BEHIND WHICH DOOR, by marc falardeau, via Flickr

For years, Hollywood has tried and failed to get video game publishers to let them license their most popular titles (like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto), but top publishers like Activision and Rockstar Games have begged off, believing their franchises to be worth far more than the potential downside of any movie incarnation. After all, in its first weekend in release, GTA IV posted more than $500 million in sales — and that was back in 2008.

–Claude Brodesser-Akner, NY Magazine

In light of Hollywood’s miserable record of video game adaptations (and vice versa, game developers’ shovelware adaptations of movies), I think Ubisoft is right to demand as much control over a movie version of their Assassin’s Creed franchise as possible, and Sony is smart to give it to them since it reportedly includes a notable investment in story development that will offset some of their financial risk.

It’s Transmedia 101, really: s/he who owns the IP, owns the future. And the profits.

Marvel Comics learned that lesson the hard way when their cut of the hugely successful X-Men and Spider-Man movies was far smaller than they’d have liked, and the embarrassingly awful Elektra was a financial and critical flop, so they invested $525 million back in 2005 to establish their own film unit, ensuring full control over the B- and C-list likes of Captain America, The Avengers, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Cloak & Dagger, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack, and Shang-Chi.

Buried in there under “The Avengers” was Iron Man, whose first two films alone grossed more than $1B worldwide in theaters, establishing the onscreen storyworld that positioned fellow B-listers Thor and Captain America for strong box office returns this past summer, and set the stage for what will likely be one of the biggest summer movies of 2012.

It will be interesting to see what other publisher can successfully go the Marvel route; with a $2B+ worldwide box office already in for the Avengers’ on-screen storyworld (one that still bizarrely lives in total isolation from the comics), I’m guessing several will make the attempt within the next 2-3 years.

Because Marvel’s situation is relatively unique among book publishers in that they actually own their IP, and licensing was already a strong revenue stream for them, it’s probably more likely that a game publisher will successfully make that jump first, while book publishers will continue to seek out partnerships until they can ramp up their own original IP development. (eg: Scholastic’s oft-referenced The 39 Clues.)

Two gaming franchises I think have some serious transmedia potential are Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls and Activision’s Skylanders, though you might be surprised by which one I think has the most potential.

Multiple Entry Points are Critical

When Dungeons and Dragons Online crapped out on me a few months back, I decided to check out Steam to find an alternative, buying The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a franchise I was already familiar with from The Elder Scrolls III on Xbox, and ended up deeply immersed in it for a few weeks. (aka, several nights playing until 2am!) While I was playing it, Steam kept putting some great deals in front of me for other games every time I finished up a session, and I ended up buying Civilization V and Star Wars: Empire at War, too.

All three have been a lot of fun to play, and while Elder Scrolls started out as my favorite, I found it difficult to reconnect with after a few weeks’ break playing the other games, losing track of where I was in the story. One of the downsides of single-player RPGs, even somewhat non-linear ones like TES that offer a deep story and relatively open world to play in, is there’s pretty much only one entry point — the beginning of the game itself.

Pop Quiz: Name two major characters from The Elder Scrolls and the actors you think should play them?

Unlike D&D or Star Wars, The Elder Scrolls’ storyworld is relatively one-dimensional; with the exception of an impressive, unofficial wiki and two recent novels, it’s really just a setting in which a few amazing games have been created and lacks any other significant entry points to augment that gaming experience, or that might appeal to non-gaming fans of the fantasy genre. While it certainly has the depth to support movies, novels, comics, etc., there aren’t any notable characters to build upon, so its opportunities are currently far more incremental than expansive, and I wouldn’t make any serious bets on a movie or HBO series coming out of it anytime soon.

On the other hand, Skylanders, the new multi-platform franchise from Activision, has amazing potential right out of the gate to be the next Pokemon, one of the most underrated transmedia success stories ever.

The game itself is a surprisingly well-reviewed, family-friendly, one- or two-player platformer that distinguishes itself in a number of ways, not the least of which is that it’s truly cross-platform, recognizing that there is a physical component to social gaming. In Skylanders, you can take your favorite characters from your Wii version of the game over to your friend’s Xbox or PS3 or 3DS or PC versions, because all of its stats and data are saved in the base of the physical action figure itself.

That’s the real beauty of Skylanders; it’s not just that it’s a fun game (it really is; my kids and I have been loving it for the past three weeks, and I sometimes even play it without them! Shhh…), but that it’s more than “just” a video game. There’s a compelling storyworld underneath it and Activision has been very savvy about how to leverage it from the start.

