Disgruntled Staples signs

For Douglas Coupland's latest novel The Gum Thief, Random House, Canada launched a series of dramatic viral shorts, courtesy of Crush Toronto.

Coupland narrated the nine videos, which were posted on YouTube and released in sets of three for consecutive weeks.

In journal entry form, the book streams the thoughts of a 40-something Staples employee down on his luck, a format that "lent itself to [the viral] approach," Crush CD Gary Thomas told the Creative Review.

Like the book, the videos followed three narratives: the protagonist Roger, his gothic co-worker Bethany, and Roger's own novella Glove Pond.

Thomas thinks the videos will attract people to Coupland who don't normally read contemporary fiction.

Coupland is reportedly responsible for bringing the term "Generation X" into the mainstream with his 1991 slacker novel of the same name.

Virals are used to advertise everything from cars to soft drinks but remain a rarity in the literary world.

Previous literary attempts-gone-viral include one by publisher Canongate, which launched an interactive, animated short for 2002's novel Life of Pi.