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The much reported usurping of the novel by the internet may be exaggerated but if publishers are to thrive in the future they will have to learn how to work with such interactive technologies.
Which is exactly what Headline Books are doing with Contract ($36.99) the debut novel from North Londoner Simon Spurrier.
In an ambitious move unprecedented at least for a mainstream publisher, Contract is being serialised for free in weekly instalments on the website www.itsallaboutthemoney.co.uk, the name of which is taken from one of the favourite catchphrases of the novel's central protagonist, Michael Point, a chameleonic hitman whose victims start coming back to life.
"When the publishers first presented the idea to me, it seemed so counter-intuitive," says Spurrier. "It's my first book, I really want it to do well. I want people to read it and I want people to buy it. It's a business, I can't eat tablecloths for the rest of my life."
But, as Spurrier points out, more out there sci-fi guys, such as Toronto-born author Cory Doctorow, have previously posted their novels on the net in a more altruistic way and every time they've given something away on the internet, their book sales go up.
So Spurrier is confident that people will still purchase the book even though the entire story will eventually be available online.
"People will get sick of sitting there and scrolling through the screen," he says. "And you can't take a computer into the bath or the bog. Hopefully people will be keen to read it but won't have the patience to read it in the digital format.
"There's also an element of collectability involved because these days people like to define themselves by whatever's on their bookshelves.
"If you've read something and enjoyed it, you also want to own it; I suspect that's why libraries are dying."
While Contract is Spurrier's first original novel, it is far from the 26-year-old's first published work of fiction as he has written numerous comic book series and spin-off books for British sci-fi comics 2000AD and Warhammer over the past six years. He is also currently writing The Silver Surfer for Marvel Comics and the surreal Gutsville for Image Comics, which is about a city in the belly of a beast.
According to Spurrier, comics fandoms highly organised online community of newsgroups and message boards is very similar to the brave new literary world that Headline hope Contract will help usher in.
Comic readers, like sci-fi or horror readers, are far more inclined to go on the internet to talk about books than followers of other genres like crime, says Spurrier.
"This is the first time that we know of that a publisher of something other than science-fiction or horror has decided to try something like this. It's kind of nerve-racking."
- Detours, HoS
