Mr Nice Guy: Thomas Dowler
Savvy writer gives entire first novel away for free using MySpace to find interested readers. Nice.
This is the press release for Thomas Dowler’s debut novel, which does a good job of explaining why MySpace is a godsend for writers, just as it was for bands. Anyone can stick a book on their website - the trick is finding interested people to actually download it.
Mr Nice Guy is available as a free e-Book and audiobook podcast from www.mrniceguy-novel.com, and has been downloaded more than 2000 times in the thirteen weeks since its launch. Dowler credits social networking site MySpace for much of this success.
MySpace is famous for launching the career of bands like the Arctic Monkeys, but Dowler believes he is the first novelist to use the site to gain exposure for his work.
Thomas Dowler comments: “MySpace gave me instant access to millions of people, and I could search through them by age, gender and location, making it very easy to zoom right in on my target demographic. And because the novel is aimed at young, internet-savvy professionals – in other words the sort of people who use MySpace – a high proportion of the people I contacted were very interested by the concept.”
Mr Nice Guy, a romantic comedy in the British tradition, was submitted to literary agents throughout 2005, many of whom responded extremely positively, but felt unable to represent the book because of poor market conditions. One agent described it as “genuinely funny”, before adding that “no-one’s buying first novels at the moment”.
Dowler was so impressed by the response to the website (www.mrniceguy-novel.com) and his MySpace page (www.myspace.com/mrniceguy_novel), that he plans to publish his second novel, Jealous Guy, online in 2007.
Mr Nice Guy is the story of Dan Fisher, aspiring stand-up comedian and all-round good guy, who gets dumped by his girlfriend Claudia for being “too nice”.
Dan is forced to reassess his life, and his long-held belief that being “nice” was generally considered a good thing. His eccentric flatmate Giles and flamboyant boss Darren help Dan understand that what women really want is someone a bit dangerous. Someone James Dean-esque.
But when Dan meets Rachel, and her arrogant, possessive boyfriend Warren, Dan starts to realise that maybe he was right all along, and there’s nothing wrong with being a nice guy.
More on Mr Nice Guy
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