While Spyro is loosely branded as the lead character (sort of Skylanders’ Pikachu, though to a much lesser degree), it’s really an ensemble cast that features a variety of engaging characters, each with their own personalities, back stories, and strengths, all of whom could easily make the jump into other media. While cartoons and comics are perhaps the most obvious, it’s interesting that Activision went with the toy angle first — and they really are cool toys in their own right — and their fledgling Webkins-esque website adds another layer of engagement that builds upon them.

So stories and games are intimately connected because they’re two sides of the same impulse. Stories give rise to play, and play gives rise to stories. Think of Star Wars, and all those action figures, and the fan fiction that came out of it–story transmuted to play and then to story again.

-Frank Rose, The Art of Immersion, via Transmythology

My 9-year-old daughter spends more time playing with the toys than she does the video game, and I’ve noticed her visiting Skylanders.com more often than Webkins, despite having just gotten a premium account for the latter for her birthday last month.

Of course, all of the coolest transmedia extension possibilities are moot if the game isn’t good, and I can’t praise Skylanders enough. Beyond the main story’s adventure, there’s also a separate two-player Battle Arena that’s effectively Super Smash Bros. for Skylanders, and could arguably have been a standalone game in its own right.

Replayability is another area where it excels. While it is often a side note in gaming reviews, you might not realize how important replayability is until your new, 3-week old Wii (which replaced your original, 3-year-old Wii) craps out and all of your data and progress in all of your games is lost! Fortunately, thanks to each Skylanders character retaining its own data — including upgrades, hats, and nickname — even though we had to re-start the adventure from the beginning on both profiles we’re running (yes, I have my own!), we’re doing so with a bunch of characters we’re already invested in, not starting completely from scratch and potentially moving on the next game.

The Gonzalez household is completely hooked on Skylanders: we’ve each bought several additional characters, including the Toys R Us exclusive Legendary Pack, as well as both Adventure Packs; both of my kids have online accounts set up and play there; plus, and more importantly, it’s the one game all three of us play together on a regular basis.

While I can’t think of any gaming angle that would pull my wife into the mix, she’d be far more likely to go to the theater with us for a movie, if for no other reason than our excitement about it.

It will be interesting to watch how things play out for Skylanders over the holiday season, to see if it becomes a sleeper hit or simply an intriguing idea that fails to connect with a wide enough audience, and how Activision responds to that reception. Hopefully they’re taking a stance similar to Marvel and Ubisoft, ensuring as much as possible that whatever comes next matches the quality and appeal of an impressive launch.

“A poem ain’t a poem until it’s been read out loud.”

I can’t find the source for that quote, and am likely paraphrasing, but I associate it with Bob Holman and vaguely remember hearing it on The United States of Poetry CD, which he produced back in the 90s under his Mouth Almighty label. Verbatim or not, I wholeheartedly agree with its spirit.

While many book publishers and academy types might argue otherwise, poetry has always been an oral form, first and foremost. A poem on the page is theoretical, incomplete; like a promising idea not yet vetted.

Reading your work out loud is also one of the best forms of editing, and not just for poetry, but straight fiction and non-fiction, too. I even make a point of reading my blog posts out loud at least one time before hitting publish, to minimize obvious typos and flights of hyperbole.

Back in Spring 2010, right after I attended my first SXSW, I slipped down to San Antonio to do a gig at Lupe’s Art Blend, hosted by an old friend from the NYC poetry scene, Vincent Toro. It was my first featured reading in a couplafew years and I was quite a bit rusty, but I loved the setup with the open stage and single chair, the attentive and appreciative audience, and I eventually warmed up and gave a pretty solid performance.

It also served as a test run for the manuscript I’d been toying around with for a while that ultimately became Handmade Memories, the echapbook of poetry and essays I self-published this past April and have done a horrible job of marketing beyond having its cover here on the site up in the sidebar.

See what I just did there?

A handful of the poems in Handmade Memories were written long after I left the poetry scene behind, and had only been read aloud in public a couple of times at most, but the majority had been battle-tested in open mics, slams and features, with subtle edits revealing themselves with each performance. Most examples were specific words I’d written that when I read the poem aloud I’d unconsciously change to something more fluid; other examples were entire stanzas that would get cut for pacing or clarity.

A few months ago, I started curating and co-hosting a new reading series, “What Had Happened Was…,” with my friend and fellow writer (and photographer, and publisher, and agent provocateur) Syreeta McFadden. The focus is on storytelling, and while my intent was to move away from poetry, I was quickly reminded that my favorite poems are typically narratives. Not prose poems, per se, but poems that tell an engaging story, from whatever perspective, making people nod in recognition or think about something in a different way.

