Guagua Pública

I had an interesting conversation with Patricia Arancibia. She is one of the major influences behind the Barnes & Noble, Nook Books en español, and we were talking about some of my theories. One of the things we agreed on is that there are multiple futures of publishing. There just isn't one business model viable enough to support the current publishing industry plus the immense demand coming from the exploding Internet market for e-books. There will be many solutions, each hopefully, right for each publisher.

I got to thinking after our conversation about the notion of multiple solutions and I reconvinced myself that my vision of the future of publishing is one of those possibilities. In fact, the more I investigate, the more certain I become that I've really figured something out before most people. However, that only reinforces something that's been on my mind lately. I need to stop researching and start sharing. I've been doing a lot of research and it's time to dig into some of the more complex concepts.

For instance, one of my theories is that you need to create as many different ways possible for potential fans to find your stories. Whether an author wants to think about it, or not. If you want people to find your stories, you (or someone that you designate) has to be thinking in terms of a maximum strategy. How many different ways can you provide, for someone to enter your story? I'll be sharing some more about max strategies soon. So stay tuned for that update.

This is an example right in the middle of the recent transmedia definition debate, I think that cross media is much more appropriate. There are certain aspects of sharing a story that are merely re-purposing and do not contain any new piece of the overall narrative arc. An example, that I believe will soon be mandatory, is a book trailer. The text contained on a book jacket, or the short description of the book in an e-store will not be enough to engage someone. Of course, I'm referring to an author that doesn't already have a strong and loyal fan base.

One cheap and relatively easy way to create a book trailer is by using Animoto. All you need to do is create a series of images, upload them to a project and pick some music. They offer freemium services, but if you don't have the money. You don't have the money. Period. So here is a trailer for my first e-book "A Bus Trip to Further. Oh and by the way, one of the freeium services is the ability to dowload your Animoto videos. Oh well, maybe I'll be able to upgrade soon.