Snap, Crackle, Pinkwater: Serializing a Novel Online

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on August 10, 2006 Sign up now!

by Shannon Maughan, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 8/10/2006

Pinkwater.

We all know that few things in life are free. And increasingly fewer things online are free. But what if you could read a new book by your favorite author online—one chapter per week—for free? That's a bargain that author/National Public Radio contributor Daniel Pinkwater (and his publisher, Houghton Mifflin Children's Books) are betting his fans will not want to pass up. It's also the kind of viral marketing approach that both parties hope will spur sales of Pinkwater's novel The Neddiad when it's published next April.

In late July, Pinkwater and Ed Weiss, the independent webmaster of www.pinkwater.com (also reached from www.theneddiad.com), whose work is sanctioned by the author, posted the first of 79 chapters that make up The Neddiad, the colorful odyssey of young shoelace heir Neddie Wentworthstein as he moves with his family from Chicago to Los Angeles. It's a La La Land adventure that features "swashbuckling actors, omniscient shamans, hungry ghosts, mysterious turtles, and an elephant or two," according to the author's own description. As of August 1, a new chapter will be posted on Pinkwater's site each Tuesday.

Pinkwater's chapters are taken from his manuscript, a few typos and all, because, as he notes in a letter to readers, "I thought it might be of interest for some to see what the book was like when handed in." Expanding on this idea, the author expressed to Children's Bookshelf that he wants his fans to have the experience of discovering something online that does not have the commercially packaged look that so many Internet offerings do.

"When I was younger a circus hand showed me how they let kids sneak into the circus," Pinkwater recalled. "If they were bold enough to try, they got to stay. I'm trying to keep that feeling for kids with this project. It lets kids sneak into the tent. We're deliberately keeping it from looking slick; there are no ads. Of course, it's with Houghton Mifflin's kind permission that we can offer this, but it's still a bit of homebrew, slightly different from the finished version. We hope that the readers who enjoy what they find online will want to buy the book, too."

Houghton Mifflin is enthusiastic about the undertaking and wholly supportive. "We felt some slight hesitation at first about having the entire book available online," said Margaret Raymo, editorial director of Houghton Mifflin Children's Books. "But by the April publication date, roughly half of the chapters will be posted. And we believe that this kind of initial publicity and an anticipated groundswell of fan support will lead to greater buzz."

According to Karen Walsh, senior publicity manager for the company, "We're thrilled. We are always looking for new ways to promote our books online because that's increasingly where our efforts are going." Of the book itself, she surmised, "The short chapters really lend themselves to this type of serialization. And we think that readers will enjoy the feeling of getting 'the inside scoop' straight from the manuscript of a new book."

Walsh characterizes Pinkwater's push as a true grassroots campaign aimed at fans and says that Houghton will complement that with more traditional marketing to librarians, teachers and booksellers that will include postings to listservs, ads in trade publications, postcard giveaways at regional bookseller shows featuring the URL, and a link to the Neddiad site from Houghton's Web site, all kicking off in September and running throughout the fall.

As a bonus, Pinkwater's affiliation with NPR is likely to direct even more fans to The Neddiad. The URL for the serialized book's site will be part of the on-air "back announce" descriptions that identify the author following his radio segments. The Neddiad promotion was first mentioned following one of Pinkwater's All Things Considered commentaries on July 19, and as a result, according to the author, the site received more than 40,000 hits.

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