As social media, like Facebook and Twitter, become more embedded into our lives, it seems only natural that writers would begin exploring how to use them as a new literary medium. At first glance, it doesn’t seem feasible or sensible to consider a service like Twitter as a writing vehicle; after all what can you possibly say in 140 characters. But, as Sarah Schmelling recently noted in the Huffington Post:
Twitter, too, is full of stories. It may be a cacophony of voices, but you can still easily “follow” someone through the establishment of their problem, rising tension, conflict, climax and resolution. And the trends like “first draft movie lines” can also be narrative entertainment: they’re like the movie scene where someone starts singing and little by little everyone, even that unlikely thug in the corner, eventually joins in.
Like full-blown blogs, Twitter microblogs could emerge as another form of writing in public. The experiments are well underway. These projects come in several flavors:
Storyin chunks - A single author builds the story post by post. He or she may already have a manuscript, but it gets chunked out a 140 or fewer characters at a time. Author Nick Belardes has used this approach in his two Twitter novels Small Places and Bumble Square.
Single post, single story – The ultra compressed novel. An example is novelsin3lines by Félix Fénéon. This is akin to the first draft movie lines that Ms. Schmelling refers to.
Collaborative story seeds -A starting post, followed by a sequence of Twitter posts contributed by followers. This process creates a story like one of those school science projects where you grow a crystal in a liquid. One example is BBC Audiobooks America Twitter novel project. Here is how it works. Author Neil Gaiman kicked off the novel with the post: Sam was brushing her hair when the girl in the mirror put down the hairbrush, smiled & said, “We don’t love you anymore.” Thousands of people have responded with the next possible sentences. The selected tweets are chosen by BBC Audiobooks and the final result will be posted on iTunes as a free podcast.
For more examples, check out the Read Write Web which posted a nice list of Twitter novels in progress.
Inspired? Brandon Mendelson, who has written the Twitter novel The Falcon Can Hear the Falconer, has posted some good advice for wannabe Twitter novelists on TwiTips. Key among his pointers is to maintain a separate site to provide the story’s updates from where it began and link to this site from the Twitter novel site.
So far, publishers aren’t lining up to sign Twitter novelists. But as the medium evolves, it could become a good place to try out story ideas and see what can build a following. Japanese cell phone novelists have shown that novels in short bites can be successful. (Now, if we could only come up with a better name for this writing form – something that didn’t start with “Tw” and sound like baby talk.)
The Espresso Book Machine, manufactured and distributed by On Demand Books, has created quite a stir since it was launched a few years ago. The book printing system has been compared to a “book ATM.” It can print books, stored in a digital repository, in a matter of minutes. Essentially, the system provides the capability to produce books at the point of purchase.
Version 2.0, a smaller and more efficient version of the Espresso Book Machine is now available and is helping drive sale at On Demand Books. In addition, the company has recently announced deals with Lightning Source and Google which give it access to a greater catalog of books. The video below demonstrates how the Espresso Book Machine produces a book it has retrieved from a digital repository.
Google Books: Classic Books Available via the Espresso Book Machine
Dane Neller is the CEO of On Demand Books LLC, which he co-founded with publishing legend Jason Epstein. He has extensive operating experience in the retail sector as former President and CEO of Dean & Deluca for over 8 years.formerly. Future Perfect Publishing interviewed him a couple of years ago, and he recently updated us on the company’s progress since that time and the outlook for the Espresso Book Machine.
FPP - Originally, mostly libraries were purchasing the EBM. Now it seems that more bookstores are acquiring the EBM. What do you think has caused the shift?
DN – Our primary market continues to be the University Setting both campus bookstores and research libraries. Independent Trade Bookstores also are buying as they recognize the value of localized self publishing programs being able to respond immediately to their customers.
Bookstores benefit as well from an increase in their sales per square foot, increase inventory turnover, derive new customer traffic to the machine, eliminate out-of-stocks and free up shelf space for faster moving, higher-margin inventory. For libraries, the machine enhances the academic experience for students/faculty and makes more books available to more patrons. By allowing the library to acquire a title for its collection on demand when requested by the patron, the EBM helps make the library’s acquisition strategy more efficient. Our technology also enables the library to reproduce rare books in physical form, provides a vehicle for University Press titles, and improves the inter-library loans process.
