Updating this story, Neil Gaiman has announced his readers’ choice for the free novel he’ll make available on-line. He received more than 26,000 votes (26,551, to be exact), and the winner, with 28%, is American Gods. Second was Neverwhere with 21% of the total.
Gaiman himself was surprised with the choice, writing “I don’t think I would have put up American Gods as a first choice for free book myself—mostly because a) it’s really long and b) it divides people. As far as I can tell, for every five people who read it, one loves it utterly, two or three like it to varying degrees, and one hates it, cannot see the point to it and needs convincing that it’s a novel at all. (Quite often the last person really likes some of the other books I’ve written, if they ever pick up anything else by me ever again.) But that’s the fun of democracy, and American Gods has won more awards than any other single thing I’ve written.”
Gaiman will post details of how and where to access the free online book on his blog.