CYBERKILL 3.0
UPDATE: The enhanced eBook version of Cyberkill is now released.
Cyberkill is available as an Enhanced digital mobile app on the iPhone®, iPad® and Android™ mobile devices including the Kindle Fire and the NOOK™. So if you have portable devices that run on those two platforms you can download the entire advertising-supported Cyberkill enhanced digital mobile app for FREE !!. That’s right, FREE !!
My publisher, TrapDoor Books, has brought the transmedia book to reality and they have chosen my first novel, CYBERKILL, as the first Book 3.0, or t-book, of its kind.
You can read the background on transmedia publishing that I’ve done posts on here, here, here, here and here.
But briefly, if you consider the printed book in all its forms the “original”, then these are Books 1.0 or p-books. The current crop of Kindle, Nook and iPad e-books are, for the most part, a simple attempt to recreate the paper book experience digitally – hence a second generation or Books 2.0 or e-books. The transmedia concept of books as an immersive storytelling experience is something radically different – and thus the name, Books 3.0 or t-books.
Books 3.0 are not merely a repackaging of the paper book experience into an electronic format.
Book 3.0 is an app. enhanced with extended experiences and packaged as applications that can be downloaded from the Android or Apple mobile marketplace and run on any compatible smart phone or tablet computer.
Books 3.0 transform today’s book experience into a mobile, transmedia experience that dramatically extends the book with new technology components including audio, video, internet links, social media integration, extended experience games, reference material, and software for sharing in the reading experience.
What follows are some of the features of this new, revolutionary format.
The most innovative feature of Book 3.0 is that – here it comes – it’s FREE!
All authors today are struggling to find a way to break through the clutter of the market and get their works noticed. You can enjoy Books 3.0 for free and breakthrough the resistance of readers and the clutter of the marketplace thanks to advertisements from sponsors similar to the ads in free apps.
Don’t like the ads? Simple. Turn them off by purchasing the book.
There are a host of dynamic features in Book 3.0.
The reader has access to an evolving (because the app knows where you are the in book) story synopsis and character bios to catch up on forgotten passages without ruining the story ahead. Receive new content – from alternate reality games to author interviews – instantly as new content becomes available. GPS-enabled devices allow easy participation in local, real-world events – both sponsored and fan-driven.
There are ways to stay connected with other readers of the book and its fan base.
You can share your experiences with friends and family via integrated email or Twitter, leave reviews on popular sites such as Amazon and Goodreads, visit the personal forum of the author, or get a digital signature from your favorite writer. We also make it easy to find other books by the same author and similar titles to take the guesswork out of choosing your next title.
Then there’s integration.
Audio, video and text are seamlessly integrated for your mobile lifestyle – switch between listening or reading the story without ever losing your place; play integrated games and puzzles as diversions; watch author’s commentary videos; research Wikipedia, Google Maps, and other sites without ever leaving the book.
And Book 3.0 is customizable.
The reader can turn on or off any feature, or all features if you wish, to get the exact storytelling experience you want. Customize your Book 3.0 with audio and text annotations and bookmarks – sharing your insight easily with friends and colleagues. Standard features such as night vision mode, pause for call, and flight mode make enjoying your Book 3.0 easy.
I’m excited about this newest from of publishing and am pleased that CYBERKILL will be the first book of its kind.
Over the coming days I will post a more detailed description of each of the features mentioned here.
CyberKill 3.0 – Read, Listen, Watch or Do? – Your Call
In my last post, I spoke of what transmedia storytelling was all about.
Basically it’s how you want to experience a story – would you prefer to read, listen, watch, or do? That’s what transmedia storytelling allows you to do.
CyberKill 3.0 will give the most extensive use of transmedia storytelling and combines the ability to read the story, listen to the story, watch aspects of the extended experience and provide things to do while experiencing the story.
Here are some examples.
First read the story.
Like any mobile book, one can read the text of the story. In addition, there are a host of dynamic features in CyberKill 3.0.
