Crime novelist Vachss dropping 'Bomb' on Internet

Andrew Vachss

In this story: 'Unpublishable' Internet-savvy RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Todd Leopold
CNN.com Books Editor

(CNN) -- Crime novelist Andrew Vachss is going to be the next novelist to ride the bullet of the Internet and release an online novel.

Vachss' "A Bomb Built in Hell" is scheduled for online release Thursday morning. The book will be available for free, but only through Amazon.com.

According to Lou Bank, whose Vancouver, Washington, firm Ten Angry Pitbulls handles much of Vachss' business and marketing, the book will be serialized at the rate of three chapters each weekday, and will run 28 days.

Vachss and Amazon wanted to take advantage of interest in online works following the success of Stephen King's spring release "Riding the Bullet," says Bank. That book was available through several sources and has been downloaded by an estimated 500,000 readers.

"Amazon was looking for something to follow the King hit," Bank says. "Andrew had given me this novel years ago. We were looking for something to do with it, and this just clicked."

Vachss' first novel, "A Bomb Built in Hell" was written in 1973, but he filed it away after several publishers rejected it. Vachss has since written a number of bestselling works, including "Flood," "Choice of Evil," and "Down in the Zero," most featuring an ex-con named Burke. The next Burke novel, "Dead and Gone," is due out in September from Knopf.

The publisher, says Bank, is not daunted by "Bomb"'s Internet-only status. "They're really excited by it," says Bank, who adds that Knopf parent company Random House "appears to be as on top of e-books as anyone."

"Bomb" features plot points that include high-school mass murder and Chinese youth gangs, topics that were considered unthinkable 27 years ago -- the main reason for its rejection, Vachss says.

"It was said to be unpublishable," he observes in a telephone interview.

But that brutality has become commonplace in published books Vachss written since that early rejection. Vachss is known for his vicious settings, unsavory characters and gritty plots, contrasted with elegantly minimalist prose.

He sees putting "Bomb" online as "using the medium in a way it's never been used before."

King's "Bullet" and the more recent "The Plant" -- the latter available only through King's Web site -- both cost the reader to download, while "Bomb" is free. "This way, the maximum number of people will be able to see it," he says.

The idea of a serialized work appealed to him as a throwback to old movies (as well as old publishing techniques), as did the chance for readers to sample the book in small pieces.

Free or not, says Vachss, he's looking for honorable readers: "I'm not giving up the copyright."

The author is no stranger to the Internet. His site, "The Zero" (www.andrewvachss.com), was one of the earliest author sites, created in 1995. Today it's also one of the largest: Vachss, a practicing lawyer specializing in children and youth, and his volunteer Web masters have included information and links to dozens of topics ranging from child abuse to mental health.

Though "A Bomb Built in Hell" is free to readers, Vachss is being remunerated by Amazon. Bank would not reveal figures.

If "Bomb" is successful, will Vachss put out another Internet-only work? Yes, says Vachss -- so long as if enough people stay to the end, and only if the feedback is positive.

"I can see doing it again if it works," he says, "but I can't measure that (in a conventional way). There's no royalties. It's all feedback (from readers). That's the way I judge everything I write."

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