FPP- Have you begun to see interest from non-bookstore retailers?
DN – Yes, as they see the Espresso Book Machine enables them to add books as a new product line.
FPP - What’s the easiest way for publishers to make their titles available through the EBM?
DN – We are committed to adding content to our network and will accommodate whatever method is preferred by the publisher. There are three methods for publishers to make their titles available to us:
(1) Through our partner Lightning Source. This is our preferred way – publishers add their content to Lightning’s POD repository, and it becomes available through the EBM at the identical pricing offered by Lightning.
(2) By providing us with an API that allows our network to access the publisher’s digital repository – in effect, we “pull” the file from the publisher any time a book is purchased on one of the machines.
(3) By the publisher “pushing” their digital repository to us and allowing our servers to host their files. In this case, we host the publisher’s digital files and perform a regular reconciliation to keep the titles and their associated metadata up to date.
FPP - What does an EBM cost? Are there lease as well as purchase options?
DN - We sell the EBM for $97,500 plus the cost of the text printer (note that the EBM comes equipped with the full-color cover printer). The price of the text printer ranges from a little over $4,000 for the mid-speed printer (35 pages a minute – or a book ever 7-10 minutes) to roughly $28,000 for the high-speed printer (120 pages a minute – or a book every 3-4 minutes).
FPP - How do you anticipate the agreement with Lightning Source and Google will impact sales of the Espresso Book Machine (EBM)?
DN - Both Lightning and Google represent significant sources of high-value books. They’ve made the EBM more attractive to our customers and are helping sales.
FPP - What are the barriers to getting all publishers to sign on with ODB and what is the company’s strategy for growing the number of books available via the EBM?
DN - Distributed printing clearly is attractive to publishers who see the advantages of a greener distribution and sales channel. There may be some technical barriers on the publishers’ side to aggregate their printable files but most are creating or outsourcing Digital Asset Management repositories. Our strategy is to make our customers successful by going after content that will sell well through their setting. Academic content for the University Bookstore, for example.
FPP - Do you see a potential market for magazines, journals or newspapers using the EBM?
DN – Absolutely. The Espresso Book Machine will print, bind, and trim absolutely anything that a laser printer can print. In addition, customers have used the machine to print journals with personalized covers and lined pages, technical manuals, custom anthologies, professor-created textbooks, lab journals, study guides, coloring books, conference documents, corporate reports, recipe books, collections of (digitized) letters, and the list goes on . . .
FPP - E-books have been steadily growing in popularity. Do you see this as competition for the EBM?
DN - No. The growth in e-books has helped us in several ways. First, to the extent that growing e-book sales help publishers and booksellers, then we are helped, since these represent our partners and customers. More concretely, the digitization of backlist books for e-readers has made more titles available to our machines. Also, with the growth in e-books, publishers and retailers have grown more comfortable with nontraditional methods of book distribution, including our own.
FPP - What new features would you like to see in the next version of the EBM?
DN - We have no major upcoming changes to the EBM. In summer 2009 we began our full commercial rollout of the new EBM, version 2.0 (previously we had installed earlier-generation machines to test the market and the technology). At 3.8′ x 2.7′, the new 2.0 machine is half the size of the previous model. Interest in the machine has been fantastic, and we expect our installations to accelerate significantly in 2010, with an early emphasis on trade bookstores and the university bookstore and library market.
FPP – What do you see as the biggest challenges ahead for On Demand Books?
DN – Managing rapid growth is the biggest challenge. Other challenges relate to selling internationally. It is an exciting time for On Demand Books and our customers and we are very confident about our ability to meet challenges as they arise.
The day of the m-book (e-books on mobile phones) is rapidly approaching. Recently one of the founders of LexCycle, the company that makes the Stanza e-book reader for iPhone, recently spoke at a Book Publishers Northwest meeting. Stanaza’s numbers are impressive. In a very short time, over 100,000 titles have been converted into Stanza books. And there are now more than 1.3 million readers using Stanza on iPhones. And Stanza has added some distribution muscle by teaming up with two major retail partners, Fictionwise and Smashwords (both of which also provide e-books in other formats as well).
