The third and final challenge went live today, and Cline says it’s now “a race to the finish to see who wins the car. My guess is that the contest will end sometime in August, depending on how long it takes someone to complete the final challenge.”
At that point, Cline assures us the numbers will grow thin. “The third challenge is extremely difficult, so there isn’t any chance of two people completing it simultaneously. There will be no scoreboard for the third challenge. The first person to complete all three challenges and send in verification will win the car.”
Cline says the effort required to run the promotional contest has been worth it, but do authors need to invent more creative strategies to sell their work in today’s media-saturated market?
“I don’t know how many books it’s helping me sell, and I don’t really care because my readers are having so much fun competing in a contest like the one in the novel,” says Cline. “Since my novel is about a video game contest, it seemed obvious and natural to promote the book with a similar contest. I’m not sure the same thing would work for another book.”
Cline admits he wasn’t the first person to look toward geek culture for inspiration.
“I’m no expert on marketing books,” says Cline. “This is my first novel. But as a reader, I love it when authors do creative things to promote their work. For example, my friend John Scalzi hired Jonathan Coulton to write a song based on his novel Redshirts, which is just about the coolest book-marketing idea ever. It’s also a great song and a great book. That helps.”
People have responded well to both the campaign and the book, even sending Cline emails of gratitude.
“I have received many touching emails from people of all ages who really love Ready Player One and who feel like I wrote the book just for them,” he says. “It’s incredibly humbling and gratifying since I originally wrote the book just to try and please myself. Dozens of people have told me it’s their new favorite book, which is the most wonderful thing a first-time novelist could ever hope to hear.”
Cline has found a way to not only encourage active fan involvement but also build a foundation for whatever comes next.
“I’ve learned that it’s possible to turn geeking out into a valid career,” he says. “Writing the book was fun, but also a real challenge, and it took me a long time. Promoting has been nothing but enjoyable. The only downside was having to spend so much time away from my 4-year-old daughter. But we were able to Skype, and she knew I was traveling the country in my DeLorean to promote ‘daddy’s book,’ so she was cool with it. It’s really good to be back home in Austin now, though.”
In his downtime, when Cline isn’t engaging with readers, working on TV and film projects (Ready Player One is set to become a film, and Cline wrote the script for Thundercade as well as 2009’s Fanboys), or watching cartoons and playing giant robots with his daughter, he’s penning his second novel: a personal coming-of-age story based on his childhood with elements of science fiction and fantasy fused together.
“This second book is more about growing up at a unique time in history, at the dawn of geek culture,” he says. “I think fans of Ready Player One will definitely enjoy it.”