If your writing doesn’t evoke a response of some kind, you haven’t made a connection, and that’s never more apparent than when you’re on stage and the feedback is immediate. At a reading, silence isn’t golden, it’s often a blaring alarm that something’s going wrong!

Each month at ”What Had Happened Was…” (every 1st Wednesday @ 116 MacDougal), I’ve read one of my poems and given a bit of director’s commentary on the backstory, but I’m hoping to eventually use it to test out some new work, reading from an actual story I want to go back to, polish off and finish.

Our next show is Wednesday, August 3rd, with two great featured guests, Ernio Hernandez and Mara Jebsen, and it will also be the kickoff of my two-week long birthday celebration! There’s no cover, 2-for-1 drinks, and a small but engaged audience of smart, creative storytellers. If you’re in NYC, please do attend! (And if you’re not a local, you can catch the livestream online.)

In the meantime, if you haven’t already, check out my ebook, Handmade Memories, conveniently available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and, for the DRM-free crowd, Goodreads.

Oops, I did it again!

There’s a rumor going around that you can get rich by self-publishing ebooks, so I decided to finally throw my hat in the ring and follow my own advice, putting together a manuscript of favorite poems and essays, and as much as possible, going the DIY route.

Inspired more by friends like Chuck Wendig, Will Hindmarch and Jane Friedman than Joe Konrath, et al, and emboldened by everything I learned from working with Joshua Tallent while running Digital Book World, my goal for the project was two-fold: do enough of it myself to have hands-on experience of what it takes, what’s “easy” and what isn’t; and to get the monkey of finally publishing this particular book off my back!

And thus, Handmade Memories was born!

THE MANUSCRIPT

I started earlier in the week with the realization that I didn’t have access to many of the poems I wanted to include because of a hard drive crash last Fall, but was fortunately able to get the document I sent to Poetry Speaks back in 2009 when I set up some of my poems there. For the poems that weren’t there, I had to pull out a copy of Burning Down the House and retype (and lightly edit) them, which I did on Friday night. I also wanted to include a couple of relevant blog posts as essays, one from loudpoet.com and one from my other new initiative, freeversemedia.com (more on that soon), and those were easy enough to cut and paste into the document.

I had a pretty clear idea of how I wanted the manuscript to flow; the order of the poems, where the essays fit, and the story that would unfold if you read them in order. I was partly inspired by Charles Bukowski’s Run With the Hunted, which is arranged chronologically, by the periods of his life as opposed to the publication dates. While not overtly noted, Handmade Memories is broken down into three sections:

• Autobiography: From “Handmade Memories” through “Old New York Love Story,” I basically tell the story of how I became a writer, from growing up in the Bronx, to serving in the Army, to ultimately finding (and accepting) my place in the world.
• Odes: “Daughter of the Revolution,” “latter-day saints,” “Party Like A Rock Star,” and “Crazy White Devil” are all honoring specific people who had a profound experience on me.
• Evolution: The two essays, and the poems they bookend, illustrate the influence the poetry slam had on me as a writer and community organizer, connecting the dots from the first time I got on stage at the Nuyorican Poets Café to the launch of Free Verse Media. “I Am – Cryptogram” is actually the little known poem that led to my being banned from the Nuyorican for a couple of years.

I purposefully left out any acknowledgement or explanation of the underlying story being told, curious to see whether any readers actually pick up on it, and if/when I decide to publish a print version, I’ll probably include some “director’s commentary” that explores it all a bit deeper.

THE COVER

Rule #1 of self-published ebooks, possibly even more important than writing a good book: have a good cover!

Nothing screams amateur more than an ugly cover, and I knew what I wanted mine to look like, using a picture my wife had taken a couple of years ago of our daughter’s hands while she was playing with a pile of pebbles. I actually used the picture here on the blog once to illustrate a poem I’d written about her during NaPoWriMo, back in 2009.

I wanted the picture to dominate the cover, and I wanted the title to reflect the whole idea of DIY/handmade, thus the Stencil font, recalling my old days of publishing zines. I created the image using Paint.net, and while the result isn’t quite “professional,” I think it came out pretty well.

THE KINDLE FORMAT

I decided to start with the Kindle format for two reasons: Amazon is currently where the majority of the ebook audience is, and creating in the Kindle format is easier than ePUB.

On Friday night, giddy over putting the manuscript together, I bought Joshua Tallent’s book, Kindle Formatting: The Complete Guide, because I’d worked with him before and he’d proven often that he knows his stuff. I bought the Kindle version and kept it open in Kindle for PC while I set about formatting my manuscript in Microsoft Word according to his directions. First, I stripped all formatting from the document, and then reformatted it from scratch so the file was as clean as possible. I created the Table of Contents, wrote the introduction right into the document, and then downloaded Mobipocket Creator Home Edition to create the Mobi file.