Stanza iPhone App Review – AppVee.com
LexCycle was purchased by Amazon in April. Unlike the Kindle, it uses the open standard epub format for its e-books. With the purchase of Stanza, Amazon may be hedging two bets – the popularity of reading books on a large form factor, single use device in a proprietary format versus a multi-function, small form factor, standard format mobile phone. Single function mobile devices have an annoying habit of becoming obsolete.
The success of Stanza has me wondering – how will the spread of m-books change the way we regard books and the manner in which we read?
Size won’t matter. As books go digital, the notion of personal library becomes something you carry in your pocket. It’s no big deal to have thousands of songs in your iPod; why not thousands of books on your iPhone (memory permitting).
We’ll need reading management apps. Gigantic personal libraries means we’ll need apps to help sort it all out and find what we need when we need it.
Read me a story. When its difficult to read, we can switch to an audio mode. Every book will come with two modes - text and audio. For example while commuting on a crowded bus or train,or in your car (there is already a controversy starting to brew about people reading books on their mobile phones while driving).
Books will become more social. Finding and texting interesting book snippets to friends will be easy.
Books will be processed, as well as read. Processing book content with other apps. For example, clicking on a location mentioned in a title and using Google maps to view the locale. Or mark inspiring passages and have them shown to us periodically.
Perhaps none of this will happen. It may be that the biggest change m-books will have is simply to make us read more, if in a different manner. With libraries and educational institutions leading the way, books are being reconceptualized as downloads and reading as an app.
Future Perfect Publishing has been following the Espresso Book Machine for the last several years. The Espresso Book Machine, sometimes called the “book ATM” is developed and marketed by On Demand Books. The system, about the size of a photocopier, allows a book to be selected from a digital catalog, then printed and bound in just a few minutes.
Now it is beginning to make serious inroads into the bookstore community. Two of the latest installations are going to be right here in the Pacific Northwest. One is at Third Place Books in Bothell, Washington, just outside of Seattle. The other is at Village Books. It is a community-based, independent bookstore located in the historic Fairhaven district of Bellingham, Washington, and was honored as the 2008 Outstanding Philanthropic Small Business in Washington State.
Village Books, Outstanding Philanthropic Small Business
Chuck Robinson has been co-owner, with his wife Dee, of Village Book in Bellingham, WA, since June of 1980. Chuck has pioneered many causes in his community so it seems only natural that his bookstore would be one of the first to make this innovative new way of producing books available. He’s a former board member and president of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers Association and currently serves as a board member of the Community Food Coop and as a trustee of Whatcom Community College. He is currently writing a book about the history of Village Books to be published–on the Espresso Book Machine–during the store’s thirtieth anniversary next June.
Helping him with the installation is Lindsey McGuirk, Digital Marketing & Publishing Manager. Lindsey has been in the book industry for over 5 years, beginning as a bookseller at Village Books where she eventually became the Events Coordinator. After a short stint on the publishing end of things with Algonquin Books, she returned to her true love as an independent bookseller at Village Books. She now does the online marketing for the bookstore and will be the go-to person for Village Books’ Espresso Book Machine.
Chuck and Lindsey recently took the time to share their plans for the bookshop’s new Espresso Book Machine.
FPP: How did you first learn about the Espresso Book Machine (EBM)?
CR & LM: Though we had read about the machine in trade publications we first saw an early model of the EBM at Book Expo America a couple of years ago.
FPP: What convinced you to put it into Village Books and how do you plan to use it?
CR & LM: We’re convinced that “the times they are a’changing” and that we need to be on board or we’ll be left behind.
FPP: What type of books do you expect to use the EBM to produce?
CR & LM: Although we’ll have access to books through LightningSource and now Google’s public domain books, the bulk of the books we will be printing–at least in the short term–will likely be self-published. We have already been receiving inquiries from authors interested in having their books printed on the Espresso Book Machine and have a few projects lined up to print when the machine is installed.
FPP: How many titles are available in the EBM catalog overall?
CR & LM: Between LightningSource and Google Books, there are nearly 4 million books available to print through the EBM. There are also nearly 600,000 backlist titles that are in-copyright that we can print thanks to publisher’s permissions.
