Suspense and horror fiction novelist Dean Koontz is coming to Second Life on March 15 as the virtual stop on the promotion trail for his latest book, “The Good Guy.”

Publisher Random House’s Bantam Dell imprint has teamed up with Second Life developer Electric Sheep to hold a live reading and Q&A session, audio streamed into the Bantam Dell Book Cafe in Second Life.

If you attend the event, you’ll have a chance to take part in a raffle to win a real life first edition hardback of “The Good Guy,” signed by Dean Koontz. The winners will receive this book at least a week or more before it hits the shelves. Publication date is May 29.

The event is being syndicated via a number of venues in Second Life including crayonville. It will also be audio-streamed live at the official Dean Koontz website.

Koontz’ appearance will kick-start the “Bantam Dell Authors in Second Life” programme where other authors will do similar in-world events in future.

It’s a terrific way to expose authors and books to fans and new readers in an entirely new and dynamic way as well as build that community spirit. Think of book readings at your local Barnes & Noble or Waterstones and project that thought into Second Life.

I’m also excited about this as I’ve read nearly every single one of Koontz’ novels (yes, I am a huge fan!) and listened to his podcasts last year. If you haven’t discovered Dean Koontz yet, this could be your ideal opportunity, wherever you are.

(Cross-posted from 93 colors, the crayon blog.)