16 July,2009 08:44 AM IST | | Agencies
An American writer who failed to find a publisher for his novel is putting the book on Twitter 140 characters at a time.
Matt Stewart, a San Francisco-based novelist, began Tweeting his first book, The French Revolution, on the micro-blogging service on Tuesday appropriately Bastille Day.
"As far as I can tell, I'm the first person to release a completed full-length literary novel on Twitter," Stewart wrote on his website, www.thefrenchrev.com.
"Loosely structured on the greatest identity crisis ever, The French Revolution tells the story of a San Francisco family forging its place in history," he said.
Stewart said putting the book on Twitter was a "social experiment" to "see how the world reacts to a long-form tale told in snippets".
He also acknowledged that he had been unable to find a publisher.
"My agent submitted The French Revolution to all the major publishing houses," said Stewart.
"Many of them loved it, but none were willing to buy what they viewed as a 'risky' novel vivid language, elements of fantasy and farce, raunchy humor," he said.
Stewart said it would take approximately 3,700 Tweets to transmit the entire book. For more conventional readers, he is offering the book for free on Scribd.com or for $1.99 (Rs 100) on Amazon's electronic book reader, the Kindle.
