TED Conversations

David Gorniak

Bar Tender/ Night Porter/ Aspiring Writer/ Part time philosopher,

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

On demand novels

Writing a novel is a daunting task in a market that has heavy competition. To write is to gamble with time and effort because no-one knows whether that time and effort will pay off or whether it will join the big pile of forgotten literary works.

I've always wanted to write a novel but i lacked motivation and confidence as i was put off by all the worries mentioned above. Then one day I let my girlfriend read one of writings and she said that she really liked it and asked me to write a bit a more because she wanted to know where the story was going.

So this gave me an idea; instead of releasing novels as a whole, once they have been completed, writers release their novels in parts and see how much interest they gather up. The more interest a chapter gets, the more people there are who will be willing to pay for the novel and so the more motivated the writer will be.

So instead of write it and lets see who reads it, the idea reverses that; who would read it then write it.

Topics: in demand motivator novels readers writing
0
Share:
progress indicator

  • Rin Hands

    • 0
    Apr 11 2011: There are some people who do this already. I was reading a story a while back and they just put up each chapter as they wrote it and let people comment with feedback etc. When there was enough interest they then published the book allowing people to pre-order etc. It worked out quite well I think the main problem would getting it to be so people would see it at first.
  • thumb

    Javiera Correa

    • 0
    Apr 7 2011: David,
    I think it is a good idea, but mostly for editors as a way to know which book is best to develop and even print into a real novel. But you could perfectly develop a nice and professional website were you can invite writters to upload the beggining of their novels and let the people read and comment. I think it can work. Good luck!
    • thumb

      Lee Wilkinson 20+

      • 0
      Apr 7 2011: There is such a website http://www.authonomy.com/ the problem has become that a lot of well meaning people tend to give fairly rubbish feedback based on the ego. The site should work a lot better than it does. I the idea though for Publishers to do this I think is good though. As you say if a novel is finished or there is a good part of it completed and the public want more surely that would be a sign to go forward.
  • thumb

    Lee Wilkinson 20+

    • 0
    Apr 6 2011: I think the idea has credence. Having written three books I know the amount that goes into it, even if like me you the writing process the end result is still not guaranteed success. How would you post or share the part of the book you have written?

  • David Gorniak

    • 0
    Apr 6 2011: I think this would be a good idea especially for writer who are new to the market and are struggling to get their works published.
    By seeing potential readers and finding out who'd be willing to pay for their novel, the more motivated that writer would be as he already knows that he has a market for his novel.
Showing all 5 comments