Entries tagged with “novels” from Tools of Change for Publishing

Writing Novels with Twitter

Peter Brantley
September 2, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

ReadWriteWeb has a brief survey of mini serialized novels in the U.S.:

In Japan, mobile phone novels called "keitai shousetsu" have become so successful that they accounted for half of the ten best-selling novels in 2007. Here in the Western world several would-be novelists are attempting to use Twitter to create the same phenomenon. Some of the novels tweeted so far have been interesting and engaging, but others, sadly, appear to be abandoned. Will micro-format fiction ever take off here as it did in Japan?

Related Stories:

• New York Times: "Introducing the Twiller"
• Sydney Morning Herald: "In Japan, cellular storytelling is all the rage"
• Open Question: Do You Use Twitter?
• Q&A with Susan Danziger, CEO of DailyLit

Nabokov's Final Novel: The Perfect Mash-Up Source

Mac Slocum
April 29, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Vladimir Nabokov died before he could finish The Original of Laura, and the long history of the unpublished novel is worthy of its own literary epic. The saga is coming to an end now that Nabokov's son, Dmitri, announced his intention to publish the work.

But here's the rub: The Original of Laura is drafted -- in fragment form -- on 50 index cards, and Dmitri Nabokov has no intention of finishing the novel himself. Nabokov tells the BBC:

I would never presume to finish my father's works for him because there are so many strands and threads and thoughts there that perhaps might have been developed further. And I simply don't have the right.

Will another author accept the daunting task of completing a Nabokov title? Or, will the text from the 50 index cards be edited together as a book?

Here's another idea: publish the fragments on the Web and let Nabokov scholars and fans interpret the material. I know the chances of Nabokov-inspired literary mash-ups are remote, but content with this kind of pedigree would bring significant attention to digital publishing experiments.

Related Stories:

• Opportunities in Book Publishing and Web Communities
• Experimenting for the Sake of Experimenting
• Do Publishers Have the Stomach for Innovation?
• "Dilbert" Embraces User-Generated Content