I would like to publish my second novel now and I would like for you to read it.
But there’s a catch.
Imagine that you’re standing on a sheer rock face twenty feet above the frigid, clear-as-glass waters of Lake Superior, and you want to jump. You really do, but you’re afraid of heights, and that water looks awfully cold. You won’t do it on your own. You don’t want to be the only one taking a chance. If someone, anyone, else is willing to take the plunge with you, then you’ll bend your knees, spring into the air, and watch that water drop up and upon you.
My novel, Shattering Glass, or more properly, How to Survive Your First Year of College: Shattering Glass can be published episodically for the Amazon Kindle (you can get the Kindle for free for your PC here, for your Mac here). Serialized fiction was made great by such writers as Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Herman Melville. Technology such as the Kindle has made it viable once again. I would like to release my novel in sixteen chapters bundled into eight installments. I will release one installment each week starting on November 8th. Each installment will cost 99 cents, and so you get to read the whole novel for under $8. Artwork will be designed by the fabulous Sam Perkins-Harbin of Forge 22 Design, and the book will be edited by Reinhardt Suarez, who co-curated Chicago’s Tuesday Funk reading series with me. They are both impressive artists in their own right.
Now here’s the catch: I want to know that I’m not jumping alone. I want to know that I won’t be taking a big risk alone, or sinking hundreds of hours into an endeavor without an audience. In order for this to happen, I need 150 people to commit to “giving the book a try.” What does that mean? It means that they’ll at least purchase the first installment for 99 cents at Amazon. LET ME KNOW if you are willing to do this, and if I have reached 150 people by November 8th, the book will officially go live.
You can answer by leaving a comment here or on Facebook, or by sending me an email at connor@connorcoyne.com.
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About the Book: College is a strange new world. But it might be too strange for Sam, Ezzie, Marty, and Dunya. They’re just first year undergrads at the prestigious but mysterious Arkaic University, known for its site on the grounds of an abandoned mental hospital, and its curious technology that converts time into electricity. And then there’s the matter of the shattering glasses. Every time Ezzie, an aspiring playwright from New York, finds herself looking at any sort of glass, it explodes. The four undergrads are continually stalked by student organizations with a history of espionage and homicide — dreaded groups with names like the Theatre of Gold and the Artemis Club — and the eclectic sexual appetites of the older students is something to be both sought and feared. Obviously, college is a time of action and exploration, of soul-searching and risk-taking, but at Arkaic University, it seems that logic has gone off the deep end.
Still not sure? Read Chapter 1 here!
Remember: If you want to read this novel, let me know, and please tell your friends about it too. 150 people is our goal.