Comments on: Giving Your Novel Away - Serialization

By: Lew Weinstein

Lew Weinstein — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 11:22:44 +0000

ED
Of course you’re right about the pre-selected list of readers. However, new readers coming from this blog are having the same enthusiastic reaction, which is very gratifying.
LEW

By: Ed Robertson

Ed Robertson — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 22:25:49 +0000

Interesting strategy, Lew. You seem to be using the serialized giveaway to build a readership _and_ do test marketing for the book — all of which can be useful information in terms of approaching agents and/or traditional houses. Of course, given that most of your test readers consist of pre-selected friends and acquaintances, some of that information might be skewed. Then again, that’s all part of selling (a skill that every writer has to master, especially today), and from what I can tell, you seem to be very good at that.

Best of luck!

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 19:56:23 +0000

Congratulations! And thanks for the link back.

By: Lew Weinstein

Lew Weinstein — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 19:52:09 +0000

CHERYL

I have started a new blog for A Good Conviction …

http://agoodconviction.wordpress.com/

and linked your interview of me to that site. BTW, there have been several of your blog readers who have asked for and received the first segment, free of course.

LEW

By: Lew Weinstein

Lew Weinstein — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 11:05:55 +0000

I did seek feedback from the early readers, and there have been changes made as a result, mostly typos, but in other cases, more significant observations were addressed. For example, a couple of readers said the story moved quickly once they got into it, but that the first chapters were a little slow. That’s been fixed (I hope). There were other perceptive readers who picked up two out-of-sequence events, the result of re-positioning certain scenes. There were also, earlier in the process before the serial readers, two attorneys who went over the text like it was a law brief, helping to assure that the courtroom scenes and appeals process were accurately depicted.

By: Lynn Voedisch

Lynn Voedisch — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:28:55 +0000

I found the concept of serialization interesting, but I am a worry wart about copyright issues. I just wonder how you keep the writing safe when you put it out there on the Web.

I’ve also been mulling over e-books. In the past, I was not interested, since the technology is still not there for reading a book on an e-reader. But I hear the day is coming soon when an e-reader that you can take to bed will be on the market. I still can’t see snuggling in an easy chair to read a book on the computer.

Maybe someone wants to tackle these issues?

Lynn

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:43:59 +0000

The only question that I forgot to ask is (and at the moment it seems pretty important), did Lew make any changes based on the feedback (other than fine-tuning). It sounds like it was a finished product in the begiinning (is that like oxymoronic?). I’d be curious to know if he has a writing group or critique group that helped him square away the difficulties earlier on.

I’ve been in contact with someone (who may be writing a follow-up to this interview) who says that he thinks this is the future for publishing. Self-publish, demonstrate saleability, then let the big guns take over.

By: Annie

Annie — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:17:31 +0000

This was a really interesting approach to getting feedback from several people at different stages.

I like it.

By: Lew Weinstein

Lew Weinstein — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:43:50 +0000

CHERYL I forgot to include a link to our new travel blog, PAT AND LEW TRAVEL, which I started after getting input from you in February. Thanks for your help then and now. LEW

By: Lew Weinstein

Lew Weinstein — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:40:31 +0000

CHERYL It looks great. Thank you for thinking of me. LEW