It was about a year ago that Pandora—the first community-sourced thriller from book collaboration site WEbook—was officially released. Pandora features the work of 17 different authors, and now a similar project from Random House and Borders Australia aims to combine the work of 29 authors in what it calls the world's first chain novel.
Best-selling crime author James Patterson will write the first and last chapters of AirBorne, a 30-chapter thriller that will be released one chapter at a time beginning next month. For those in between, Borders and Random House held a contest to find 28 writers who could each create a fast-paced and thrilling chapter in less than 750 words. The contest closed on Sunday, and now judges are in the process of selecting the winners, each of whom will receive a copy of the finished book; one lucky author will also get a one-on-one master class by phone with Patterson himself. Once completed, AirBorne will be released one chapter at a time beginning on 20 March. Readers will be able to download each chapter electronically, but the final book will be published in print only for participants in the competition, according to digitalOZ. Meanwhile, one aspiring collaborator's entry is posted online.
Though clearly being held primarily for promotional purposes, the AirBorne competition makes smart use of Generation C's wild enthusiasm for creating content of every kind. As the saying goes, the pen is mightier than the sword—or, in this case, the mass-market ad campaign! ;-)
Website: www.borders.com.au/chain-thriller/
Contact: www.borders.com.au/customer-enquiry-form.asp
Spotted by: Emma Crameri
Hey Emma,
It's definitely an interesting idea, and a campaign worth checking out. Would have loved to see more on engagement and digital outreach.
Keep up the great work.
Brett
www.digitaloz.com.au
As one of the lucky few that were selected to write part of Airborne, I can tell you that it was a LOT of fun.
Due to timelines, it was pretty full on, and speaking personally, as the days approached for when I'd be writing my chapter, I did start to get nervous.
That was the odd thing - while we saw the story forming, you just never knew what kind of plot twist would arrive just before you write your own part.
An interesting idea, and a lot of fun!
It was also a huge honour when James Patterson selected my chapter (Chapter 17) as the over-all winner, and I spent some time with him on the phone.
A fantastic opportunity, and something I'd love to see (and take part in) again!
Sam Stephens
www.samstephens.com