The reader has access to an evolving (because the app knows where you are the in book) story synopsis and character bios to catch up on forgotten passages without ruining the story ahead. Receive new content – from alternate reality games to author interviews – instantly as new content becomes available. There are ways to stay connected with other readers of the book and its fan base.
You can share your experiences with friends and family via integrated email or Twitter, leave reviews on popular sites such as Amazon and Goodreads and visit the personal forum of the author.
Next, listen to the story.
Switch between listening or reading the story without ever losing your place.
Watch the story.
Readers can view interviews with the author after certain chapters and learn the book’s back-story.
Every novelist has a back-story to tell. Books 3.0 through author interviews, gives the reader an inside look at the making of a novel. A behind the scenes look of the back story the author is conveying.
It could be as simple as what made them write the story or a particular point or concept that the author wants to get across to the reader.
Do the story.
GPS-enabled devices allow easy participation in local, real-world events – both sponsored and fan-driven. The reader can easily add text annotations and notes.
Automated bookmarks make marking a passage and keeping your place in the book easy.
And here’s a nifty feature. Share bookmarks with friends. Multiple bookmarks are useful for shared devices when everybody wants to read the same book simultaneously.
As CyberKill 3.0 develops, more read, listen, watch and do features will be added to the novel and the reading experience.
Transmedia Storytelling – What’s it all about?
Alison Norrington has an excellent article on FutureBook detailing the concept and promise of transmedia storytelling and points to how TrapDooor Publishing is using the concept for its Books 3.0 technology.
Here some of the best quotes from the article.
The basic premise of transmedia is that rather than using different media channels to simply retell the same story, you utilise these channels, their communities and functions to communicate different elements of the story. Its success relies on fragmenting a narrative and making each platform do what it does best which, in turn, extends the life and longevity of the story. Contrary to some thinking, this practice isn’t device-driven (Kindle, Nook, iPad), but is platform driven as it is the platform that subtly dictates and influences audience reactions, social & behavioural trends and user experiences. The bottom line is that with a solid transmedia strategy in place everything remains connected by the same central narrative and theme, but each channel excels at what it does best, rather than bending to fit a central idea that’s being repurposed for multi platforms.
Norrington gives some good examples of what transmedia storytelling is and is not.
It doesn’t mean Vook. (Although to use Vook as an element of a full 360 transmedia novel is definitely viable). It doesn’t mean Enhanced Editions (although once again, these guys offer a legion of expertise and solid, exciting platforms and concepts in adding elements to a larger transmedia strategy). It doesn’t mean Lulu, Blurb or CompletelyNovel (but they offer options – which is what transmedia likes)! Transmedia isn’t DailyLit or Keitai. It isn’t YouTube, Babelgum or even SecondLife. The truth is, transmedia isn’t any one of these, but at the same time, can embrace and utilise all of them.
The best description comes from Andrew Savikas.
“The bigger issue I see is that thinking of the problem as “how do we get a textbook onto an iPhone” is framing it wrong. The challenge is “how do we use a medium that already shares 3 of our 5 senses — eyes, ears, and a mouth — along with geolocation, color video, and a nearly-always-on Web connection to accomplish the ‘job’ of educating a student.” That’s a much more interesting problem to me than “how do we port 2-page book layouts to a small screen.”
The money quote for me is this:
Publishers have already begun to embrace the notion of transmedia by casting off those expectations we’ve grown up with – that a story is… text on a page, actors on the stage, special effects on the screen or a narrator reading. In our digital and connected world it’s now a natural step to dictate how we want our stories; whether we want to read, listen, watch or ‘do’.
Norrington goes on to say that “Not every storyworld will work as a transmedia novel, but as accessibility opens doors and presents new options, transmedia will open the gates for enhanced experiences, deeper levels of immersion and a host of options for those lean-back and lean-forward moments. In a nutshell, to receive your stories in the way that you want them! ”
That’s what is exciting to me and what Trapdoor Publishing is seeking to do with Books 3.0 with my novel CyberKill being the first Books 3.0 of its kind.
In other words: The value of a good story remains and is vital; the question is will you prefer to read, listen, watch, or do?
