Share This Course!

Can You Dig It? by Pop Will Eat Itself
(embedding, ironically enough, not working for me.)

Recently, my agent told me that my next book would go to a kindle publisher and I have to say I was a little crushed. It was like hearing your movie is going “straight to video” and I felt sad that I wouldn’t have something to store in my basement.

However, my excitement mounted considerably when I began to examine the kindle publishing paradigm.

* “publishing” (per se) costs next to nothing.

* the publisher’s role is to market the book, not print & distribute it.

* the split can be MUCH better – you write, publishers market & the split with some is 50-50, from what I’m hearing.

But it gets a GREAT DEAL better than that.

Question: What can you do on the web and in a blog that you can’t do in a “book“?

Answer: *EMBED MEDIA* and this is the reality of Kindle that makes Amazon the Gutenberg of our time. (/hyperbole)

Kindle won’t – or soon won’t be – static – particularly those models armed with on-board wi-fi connections, which ups the ante of author “experience control.” Want a reader to “hear” the song your character is listening to? In a static book, you plug in the lyrics and hope for the best. In a Kindle book, you embed the file, or the video if you want them to see it – or just pull it off web on the fly.

We’re already doing this on websites and blogs all the time – it’s automatic to most of us – the difference is that a Kindle “title” will be a hypermedia “authored experience” that will contain text, sound, chats, videos, you name it, to tell its story in a linear *and* non-linear fashion.

The major obstacle to this phenomenon? Copyright & DRM, of course. In the case of music & video, the RIAA needs to step up to the plate and offer a blanket licensing agreement to EMbook publishers and creators – or they can stamp their feet and watch in horror as their media enhances the literature of the 21st century – with or without a license, because the bootleg market will just be completely out of control. (I’m in Asia – you tell me about “copyright control” and I’ll just giggle at you.)

As for me, my only regret now in publishing a Kindle book is that I didn’t write to the medium in the first place. That was then – this is now – the new one will *totally* take advantage of the format.

caveats: 1) because of tl;dr, this is truncated from the original idea, which came to me in tonglen meditation in a rush. 2) these things need a name – there’s a contest. we’ll start with EMbooks (for Embedded Media book.) 3) I use “Kindle” like kleenex – this concept is not device dependent. see #2. 4) this article is rife with error. Have at it.

Throughout the entire process leading to this point – after which I will be on holidays for three weeks and only marginally available – I have been looking to foster a community ready to participate in the creation of Share This Book.  Are we there yet?  Do we feel ready to proceed?  We are getting to know one another, sharing with one another, telling one another things of importance.  The community exists, and now this community needs purpose.

A tension exists in any community of purpose; how much should individuals intent on achieving goals try to pull that community along?  Will that be effective?  Managing any community is, proverbially, like herding cats.  You can’t tell them where to go, or what to do.  But you can lure them with a tasty treat.  If you want to herd cats, try catnip.

For the last three weeks you’ve been given some tidbits of my own thinking, the ideas which underpin my vision for Share This Book.  When I return in January, I will begin drafting the book, starting with the introduction.  As I complete drafts of various sections, I will post them to this blog.  What happens once these drafts leave my hands is impossible for me to know.  I expect there will be a feedback between myself and this community which will shape the writing process as it happens.

It is my hope that this blog becomes a place where we can all discuss the ideas explored in these chapters. Share This Course! then becomes something the book could never hope to be, and these two, side-by-side (together with the wiki), compose a whole far greater than the sum of its parts.  So, watch this space.  We’ve now got everything we need in place for something wonderful to happen.

One of the persistent criticisms of the age of media hyperabundance is that it has shortened our attention spans.  We are like hummingbirds, quickly sipping this or that bit of nectar before darting along to the next flower.  There is always a next flower: there is no end to the web, no end to the creativity of humanity revealed with in it.  We are always torn between the jewel in front of us and the greater spectacle of the jewels all around us.  This constant tension divides our soul, and makes us reluctant to commit to anything unless it promises a quick burst of refreshment or illumination.

Hence, when we are confronted with something substantial – say, an essay of 4300 words – our soul cries out the question, ‘Isn’t there something else I’d rather be doing instead of reading all those words?’  The answer, more and more, is yes.  So we navigate away from that which is too long, on to something else, something bite-sized.  This phenomenon has become known as ‘tl;dr’, an acronym for ‘too long; didn’t read’.  It sums up more and more of our web experience, as text overflows our inboxes, our RSS feeds, and our brains.

Nothing will stop this avalanche of text, but it is possible to write so as to ensure you will be read: the natural limit is 300 words. That’s as much as someone will commit to.  All of my postings have followed this rule religiously.  Now that the inmates are firmly in control of this asylum, it’s become clear that we have a lot to say.  That’s good, that’s as planned.  Now it becomes a matter of how to say it.  Trim it down into a tidy, digestible, nectar-laden nugget.  It’s hard.  But necessary.

Enough said.