The Future of Storytelling
As the launch of the iPad nears, we’re beginning to catch glimpses of what the print to digital transition actually looks like in the real world. Up until this point, it’s all been theoretical. But now digital magazines, like VIV (which produced the digital feature spread above for their magazine), Wired, and Time are leveraging motion for “edu-tainment” purposes.
*And before any emails me, I’m using this as an example of their smart use of media, not necessarily the message, which you may or may not agree with. Point here is that it’s smart and an interesting example of what’s possible visually.
This is just the beginning of what will be a mad dash by traditional magazines to create content. Check out this story that I ran across at enGadget this morning. Be sure to watch the “making of” featurette at the bottom of the article. It’s fascinating and gives you an idea of just how much work goes into creating a 1:46 piece, especially one with a stylized, Frank Miller edge to it.
How will writers and publishers use this? It’s hard to say. Producing something like the VIV piece is very expensive on a time increment basis ($X/produced minute) even if you know how to do it efficiently. The magazines monetize their content through advertising. Question is, whether or not publishers will consider a similar model when it comes to their releases, both fiction and non-fiction.
Pretend with me for a minute that we all read e-books more than print versions. Just for a minute.
Would you tolerate ads in your digital novels if it meant the difference between just getting text on an LCD screen and getting something flashy and interactive like the video above? Tell me.
New Dekker Paperbacks
Here are some fun things to share for your Monday afternoon. As most of you know, we’re making a serious effort to introduce Dekker stories to thriller readers who aren’t familiar with him. A huge part of that strategy is releasing his previous thrillers as mass market paperbacks. Those are the small format books that you find at Walgreen’s, in the airport, and your local grocery stores. The idea with mass market books is to allow readers to sample a new author without the cost commitment of a hardback. If they like the story, then hopefully we’ll gain a new fan.
I first became a Dean Koontz fan thanks to a mass market book I bought on the cheap. I’ve been a fan ever since.
Here are the covers for the first three titles to be released: BoneMan’s Daughters (already out), Adam (coming in June), and Thr3e (coming in November). You can order BMD and Adam by clicking on the cover images. Thr3e isn’t available for pre-order yet. But, soon.
Speaking of Thr3e…this is the first time the cover has been seen in public. Leave a comment and Facebook share it if you like it.
Ted on The Bride Collector
This is one for all you Ted Dekker fans. We’re ramping up for the release of The Bride Collector, which means it’s time for interview requests to start rolling in. We learned a long time ago that he answers the same questions over and over, so before a new book goes out we try to put together a FAQ for media outlets. This time I thought I’d share it with you first. If you have a blog or book review site feel free to post this “interview” along with it. Some of the questions will be familiar to you, while others aren’t. Hope you enjoy it.
Q: In your novel, the Bride Collector leaves his victims arranged in very specific, ceremonial positions. Where did the idea come from? And how did you put yourself inside the mind of someone who is so evil, so psychotic and so certain that what he is doing to his victims is justified?
A: The antagonist Quinton Gauld arranges his victims as angels on the wall, beautifully made up wearing only a bridal veil, consistent with his understanding that he is sending them to God as his bride. Tapping into the mind of such a person is painfully easy for all humans—evil isn’t so strange to any of us, I only put it on the page where most would not dare.
They say that writing about evil is much easier than writing about goodness, and it’s this latter exercise, making good as fascinating as evil, that consumes me the most. Enter Paradise, an innocent woman in the book who is for me the most fascinating character by a long shot. I adore Paradise. Continue Reading
My 5-year old will change publishing
Since the introduction of the Kindle, the topic of eBooks and digital content has dominated the publishing world. As it should, because our livelihood depends on getting the big decisions right. The key question everyone is wrestling with is the when of the shift, because the if is now a foregone conclusion. It’s already happening.
I’ve been in a lot of discussions about this and, frankly, I think a good many people are looking at it sideways. They’re narrowly focused on today’s book consumer (primarily middle-aged females, statistically) and how to get them to migrate to a digital format either via the Kindle or iPad (or any of the bazillion other devices coming soon to a store near you). I think there will be a lot of migration, especially from the Millenials and Gen Xer’s, but we won’t be the tipping point.
My daughter’s kindergarten class will be. Continue Reading
