Yep, the digital novel is upon us – mainstream style

I for one am fascinated by the effect of new media tools on traditional narrative fiction. As more and more people begin to consume digital content, the idea of a digital novel will seem less odd. That begins today.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ryu Murakami is releasing his next novel as an iPad only artifact. I can’t wait to read it.

Don’t confuse him with Haruki Murakami(who we REALLY want to see tackle this medium). Instead, know that he is responsible for the inception of Audition, which was adapted into a feature film by Takashi Miike.

The publishing industry is all fucked up, and writers aren’t seeing much return on their works. This digital distribution system, I hope, will also ensure that writers het a chance to pocket a bit more cash from their works, but not all of them will get write-ups in the WSJ, which begs the question: How will these works be advertised? Obviously, new media – for example, twitter and Facebook – will play a huge role. But outside of how often the name of these works and links to them are scattered over the Internet, the artist/writer will most likely come to the same conclusion that corporations are coming to when tackling the web of Internet advertising. I suspect we will begin to see a cross breading between the artifact and its marketing. The film Cloverfield and others come to mind. What we may see is a deeper integration between the artifact and its promotion, which makes sense. Advertising is the great art of our time. What is a book? It is a product with soul. It’s advertising will need to be the same.

Read some of my thoughts on Old Spice’s advertising strategy here.

Representations of New Media Fiction: Google, Parisians, and User as Character!

The first stories I can remember hearing were those from my grandfather. He said, “Hey kiddo, go grab me a beer, and I’ll tell you a story about Lon Koontz.” I was stunned. My name was Lon Koontz. Who could exist but me? So, I ran through their mobile home to the fridge in desert-hot Arizona and grabbed the man his beer. After a few stories about my great grandfather, he said, “Hey kiddo, go grab me a beer.” Despite the fact that the story had ended and I had already paid for his story by agreeing to grab him the first beer, I went running. I was sold on the product my grandfather was selling. That product was, of course, my grandfather. The dude kicked ass. Here’s a picture:

Before we look too deeply into my psyche and the associations I make (person as product) know that one of the reasons I loved my grandfather was because of the stories he told. I also loved him because he gave me the keys to his car when I was 13 years old and he was a cowboy!

I suspect this paradigm, stories for goods and services, has been true for some time; perhaps it goes back as far as the first words man used to barter goods. “I kill calf two hour ago. Fresh. Guarantee.” What came first the story or the pitch? What came first the story as entertainment or the story as advertisement? I’m not sure what came first advertising or fiction, but I assume they were born at the same moment or were born close enough together to earn the distinction as twins.

I bring this up only because I wish to suggest that advertising is as much a story telling driven line of work as is the labor required of traditional narrative fiction.

Twitter Poets

I’ll be posting stuff from around the web that fits into my ever-growing definition of new media fiction. For now, I believe that the category, “New Media Fiction,” is more than old forms of content published to new media services. It requires more – new levels of interactivity between reader and writer or augmented forms of presentation or something else entirely.

Below, I’ve copy and pasted the hard work of blogger Lonnie Hodge . Sure, yes, we somehow share a similar first name (mine is Lon, don’t be calling me Lonnie), but the real reason I’ve provided the links below is because they gather together some poetry and thoughts of interesting writers utilizing a new medium.

Poets to follow on Twitter:

@chinamatt (Publisher of the Terracotta Typewriter)

@Kojobaffoe (Kojo Baffoe, my creative cyber friend from South Africa)

@rmfenwick A former student who long ago came into his own

@lonniehodge (Me)

@paisano (editor of dad0matic)

@janngae (Jancie Reynolds: Haiku)

@yojinbo (Mr. Yojinbo)

@32poems (Deborah Ager: Nat. Poetry Series Winner and a great blog at 32 Poems)

@gloson (young man doing some fun stuff)

@5wa (Robert Neff)

@miridunn (Miriam MacDonald)

@elspethmurray (Tweeter in residence for a puppet theater)

@iwritepoetry ( Good follow. Location: Library )

@awaretalkradio (Chad Lilly)

@greenskeptic (Scott Edward Anderson)

@poettwist (Kathy Koch)

@puerhan (Kiwi-Buddhist-Architect)

@thebookwright (Tom Evans, “empath”)

@weblaureate (Writes at http://web-poet.com )

@Toltecjohn (John Lavan)

@tinylittlepoems (Kate Larsen)

@lucciano (G Lucciano. Love the “half man, half poet in his profile)

@bookloveher (Brandi Bates)

@poets (Endless poetic tweets from Wapaware.com)

@pookandgrace (Ruth Du Fresne)

@lovelytrinkets

@stacyr3r (Stacy Conley: Haiku)

Collin Kelly also has published a list and it can be found here for those who are blocked from Blogspot in China: POETS ON TWITTER or below here:

Gregory Pincus: @GottaBook
Sherry Chandler: @BlueGrassPoet
Samuel Peralta: @semaphore
Patty Paine: @expatty
Luisa Igloria: @ThePoetsLizard
Maureen Evans: @Maureen
Zach Buscher: @PoetryTwit
Christine Miller: @ChristineMiller
Zoe Nishimuta: @zoenishimuta
John Hudak: @iamcynical
T.R. “Terry” Hummer: @trhummer
K. Silem Mohammad: @ksilem
Mathias Svalina: @msvalina
Tao Lin: @tao_lin
Dave Bonta: @Morning_Porch
C. Cleo Creech: @cleocreech
Michele Brenton: @banana_the_poet
Ray Succre: @raysuccre
32 Poems Magazine/Deborah Ager: @32poems
Marie-Elizabeth Mali: @memali
Joel Fried: @joeltalks
Will Kenyon: @williamkenyon
Tammy Knott: @lileagle
Cole Krawitz: @ckrawitz
Christine Klocek-Lim: @chrissiemkl
Sharon Brogan: @sbpoet
Saeed Jones: @saeedjones
Samiya Bashir: @scryptkeeper
Rachel Barenblat: @velveteenrabi
Lisa Marie: @thirdrootprod
AnnMarie Eldon: @AnnMarieEldon
Susan Taylor Brown: @susanwrites
Deb Scott: @stoneymoss
Pamela Johnson Parker: @Pamela12345
Jeffrey Thomson: @jeffreythomson
Peggy Eldridge-Love: @Plove413
James Valvis: @jamesvalvis