The only place I ever got stuck was on creating the TOC.NCX file, and I suspect that might be because I should have downloaded the Publisher Edition of Mobipocket. Testing the file on my Kindle 3, Kindle for iPod Touch app, and even my wife’s Kindle 1 showed the plain TOC works, though, as it’s the “Beginning” of the book, so I left it alone.

SIDE NOTE: There’s been a lot of debate over poetry’s viability in ebook form, thanks to reflowable text corrupting line breaks and, in many cases, skewing the reading of a poem. Some of my prosier poems run into this problem, especially on the iPod Touch’s small screen, but being able to flip to landscape mode addresses most of those issues. I plan to write about this specifically in the near future, but briefly, my take is that poets (and publishers) intent on forcing legacy forms into ebooks are missing the bigger opportunities digital offers, but that said, the limitations of ebooks are no reason to avoid them. The potential to reach new readers is far too great to pass up.

With everything pretty much in order, I logged into Kindle Direct Publishing at about 1:30am, submitted the file, and by yesterday afternoon, it was live on Amazon.com and available for sale!

Oddly, I never received any kind of confirmation from Amazon that the file had been processed and was live, and on the backend, ~30 hours later, it’s still not letting me access the “Actions” function so I can submit an updated file (I left my wife’s middle/maiden name out of her photo credit!) and edit some of the book’s promotional info. I can see the sales reports, though, and as of 11:30am today, I’ve sold three copies, one of which I bought!

Look out Amanda Hocking!

The ebook is also now appearing on my Amazon author page, and I was able to access it via Author Central, too.

GOODREADS

Once it went live on Amazon, Handmade Memories became accessible on Goodreads, too, automagically connected to my Author Profile there, and ready for YOU to add to your to-read shelf.

OTHER FORMATS?

I’m currently working on the ePUB version so I can make it available via B&N and Goodreads, but have run into some challenges with creating/converting the file. In Part II, I’ll go through that process, and perhaps have a positive sales update from Amazon as, with the exception of a few tweets yesterday, this is the first official announcement of Handmade Memories‘ existence!

If you’re a Kindle user, go buy it now!

If you’re not an Amazon customer, stay tuned for availability in other formats/sales channels.

UPDATE: Thanks to the assistance of the aforementioned Joshua Tallent, it’s now available on both Barnes & Noble and Goodreads!

If you’re a reviewer, and you’d like a review copy in PDF format, drop me an email request and I’ll send it to you.

And, of course, if you’ve read it, let me know what you think!

The "On the other hand" selfportrait (bw outtake) By dhammza

“Business begins with ‘yes’, art begins with ‘no’… It’s our responsibility to lead culture where we want it to be.”

-Ted Hope @ DIY Days NYC, 2011

Ted Hope was one of the highlights of last year’s DIY Days NYC conference, and his conversation with fellow film producer, Christine Vachon, was among this year’s highlights, too, as he reiterated his call for creative artists of all kinds to step up our collective game and collaborate for the greater good. “It’s not just a changing way of working or platforms,” he declared, “it’s also changing relationships with collaborators.”

Vachon, who produced the award-winning film Boys Don’t Cry, was excited about the opportunities for upcoming filmmakers for whom the Internet is in their DNA: “Filmmakers are feeling like we did 25 years ago. ‘We’re just going to do it!’”

The discussion of the convergence of the Internet and film reminded me of blogging, webcomics, and, of course, music. In all cases, the Internet has become a viable medium for distributing and discovering original content, and no longer a medium of last resort for those unable to crack traditional channels. It has also empowered artists to collaborate in ways that were previously impossible, and to reach audiences that were formerly too spread out to connect with cost-effectively.

“Just do it!” was definitely an underlying theme of the day as the deceptively sexy notion of the “democratization” of content creation and distribution was frequently noted, but I realized towards the end of the day, what was missing was any reference to the issue of access, and the ever-widening digital divide:

A first-of-its-kind federal survey of online access found that Americans in lower-income and rural areas often have slower Internet connections than users in wealthier communities.

The data, released Thursday by the Commerce Department, also found that 5 to 10 percent of the nation does not have access to connections that are fast enough to download Web pages, photos and videos.

Compiled in an online map that is searchable by consumers – assuming they have a fast enough broadband connection – the survey seems to confirm that there is a digital divide, something experts had suspected but lacked the data to prove.

