Penguin's Fiction Mash-up is Setting the Pace

We Tell Stories, Penguin UK's digital fiction website is clearing the road for the new wave in publishing. Their use of multiple webware to tell six stories by six authors in six weeks is just a taste of the potential of internet publishing.

A favorite Shakespeare quote "What's past is prologue" is the theme here at 22nd Century Press. Publishers large and small alike must grasp technology for the readers' and author's sake. Using different web 2.0 utilities to present these six stories is a step in a direction all publishers should take.

Photos are courtesy of Flickr members, 21 Steps places you in a Google map, the storyline to Slice can be followed on Twitter, Fairy Tales allows the reader to participate in the tale with an interactive website, Your Place and Mine is a real-time blog, Hard Times takes the form of an online Flash presentation, and The (Former) General let's the reader navigate and change the direction of the story.

All of these are innovative, creative approaches to storytelling. It is what is needed to garner the attention of todays' readers. What really is exciting is that given the democracy of the web, any small publisher can utilize current technologies to move with Penguin and other creative publishing houses into the 22nd century.

We Tell Stories - http://wetellstories.co.uk/stories/

The More Things Change . . . Books and Race - Blah, Blah, Blah

As a writer, where do you want your book to reside in ANY bookstore? That's right. WHEREVER the most people interested in your genre will find it. It's a shame that writers of Sci-Fi, horror, and other genres are instantly installed in the "African American" section of the major booksellers just because they also happen to be a different shade.

Simply put, bookstore segregation must stop. However, there will be no busing of novels across the store aisles. Supposedly, Barnes and Nobel has begun to integrate their fiction stacks.

I am going to keep my eye on the lawsuit filed by Nadine Aldred against her publisher, the Penguin Group. This lawsuit and the larger issue are covered in this article written by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the December 6, 2006 issue of the Wall Street Journal: Why Book Industry Sees the World Split Still by Race - WSJ.com

The blog, "On The Wrong Side of the Alligator" has posted a large portion of the complaint. It's lengthy but fascinating reading for those of us that want the best chance to produce an international bestseller. Ms. Aldred's pseudonym weighs in on her blog here: Millenia Black | Taking Care of Business