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jeffreymoss · 02-07-2011, 10:53 PM

I've been playing with an idea to build an app and I'd like feedback from this forum about my idea and general interest in participating in it.

I have been reflecting on how hard it is to break through as a writer of a novel. The investment that people have to put in to see if they like you as a writer is significant, and most people won't put that time in. Instead, a lot of book buyers simply buy from bestseller names they recognize because the chances are that they will enjoy those books as opposed to if they experiment with a new author. Yet this also leads to reading a lot of mediocrity.

Here's my core theory: there are a lot of readers out there who want to read something from a new author, but they don't because of the investment one puts into a book is too high. So I've been asking myself, how do you break this barrier down?

Here's my idea. Build an app of new and unknown writers who have written novels. Have those writers write short stories, no more than 2,500 words, that are based on the novels they have written. These stories could be based on the people, places, or times in the source novel, but not be actual pieces of the novel itself.

I call the idea Short Story Sampler. It lets readers sample from new authors with minimal commitment, and at the end of each story there would be a paragraph about the novel the story was based on. Hopefully that would lead the reader to purchase the novel.

What do you think? Would you be willing to participate in this? Ideally readers would rank the stories as well. I see this as a type of advertising for the author. Stories would be posted for free to the reader once they purchased the app, and new additions could be added often. There would be no sales through the app, and no revenue from posting there, but there would be the free exposure and writers would retain all the rights to their material (including pulling their stories at any time).

I'm really excited about this idea, and I hope others will feel the same. I look forward to your comments.

02-07-2011, 10:53 PM	#1
jeffreymoss Bard Posts: 17 Karma: 20000 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: iPad	An App Idea I've been playing with an idea to build an app and I'd like feedback from this forum about my idea and general interest in participating in it. I have been reflecting on how hard it is to break through as a writer of a novel. The investment that people have to put in to see if they like you as a writer is significant, and most people won't put that time in. Instead, a lot of book buyers simply buy from bestseller names they recognize because the chances are that they will enjoy those books as opposed to if they experiment with a new author. Yet this also leads to reading a lot of mediocrity. Here's my core theory: there are a lot of readers out there who want to read something from a new author, but they don't because of the investment one puts into a book is too high. So I've been asking myself, how do you break this barrier down? Here's my idea. Build an app of new and unknown writers who have written novels. Have those writers write short stories, no more than 2,500 words, that are based on the novels they have written. These stories could be based on the people, places, or times in the source novel, but not be actual pieces of the novel itself. I call the idea Short Story Sampler. It lets readers sample from new authors with minimal commitment, and at the end of each story there would be a paragraph about the novel the story was based on. Hopefully that would lead the reader to purchase the novel. What do you think? Would you be willing to participate in this? Ideally readers would rank the stories as well. I see this as a type of advertising for the author. Stories would be posted for free to the reader once they purchased the app, and new additions could be added often. There would be no sales through the app, and no revenue from posting there, but there would be the free exposure and writers would retain all the rights to their material (including pulling their stories at any time). I'm really excited about this idea, and I hope others will feel the same. I look forward to your comments.