Some authors have tried a new technique for staged publication of novels.
The idea is to post one chapter (or a few chapters) and invited comments and even editing help from readers, before moving on to future chapters or even deciding the ending. The idea reminds me of a style of dinner theater where the audience decides who committed the murder (like "Clue").
The books of James Strauss seem to fit this model. A recent project is “30 Days Has September”, based on his experiences as an Army officer during the Vietnam war. (I, a draftee, was stateside at Fort Eustis and sheltered from combat at the time).
The chapters seemed to be based on individual days in combat. I do remember being told in Basic Combat Training that a typical infantry platoon went on patrol every third night.
The comments appear, under the name of Chuck Barton, on a blog posting by Ramsay Taplin on his “Blogtyrant” site, a post titled “What will you sell if you give away your best blog content for free?”, here.
The idea of gradual publication online to get an audience is interesting. I think Stephen King has tried it. But my own idea right now is to finish a complete draft, with all loose ends tied, of "Angel’s Brother" myself (about 105,000 words) and put them through a copyeditor before it goes anywhere. There is a draft now (all 27 chapters); but I have a lot of polishing to do. I guess I want to be the dictator of what happens to each character in this sci-fi, ongoing apocalypse setting. I decide who is going to get it.
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