The author in Portugal in 2006
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Jan 03, 2010 -
‘Preloved’
began life as a birthday gift for his wife. Inspired by their chance meeting in Europe in 2008, musician and writer, David Christopher, decided to fictionalise the experience into a story about two soulmates who meet in nineties London. In the story, the male protagonist finds his partner after leaving a note on a bus during his travels as a touring musician. Years later, the same note unravels the world of a pre-teenage girl who learns of her tragic hidden past.
The line between fiction and reality began to blur when the anonymous message motif, an element crucial to the story, provided Christopher with an ingenious way to promote the book itself. Soon notes bearing the words “Please Read Me” and containing a synopsis and download instructions were being distributed globally by friends, family, even strangers only too happy to help promote ‘Preloved’
.
The other feature central to the narrative and plot of ‘Preloved’
is the music written and performed by main character Robin Waters. Readers can listen to actual songs used in the story at Christopher’
s Myspace site. But what’s the catch in getting the book for free? There isn’t one. Rather than soliciting agents and publishers with an unproven product, Christopher instead wanted to try and develop a grass roots following for the novel first:
“Hopefully I can uncover an audience for the book while demonstrating to agents or publishers the strong marketing potential in the novel’s key elements which are the note and the music. Using the note idea from my own story seemed a perfect way to connect with people and offer them the book and so far it’s working. There’s no reason why that couldn’t happen on a larger scale.”
Christopher own ambition for ‘Preloved’
is to tour the book and its accompanying songs as a single multimedia event initially with performances at in-store book signings later developing into acoustic concert performances of the book’s ‘soundtrack’
.
To receive a free PDF copy of Preloved, send a blank email with the word ‘Preloved’
in the subject line to: prelovedthebook@
gmail.com
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/10472903/1David Christopher is a musician and writer. He currently writes industry articles for First Base Music and was a journalist at BMA magazine in Canberra. ’Preloved’ is his debut novel. As a musician he has toured the world in several tribute bands, most notably Queen It’s A Kinda Magic and The Beatles Experience, with many television and radio performances to his credit. He released his first solo EP ‘Preloved’ in 2009 to coincide with the novel.