FPP: Could you describe what happens when a customer places an order that requires the EBM?
CR & LM: This could be an elaborate answer, but I’ll try to simplify it as much as possible. Assuming that an author brings us print-ready PDFs (those that will not need any additional layout changes or adjustments) of both the book block and the book jacket, we will simply upload those files to the EBM and let it do its work. It prints the book block, glues it, prints the book jacket, and binds it all together. It will then take the book and trim it to its specified trim size. It’s an amazing process!
FPP: How does the cost of producing a book on the EBM compare with ordering it from a wholesaler or distributor?
CR & LM: Pricing in print-on-demand, like that of e-books, is still shaking out. However, we expect the retail price for books printed in-store to be comparable to those ordered from distributors.
FPP: Will having an EBM change how many titles you carry in your physical inventory?
CR & LM: We believe the EBM will allow us to enhance our inventory by being able to offer books that would otherwise be unavailable. There will be some books that we may carry in smaller numbers because we can instantaneously print a replenishment copy and there will be other books that we won’t have on the shelf–just as there always have been–but, unlike the past, will be able to provide very quickly.
FPP: What is the purchase model for the EBM? Is it an outright purchase? Lease? Per book fee?
CR & LM: There are a couple of ways one may obtain a machine. We have chosen to lease ours.
FPP: Will Village Books use the EBM to support self-published authors or small presses without distribution?
CR & LM: We absolutely will be supporting self-publishing authors! We’ve been highly supportive of self-published authors for year—we have a strong consignment program and carry dozens of books by local, self-published authors. We haven’t considered printing books for small presses without distribution, but you have just added another element to our growing list of possibilities. Thank you!
FPP: Are there any special logistical considerations for operating the EBM? For example, space, power, supplies, etc?
CR & LM: We did have to provide 220V wiring to the site and we will be moving shelves around to accommodate the machine. And, we will, of course, need to stock paper, glue, etc.
FPP: If you could design the next version of the EBM, what features would be on your wish list?
CR & LM: It’s a little hard to say prior to our working with the machine for a while. We’ve spent some time with an earlier model and feel that the company has addressed many of the issues we would have had with that machine. I’m sure that this is a question we may have a better answer for in a few months.
The Google Book Settlement has become the stuff of great courtroom fiction – a battle of titans over the future of digital publishing. Google’s agreement with the American Association of Publishers and the Authors Guild had been plodding along toward what seemed like an uneventful conclusion. However, last minute filings by the opposition have made court approval less certain.
Payment of $125 million to settle claims and set up a book Registry
Give Google the right to store digital copies of books covered by the settlement
Let Google include these books in its search results, sell online versions and license book-scans to libraries
Allows millions of “orphan” works (books still under copyright but whose copyright-holders can’t be found) to be included in Google’s program
Opponents claim the settlement would, in essence, allow Google to create the world’s largest digital library and bookstore, stifling innovation and competition. According to the New York Times, filings opposing the settlement have been submitted by a host of organizations, including:
Amazon
Microsoft
Yahoo!
Sony
groups representing authors and publishers
Some foreign governments
Antitrust and economics experts in academia
Gary Reback
Some of these groups have joined a coalition called the Open Book Alliance, co-led by Gary Reback, an antitrust attorney in Silicon Valley who in the 1990s helped persuade the Justice Department to file its landmark antitrust case against Microsoft. Many of these companies have a vital stake in the digital future of books and are anxious to block any attempt by Google to secure an advantage in managing the process by which readers access and consume book content. According to the Wall Street Journal, no major publishers in the US have come out against the settlement, though some foreign publisher groups are opposed.
Judge Denny Chin
The settlement is being reviewed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York by Judge Denny Chin. Now the Department of Justice has weighed in with a letter that could alter the course of the settlement. An article in ZDNetreported that the DOJ letter characterizes the settlement as:
Being not “fair, reasonable and adequate to the class members
In violation of antitrust law
Shutting off competition in digital distribution
Pretty heavy stuff. But the DOJ is providing some guidance on how to make the settle more palatable. ZDNet quotes from the letter on this point:
This risk of market foreclosure would be substantially ameliorated if the Proposed Settlement could be amended to provide some mechanism by which Google’s competitors’ could gain comparable access to orphan works (whatever such access turns out to be assuming the parties negotiate modifications to the settlement).