-”Survey of online access finds digital divide,” Washington Post

Matt Johnston‘s cyborg-like vision of a mobile utopia was particularly disconcerting as it seemingly rests on the assumption that access to smartphones and data plans is (or ever will be) equal and ubiquitous, ignoring the reality that the PC age has left huge gaps between the haves and have-nots, and institutions like libraries, that exist at least partly to close that gap, are under assault.

(I didn’t see Douglas Rushkoff‘s session, so it’s possible he spoke to this issue as he recently did with Library Journal, but if he did, it didn’t receive much attention.)

Despite this glaring oversight, there was a refreshing sense of responsibility, both to the culture at large and to each other, that distinguishes DIY Days from other conferences. One of the best features this year was using the transition time between scheduled speakers to allow attendees time to get up and talk briefly about a project they were working on, and identify specific help they might need, and later in the day, skills they might have to help others. The overall energy reminded me of last month’s Book^2 Camp, where the unconference format allowed for a more communal feel.

In fact, I’ve found over the past year that the Transmedia community is not just full of incredibly smart, creative people — hello, Transmedia NYC! — but it’s also one that inherently understands the value of collaboration, a concept that’s particularly difficult for many traditional writers to grasp, especially those who embrace the “indie” label as a misguided badge of honor.

(Read Amanda Hocking’s excellent post, “Some Things That Need to be Said,” for more on that.)

The DIY ethic — succinctly defined by the awesome Molly Crabapple: “You are responsible for the awesomeness where you live.” —  is wonderful, but WHO we’re doing it for has to be more important than YOURSELF.

/rant

PS: Perhaps my favorite theme of the day was the shift from an emphasis on “story” to “narrative” and “immersion” — nicely illustrated by keynote speaker Frank Rose, whose The Art of Immersion is a must-read, and the excellent “Hands-on Experience Design” session with Aina Abiodun, Nick Braccia and Caitlin Burns. It’s a subtle but important distinction when looking at transmedia’s potential in non-fiction and educational initiatives, and I was glad the latter group brought attention to it in such an effective and creative way, via an interactive brainstorming session.

Beyond the fictional applications that are usually referenced, projects like Inanimate Alice and Waiting for Superman offer a glimpse at what’s possible when you dream a little bigger and don’t take “no” for an answer.

“Great storytelling starts with a great idea, not the platform.”

–Lisa Hsia, SVP, Bravo Digital Media, NBC Universal

New media, social media, transmedia… the landscape for writers has changed dramatically over the past 10 years, and today, there are more options to get published and reach new readers than ever. With more options, though, come more unknowns, some more obvious than others. Here are 10 questions you should be asking yourself as you look ahead to the future of publishing—and where you’ll fit in.

[NOTE: This article was written in June/July 2010, originally published in the September 2010 issue of Writer's Digest, and was made a lot better thanks to the editing skills of Managing Editor, Zac Petit. Many of the questions posed here were elaborated on in subsequent posts, by me and others, and I've added links accordingly. Please do click through!]

1. AM I A WRITER OR A CREATOR?

Writers sell stories; creators build storyworlds. The former is a transaction-based existence focused on the traditional publication of books or articles, with everything else viewed as ancillary. The latter is an approach that sees traditional publishing as just one of many ways via which a storyworld—your fictional universe—can be experienced, and focuses on your ability to reach and engage with readers across a variety of channels.

Neither path is necessarily “better”—there will always be a need for transactional writers—but there’s evidence that creators will have more control over their futures as the industry evolves. As new formats, media and devices come along, creators with well-conceived platforms will be better positioned to make the most of them.

2. SHOULD I GO TRADITIONAL?

As more and more publishing options open up, the traditional route won’t always be the best first choice for every author. Knowing the tangible advantages a traditional publisher offers will be critical to making an informed decision.

Traditional publishers have three fundamental strengths that, depending on your resources, will determine how vital they might be to your eventual success: advances, bookstores and credibility. If you need an advance to finish your book, if you want to see your book on shelves, or if your genre, profession or subject is highly competitive, you’ll want a traditional deal.

3. SHOULD I SELF-PUBLISH?

There are now more ways to independently publish your work than ever. But true self-publishing is more than just uploading a file to a print-on-demand company or e-book retailer. It’s a business decision that comes with numerous responsibilities, from design and marketing to rights and taxes. Each represents an expense of time and/or money that must be accounted for when comparing publishing options.

4. DO I KNOW TRANSMEDIA?

Transmedia refers to a story that’s told across a variety of media (short films, mobile apps, etc.). As defined by the Producers Guild of America, transmedia projects involve three or more story lines within the same invented world that are unique (not repurposed content). Genre writers especially should be looking at their work from a transmedia perspective, and seeking agents who are forward-thinking in negotiating rights. (Genre fiction is one of Hollywood’s favorite veins to mine, and it’s particularly conducive to transmedia thanks to a tendency toward serial storytelling, archetypal characters and imagined worlds.)

