According to the blogger Destructive Anachronism, the
formula for post-print literature may be “high quality content + innovative
marketing + multimedia.” This was referenced in an article in the New York
Times about a new quarterly literary magazine called “Electric Literature.”
The publishers are making the magazine available on paper,
as an ebook, on the Kindle, on the iPod and as an audiomag. They’re augmenting
it with YouTube videos featuring collaborations between their writers and
artists and musicians, and one of their authors is writing a short story using
Twitter. For the first issue they had animations created for each of the short
stories.
I admit it: as an old-school reader and writer, sometimes I
revel in the silence of paper. But I think it’s important to be aware of the
new options available to us. As the article points out, we’re going to have to
be innovative because writers “drown in the great middle between the
mega-sellers like Dan Brown and the avant-garde work produced in small
quantities.”
At the moment, the magazine is still on the small side: 800
subscribers and 1600 single-copy sales, but their readership is growing
quickly. (For more information see the New York Times article, or go to the electricliterature.com web site.)
I like the attitude of one of the founders, Andy Hunter: “We
have an optimistic message at a time of pessimism. As writers, we got tired of
the doom and gloom. The future is not something you acquiesce to, it something
you create.”
(for help in being more creative and productive sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm ebulletin by sending an email request to BstormUK@aol.com; also get my new book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson.)