According to CBS News, Google has promised to share its electronic index with its rivals. The next round in the drama that has become the Goggle Book Settlement will be played out in court on October 7. Stay tuned!
We are in the midst of a gigantic experiment in journalism – seeing if crowssourcing can work effectively alongside traditonal reporting. In a post on hte Online Journalism Review, Robert Niles defined crowdsourced journalism in the following way:
Crowdsourcing, in journalism, is the use of a large group of readers to report a news story. It differs from traditional reporting in that the information collected is gathered not manually, by a reporter or team of reporters, but through some automated agent, such as a website.
Assignment Zero – Assignment Zero was a short term experiment – the brainchild of Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University, working in collaboration with WIRED magazine. The idea behind the project was to use the combined skills of a crowd to write a comprehensive report on the growth of crowdsourcing. While the project failed to meet its original goal of 80 usable articles, it did achieve some modest success and highlighted some of the organizational factors that were important in managing a crowssourced reporting operation.
TalkingPointsMemo.com – This political blog posted documents from the investigation into the firing of US attorneys during the Bush administration. By crowdsourcing the document review to interested citizens, the blog was able to quickly parse through the mass of data to expose potential malfeasance.
Jeff Howe – Crowdsourcing
More recently, we’ve seen numerous examples of Twitter, the micro-blogging service, being used by traditional journalists to get raw materials from a developing story reported by citizens as it unfolds. The Iranian election protests showed that crowd reporting could effectively counter even strict government constraints on the regular media. One applications of crowdsourced reporting includes situation where online reports by individuals contribute to a bigger picture view of a story that would be impossible for one reporter or even a small team of reporters to piece together. Examples cited by Niles include:
Earthquake reports across a wide region
Reports of gas prices – e.g. GasBuddy.com during the recent gasoline price bubble
Accident Watch – This allowed citizens to report theme park accidents from around the country when such data was not forthcoming from federal or state agencies
Just as newspapers and other media organizations have added bloggers to extend their traditional reporting, it seems likely that crowdsourced journalism will rise as news has to be reported with ever shrinking professional staffs. The lessons learned from the first experiments in this area show that the most successful partnerships combine the data gathering power of widely dispersed individuals organized into a project based community, supervised by professionals with the appropriate editorial skills and journalistic savvy.
The new magazine, Electric Literature may represent the future for literary fiction in the age of new media. The publication is a bi-monthly anthology of short fiction. The first issue features stories by such literary notables as Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cunningham and National Book Award finalist Jim Shepard.
The magazine’s structure is very basic; each issue has just five short stories, anchored by big-name authors. The goal according to founders Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum is to “facilitate a renaissance of the short story.” As Mr. Hunter remarked in a recent interview with Ron Charles at the Washington Post:
If there’s any kind of hesitation, it’s from people who don’t really believe that a literary publication is viable. We started this publication to prove them wrong. There’s a human need for storytelling that hasn’t gone away just because print is having problems. We want to bring short fiction to an age that’s more mobile and doesn’t have the time to settle into a long text.
Electric Literature has a novel business model. The magazine subscription price is based delivery format – $5 for the online version and $10 for the print version. The magazine is also available now on the iPhone. The publication’s circulation target is 20,000.
But what sets Electric Literature apart is what it pays its authors – $1,000, a fee certain to attract top writing talent. The mostly electronic delivery and POD print model helps hold down production costs. The publication is also tapping in to social media as part of its promotional strategy – using trailers on YouTube and Vimeo for the featured authors and stories.
Jim Shepard’s video – “Your Fate Hurtles Down at You”
Not everyone is convinced that Electric Literature’s model is the way to go. For example, R.M Ellis of Ward Six writes:
. . . maybe I’m old, but I’m pretty typical of many readers of literary fiction, and I still haven’t shifted over to reading fiction on line, or on a screen of any kind.
But even Mr. Ellis later admits that “maybe I should start reading on-line fiction. It’s the future…” Electric Literature will face stiff competition from more established literary magazines, including its free online rival, Narrative. But it’s innovative business model combined with the passion of its founders for first rate storytelling could help rewrite the future of literary fiction.