5. WILL MY STORIES INSPIRE OTHER WRITERS?

Star Wars has evolved into one of the most vibrant transmedia properties in history, while the entire comic book industry is arguably built on a mix of sanctioned and tolerated fan fiction. What would happen if you provided a platform for other writers to contribute to your creation, either informally online, or officially via publication? This is a great way to expand your fan base. Eric Flint and Baen Books do a variation of this in the Grantville Gazette (grantvillegazette.com), featuring work set in Flint’s 1632 universe.

6. WHAT ELSE CAN MY SUPPORTING CHARACTERS DO?

How many times have you read (or told) a story, and found one of the supporting characters as interesting, or even more so, than the lead? Not every supporting character is worthy of a complete story, but each one can contribute to the expansion of your storyworld in short fiction, webisodes, social media, etc. Fleshing out your storyworld this way allows your readers to stay connected between books and builds a broader platform upon which you can engage with them year-round.

7. WHAT ELSE AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY PLATFORM?

You’re blogging; you’ve amassed a decent number of fans and followers on Facebook/Twitter; you have a book deal … now what? What’s your strategy for keeping fans engaged, buying more of your books and spreading the word? Writers will have a more difficult time with this question than creators will. The key is to continue to add real value to your platform on a regular basis. James Patterson, Gretchen Rubin and Warren Ellis are a few good examples to learn from.

8. CAN I DIRECTLY REACH MY FANS?

Blogs and social networks are great, but when you want to communicate directly with your most passionate readers, nothing is more effective than e-mail. When signing on with Amazon.com’s publishing imprint, AmazonEncore, for his latest book, J.A. Konrath said that one of the most appealing draws was the company’s ability to “e-mail every single person who has ever bought one of my books through their website, plus millions of potential new customers.” It’s an advantage Amazon has over most publishers, but any writer with a solid platform and content strategy can easily build his own e-mail list, too.

9. SHOULD I BUY AN IPAD, NOOK OR KINDLE?

No matter your opinion of the numerous e-book-friendly devices out there, e-book sales are steadily increasing, and it’s useful to have hands-on experience with as many devices as possible. What’s the difference between an e-book and an app, and should you have one of each, or neither? Are your e-books available on every device? How do they look on each one? How are they priced? What else are they competing with? Check out websites like techcrunch.com, readwriteweb.com and engadget.com to keep apprised of developments and trends.

10. AM I STAYING CURRENT?

Publishing is evolving at a dizzying pace, but there’s more industry information available than ever before—from the pages of this magazine to a host of other resources in print and online, including digitalbookworld.com. Find sources you can rely on to stay up to date on changes that may affect you, and be sure to read them regularly—blink, and you might miss an opportunity that’s tailor-made for you.

I’ve been using this quote in internal and external presentations on audience development for so long, I’d forgotten its original source.

The 2009 Tools of Change Conference was the first I’d ever actively followed on Twitter via hashtag, and I was so captivated that it was almost like being there. [Never was sure if Ann was commenting, or quoting Gossieaux, Moran or someone else.] I wrote two posts about it — BUILDING COMMUNITIES AROUND CONTENT #TOC and THREE TIPS FOR CURATING THE COMMUNITY #TOC — that not only still hold up, IMO, but highlight a level of consistency in my own thinking that I’m happy to see.

I also met, virtually, a number of publishing people that week who would go on to become friends and trusted colleagues, primarily because I’d taken the initiative to engage, which eventually led to meeting many of them in person at BEA later that year, strengthening the “weak bonds” of social media connections into real-life relationships.

Technology is merely the tool tribes use to communicate with each other, and that communication took place long before the internet came along.

Last year, I wrote a post, SIX PEOPLE IN MY (VIRTUAL) NEIGHBORHOOD, about how Twitter had become my primary aggregator but blogs were still an invaluable platform for deeper engagement, spotlighting six writers who’d captured my attention. Even though I’ve only ever met two of them in person, they all still live in my virtual neighborhood, aka Google Reader, the RSS bodega where I hang out for more thoughtful insights.

While Twitter has become even more valuable since then as a professional discovery and networking tool, I still look to blogs for deeper engagement, and subscribe to feeds of blogs that offer real value.

Here’s seven more blogs I’ve recently started following, most of which I first came across via Twitter, and have found invaluable in my personal exploration of transmedia, and where it fits in my professional world:

storyCENTRAL Digital – I actually missed Alison Norrington’s panel at Digital Book World earlier this year, delaying my current obsession with transmedia by a few months, but since then, she’s become one of my most valued advisors in my exploration of its possibilities for publishers and authors. She’s very smart, an actual practitioner, and one of the most articulate advocates coming from a publishing perspective out there.

