurdles at a publishing house.

What do you think?

C'mon, talk to me. If you would, include where you're coming from -- writer, reader, editor, agent, Martian visitor, whatever.

Thanks,

Ray

Free edit in exchange for posting permission. You send a sample that you have questions about and of which you'd like an edit. I won't post it without your permission.

© 2005 Ray Rhamey