FAQ: The Saint of Daybreak
April 26th, 2007What is The Saint of Daybreak?
The Saint of Daybreak is a novel that’s being serialized right on this website. The first chapter has been posted for free, and subsequent chapters will be posted every time “donations” reach a certain amount. Note that although I’m using the term “donation,” this is not a non-profit endeavor and your payment is not tax deductible. When a chapter is posted, it is visible to the general public, paying or unpaying — but the only way to be sure the entire novel will be posted is to be willing to pay.
Why don’t you just publish it?
Because it’s about vampires, and the plot involves a church conspiracy, which makes it slightly too similar to The Da Vinci Code (though the nature of the conspiracy is entirely different). That may seem counterintuitive, but I’ve had the novel rejected on that basis: there are too many vampire novels for one from a first-time novelist to stand out.
Mind you, I didn’t know that when I wrote it, and when I wrote the rough draft, The Da Vinci Code hadn’t been published yet. I might have made other choices if I’d known, and I’ve gone on to write various other novels that publishers are currently looking at.
But at least that means it’s done, right?
Right, that’s the thing. You can be absolutely assured that I won’t peter out halfway through — the novel is finished, it’s been revised, I’m continuing to make a few adjustments here and there just to make it as good as I can. There will always be a chapter ready to be posted when there are sufficient donations. Any delay of more than a day would only occur if I were out of town or something.
What’s it about?
The first chapter probably does better justice to the story than any little blurb I write, but the elevator pitch is this:
Tom Bishop was the leader of a society of vampires cursed by drinking from the Holy Grail. Now he’s woken up to find himself mortal again, and everyone he knows wants him dead and wants his secret — and the bitch of it is, he has no idea how it happened.
All told, the novel is about 25 chapters (like I said, I’m doing last-minute revisions, which include changing where chapter breaks occur). If from time to time a chapter is especially short, I’ll include it for free with an adjacent chapter; I don’t intend to collect donations only to post a couple pages, and hide behind “narrative flow” as an excuse.
Once the novel has been serialized, will it be available in print or ebook form?
Maybe. I favor the possibility.
What is the minimum amount of donations per chapter?
The first chapter is free; the second chapter will be posted when at least $20 has been donated; subsequent chapters will be posted every $40. I’m doing my best to name a figure here that works out so that everyone wins.
I’ll keep track of who donates how much over the course of the novel. There will be some kind of “reward” incentive for people who exceed a certain amount, but the specifics and the threshold will depend on just what happens. For instance, if there is a printed version of the novel when all is said and done, high donors could receive a free copy.
Is there any way to donate besides through PayPal?
I don’t want to deal with cash, checks, money orders, etc. For “trade,” I could provide the link to my Amazon wishlist. And I’ll happily take things I can’t find in New Hampshire: Luxardo maraschino liqueur, Prichard’s rum, Sun Drop soda, plenty of other things I can’t think of right now.