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eBay hosts auction for collaborative thriller

A collaborative thriller is being written by 250 budding authors who bid for their chance to write a page on auction website Ebay.

The novel, currently 17 pages long, is being written one page at a time, with a different writer contributing each page. Interested contributors can log onto www.noveltwists.com to read the story so far.

The first 17 pages have followed the adventures of Andy, the lead character, who is being persecuted by gangster Leyland who has also killed his cheating wife Heather. Andy’s brother in law and business partner David has been murdered and his daughter Anna left on the hands of his late wife’s bitter sister in law Sofia. His possible past involvement with drugs and violence is hinted at but is yet to be revealed.

Novel Twists was the innovation of 31-year-old Phil McArthur who first considered writing a novel while recovering from cancer. The profit the book makes from the eBay auction will go to Macmillan Cancer support. He said,

“I found I was reading a lot more, and that inspired me to think maybe I could write something myself. The fact that it’s an auction means that if people are really keen to write the next page they have a good chance of getting it.”

Phil is determined that the book keeps a certain level of continuity and for this reason he has decided prospective writers cannot kill off Andy or Leyland, write about any more dream sequences and should to try and establish clear motivations for each character.

He has also designed the website in such a way that potential contributors must read all the subsequent pages before being able to submit a page; the link to eBay appears at the end of the most recently completed part. He said,

“I think it is better that the page authors should read the story before thinking about bidding on an auction. It cuts down on people just taking a page to be part of the site."

Rosie Hayes

rosie.hayes@alcs.co.uk