Deus Ex Machinatio – Andrea Phillips is another practitioner who generously shares her experience and insights with others, while also being a genuinely nice person (I’ve met her IRL twice.). Her Writing for Transmedia series is a must-read for writers, and her call for welcoming newcomers into the transmedia tribe was one of the most refreshing posts I’ve read all year.

Transmythology – I stumbled across Simon Pulman on Twitter back in September via one of the first posts I’d read that made transmedia’s connection to publishing crystal clear. I reprinted that one on Digital Book World, where I’ve been trying to introduce transmedia as a core topic of interest, and ever since have followed his blog for practical insights, smart analysis, and honest engagement.

This Monkey Can Type – Scott Walker doesn’t update his blog often, but his Transmedia 2.0 – Participatory Entertainment post remains one of the most influential things I’ve read this year, and as I’ve gotten to know him since via then telephone (remember that thing?!?!), he’s become another trusted colleague despite not yet meeting him in person. From Runes of Gallidon to his compelling vision of the future of co-created entertainment,  he’s one of the smartest people I know who is working out on the bleeding edge.

EdTech Insight – Laura Fleming is my favorite kind of person, the kind who uses her blog to explore something she’s really passionate about, without any pretense or fauxthenticity. An Elementary School Library Media Specialist here in New Jersey, she sees transmedia as “a transformative piece in the future of education” and is not only advocating its use by others, but also finding ways to implement it herself.

Silverstring Media – Like Laura, Lucas J.W. Johnson is another one exploring his passion without pretense, adding immense value to the transmedia community by sharing his own insights and experiences. His series on What D&D Can Tell Us About Transmedia is a great read, and he and I were completely on the same page in Reimagining Realms of Fantasy.

Transmedia Storyteller – I’ve lost track of how I first came across Robert Pratten, but he brings a great combination of the provocative and practical to the transmedia space, perhaps best illustrated by the presentation he put together on Measuring Return on Investment in Transmedia. He also co-hosts the excellent Transmedia Talk podcast, and his Transmedia Storyteller platform that aims to offer “the LEGO building blocks of choice for cross-platform storytellers” is really intriguing and something to keep an eye on.

Those are just some of the interesting people in my transmedia neighborhood. Who are the people in yours?

"Wrestling Sideways - Really" by Timothy K. Hamilton

“Transmedia isn’t new; it’s the current iteration of interactive storytelling. Now there’s more media.”

-Craig Engler/SyFy @ NYTVF’s Digital Day

Ask 5 people what they think transmedia is and you’ll get 10 different answers, all with pretty sound reasoning, most likely based on the industry they work in. In trade publishing, it’s a relatively new buzzword with little consensus on its meaning or importance, while other industries are more familiar with it and approach it in different ways.

Last week, I attended NYTVF’s Digital Day session, Building the World–Multiplatform and Transmedia Storytelling, and while specific platforms and connectivity were emphasized by some, SyFy’s Engler, Bravo’s Lisa Hsia, and the always interesting Jeff Gomez focused primarily on the underlying story. When asked for great examples, Star Wars was of course mentioned, but quickly sidestepped as it’s often seen as an exception, not the rule. Dexter, Battlestar Galactica and Glee were also offered up.

Not mentioned, oddly enough, was the Marvel Universe, perhaps the best example of collaborative fiction there is, and their recent digital and film initiatives gives them a compelling transmedia platform that rivals Star Wars. One could even argue that Stan Lee was a proto-Transmedia Creator and Developer, and you have to wonder how the MU would have evolved if the original creators had retained their rights.

On defining transmedia conceptually, they each offered strong opinions that sync with my own:

“Great storytelling starts with a great idea, not the platform.” – Hsia

“Good transmedia production contributes to the long-term health of the intellectual property.” -Gomez

“This is a great time to be a content creator.” -Engler

While the term “transmedia” is a clunky one that puts more emphasis on platform over story, not unlike the simplistic print vs. ebook debate that drones on and on, it’s gaining traction and we’re likely stuck with it, at least for the time being. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the privilege of engaging in some thought-provoking discussions, in person and online, with some really smart people who have helped me refine my personal definition of what transmedia means.