For the aspiring writer, are there attributes that augur well for a blog in terms of turning it into a book and perhaps a movie? What was it that made Julie & Julia a hit? Here are some thoughts:
Celebrity - The blog involves a celebrity – in this case Julia Child. What made the whole thing interesting was that she would have the conversation with Julia Child (who was not supportive of the blog) as well as her readers.
Drama - Julie Powell made herself the story; setting out her challenge in a very pubic way. And she had a definite deadline; there was no ambiguity about whether she would succeed or flop.
That could be me! – Julie Powell took on the fears of EveryCook – preparing difficult recipes and sharing all her travails with her audience. Each day, her readers could empathize with her discouragements and celebrate her triumphs, but be glad they weren’t going through it themselves. In some respects, it was like reality TV.
All the right elements for any good story. The blogging medium might be new, but the formula for success is age old. Bon appetit!
The term Spew refers to the torrent of information spilling out over the Web. It was an image first conjured up by author Neal Stephen. Today the term could serve equally well as a description for the tsunami of tweets pouring forth from Twitter-ers across the globe. Individuals and organizations have discovered many interesting uses for Twitter:
A research tool to plug into the raw elements of news stories while they are unfolding - e.g. the Tehran protests
Live blogging at conferences
Distributing news stories – e.g. CDC using Twitter to get the news out swine flu
Mobilizing customers – e.g. the bakery in San Francisco that updates local customers on when its sumptuous peach pies are coming out of the oven
Top Twitter Tools Exposed & Explained at Lightning Speed
Not to be left out of the Twitter-mania, authors have also started using the tool to support their book development and marketing efforts.
Seek assistance with research for your book
Build a following that you can direct to your longer blog posts
Respond to comments about your book
Announce events such as readings, appearances and book signings
Delivering sample book content
Share news stories (and pictures) related to your book
A plethora of Twitter apps are now available to make all these task easier. The most comprehensive list I have found so far is at Mashable. Want to follow some authors, agents or the publishing industry? Try this starter list from Maria Schneider’s blog. And if you want to track and quantify all your tweet followers and activities, there is a list of excellent Twitter analytics tools available at Social Media Today.
Every life is a complex story. Our particular story is shaped by milestone experiences and important relationships whose consequences unfold over time and ultimately define us like the living sculpture that emerges from the careful prunings of a young bonsai tree Several sites have built large followings by allowing individuals to share their stories and secrets in a micro-format; in this case a postcard. Like the dwarf bonsai tree, the art that results is due in part to the constraint imposed by the container.
For authors looking for character sketches or a good idea to build a story around, these sites can be invaluable. Two of the most notable sites in this regard are PostSecret and Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story.
PostSecret- This is a site where individuals share their ecrets in pubic. They submit their secrets on a post card and mail it – yes snail mail – to the Post Secret PO box. The site’s founder, Frank Warren, then pubishes a new batch of secrets every Sunday evening. Some of the ssecrets are humorous, others naughty, while many touch on very dark areas of the sender’s life experience. Most individuals have presented their secrets in a compelling and artful fashion.
Postsecret Confessions
Michel Writes Your Life Story- This site is a variant of the postcard theme used by Post Secret. Individuals tell their story to Michael Kimball, the site’s owner, who then renders a micro-biographysized to fit on the back of a postcard. According to an interview with Madelaine Brand on NPR, Kimball began doing this in response to a friend’s challenge to turn his writing into performance art. Kimball demonstrates a knack for extracting the meaningful core of each individual’s story.
There are many useful toolsto help authors develop character profiles with depth and powerful story ideas . Drawing on this public psychography may be a productive means to jump start the imagination. The sites above reinforce the old adage that truth is often more interesting than fiction.
As social media, like Facebook and Twitter, become more embedded into our lives, it seems only natural that writers would begin exploring how to use them as a new literary medium. At first glance, it doesn’t seem feasible or sensible to consider a service like Twitter as a writing vehicle; after all what can you possibly say in 140 characters. But, as Sarah Schmelling recently noted in the Huffington Post:
