What are the odds that the website of the Washington Post would ever seralize a novel?
Not likely, right?
As you've probably guessed, it's happening. Admittedly, the author is the Post's veteran financial reporter, David Hilzenrath, so there's a strong connection, but there's still a good lesson for us in this.
First, the basic facts: according to the Media Guardian, the book, "Jezebel's Tomb," was rejected by traditional publishers because the protagonist is not an American and because the book didn't follow all the conventions of a thriller.
Instead, Hilzenrath is going with Lulu.com, a publish-on-demand company. You can order the book through them, but it's also being serialized on the website, washingtonpost.com. It's a 412-page thriller set in the Middle East.
As for the lessons for the rest of us, I see two:
1) being rejected by traditional publishers is no longer is the end of the line for authors; print on demand offers an alternative that doesn't require you to have hundreds or thousands of copies printed in advance;
2) never say 'never'--I'm not sure how Hilzenrath got the Post to serialize his novel but it shows there are lots of possibilities that we might not consider.