Briefly, I see three things as being critical to defining and developing a transmedia story:

1. Story, Story, Story – Transmedia isn’t a book, a movie, a video game, or an interactive app; it potentially includes any, all or none of the above, depending on the underlying story being told.
2. Creative control – In transmedia, there are no ancillary rights. The creator, whether an individual or a collaborative team, must look beyond any single channel or platform and take a more holistic view of the story to ensure that every potential branch is relevant, organic, and part of the official canon.
3. Return on Investment – Technology has expanded the mediums available for storytelling, and transmedia is quickly becoming the buzzword of choice for app developers and marketing gurus. If a particular medium doesn’t serve the story AND provide the necessary ROI on financial and/or marketing metrics, it’s just a new shiny distraction.

I wholeheartedly believe, as Engler suggested, that transmedia is a great opportunity for writers and publishers who are savvy enough to look beyond the traditional book and focus on the stories they contain and the unlocked potential therein.

I’ve read three really good articles recently that have greatly influenced my thinking, and I highly recommend them:

• Publishers to sell experiences and not products by Alison Norrington
• The Future of Publishing by Simon Pulman
• Transmedia 2.0 – Participatory Entertainment by Scott Walker

I’ve also put together a WEBcast for Digital Book World on 10/12, Transmedia 101 for Publishers and Authors, that brings together a quartet of smart, innovative people I respect — David Marlett, Alison Norrington, Anita Ondine, Chuck Wendig — to discuss and debate transmedia and what it means from a publishing perspective.

While I highly doubt it, one thing I’d love to come out of that session with is a better term than “transmedia.”

My preference is “free verse storytelling.”

What do you think?

You know what’s never, ever happened to me as a transmedia writer? Rejection! Nope, I’ve never, ever received a transmedia rejection letter. That’s because there is no gatekeeper for the internet. You wanna tell a story on Twitter, set yourself up an account and let that bad boy rip. Write up a script, grab a video camera, and get that fucker shot and up on YouTube your own self.

-Andrea Phillips, Transmedia Writers Have More Fun

I’ve said often that publishers are effectively similar to venture capitalists (though rarely given credit as such in the “fail faster” meme), and the confirmation of Facebook’s move into location-based services and acquisition and planned shutdown of Hot Potato got me thinking about that, and what it means for up and coming writers, for whom many of the old rules of traditional publishing no longer apply.

Writers basically have two choices: they can build enough of a platform to entice an acquisition, or build one that’s bigger than just books and enables their long-term independence. (And by independence, I mean making a sustainable living, not just self-publishing your book via Amazon or Lulu or Smashwords and declaring yourself an “indie”.)

Similar to work-for-hire vs. creator-owned, it’s evolving into the difference between being a writer and creator. In the digital era, writers sell stories, while creators build storyworlds.

The former is a transaction-based existence focused on the traditional publication of books or articles, with everything else viewed as ancillary. The latter is an approach that sees traditional publishing as just one of many ways via which a storyworld — your fictional universe — can be experienced, and focuses on your ability to reach and engage with readers across a variety of channels.

Neither path is necessarily “better” — there will always be a need for transactional writers [though their value is steadily dropping as "content" itself has been steadily devalued in the Web 2.0 world; don't get me started] — but there’s evidence that creators will have more control over their futures as the industry evolves. As new formats, media and devices come along, creators with well-conceived platforms will be better positioned to make the most of them.

Also, as Andrea noted, transmedia writers (aka creators) have more fun!

Genre writers, in particular, are ideal creators as their work is especially conducive to transmedia development thanks to a tendency toward serial storytelling, archetypal characters and imagined worlds. Non-fiction writers can build transmedia experiences around their particular expertise, too, especially if it’s in an area where things are constantly changing or continuing education is a requirement. (It’s every social media guru’s wet dream!)

In the comics world, where transmedia has been a way of life for many years, there are numerous examples of the difference between writers and creators. Marvel and DC have always employed bullpens of work-for-hire writers to spin new (or, in some cases, rehashed) stories featuring their most popular intellectual properties characters, some of whom have also found success with their creator-owned projects, like Frank Miller’s SIN CITY and Robert Kirkman’s WALKING DEAD.

Outside of the Big Two Bullpens, Brian Lee O’Malley’s SCOTT PILGRIM is another creator-owned comic that’s gone beyond the book, while Rich Burlew’s webcomic, The Order of the Stick, has blossomed into a mini-transmedia empire that includes books, games and T-shirts. (OOTS totally screams WiiWare RPG! Somebody needs to make it happen.)

With so many new opportunities for writers to tell stories and reach and engage with (and sell to) their readers directly, why would you ever want to limit yourself to just writing and publishing a book?

[NOTE: This post was inspired by, and contains excerpts from, my article "Futurama" (Writer's Digest, Sept 2010), which poses 10 questions all writers should be thinking about as they contemplate the future of publishing and their place in it.]