I agree with this answer. If you want to give people a preview of your work, the characters, or the world before you're done writing the book, another way to do that (warning: creating work for you here :-) ) would be to separately publish a short story. That way you release something self-contained and people can see what your work is like. Even if you have to set a price, you can set a low one for a short story. — Monica Cellio Jun 7 at 23:57

@MonicaCellio If you were to add that as an answer, at least I would upvote it. :) It isn't exactly what is being asked, but I feel it still does address the question nicely. — Michael Kjörling Jun 8 at 21:31

@MonicaCellio I have already written a couple of (unrelated) short stories, and they are written in a slightly similar style, but my novel is unlike anything else that I - or, thinking about it, most other authors - have yet to create yet. Do you think that making these short stories freely available would benefit me? Even though it isn't quite the same path as offering the first chapter completely free, I guess it could be a good start to familiarise readers with my work. — SnookerFan Jun 20 at 12:58

@SnookerFan, it seems to me that getting people exposed to your work, while not the same as getting them exposed to this particular novel, would help. While some people get hooked on a particular story, I suspect (no data!) that more sales result from "I know this author" than "I read a little of this". (There are other factors too, of course, like "people I respect liked this" and "that cover really grabbed me", but that's beyond the scope of this question.) — Monica Cellio Jun 20 at 13:03

@MonicaCellio Wonderful observation, Monica. I too suspect that people buy books based on good experiences with the author's other works rather than the actual story; I also imagine that this is why the author's surname is considerably larger than the title on most books (especially the more accomplished authors). I may well do this in that case. My favourite short story is approximately 6,000 words - do you suspect that that will suffice / will be enough to whet the appetites of any potential future customers? — SnookerFan yesterday