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Storytelling at SXSWi 2008

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Storytelling at SXSWi 2008

FROM PUBLISHING TRENDS (APRIL 2008)

In the online world, publishers are comparatively (let’s face it) still pretty lame. While we in New York are consistently two or three years behind (have you seen this Facebook thing?), those at Austin’s South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival are two or three years ahead (Twitter is majorly mainstream). Never mind the gap; traditional publishers who think they have no place in a convention like SXSWi, which took place March 7–11, might be surprised to discover that even in an app-crazy techno crowd, content is still king, with narrative and storytelling popping up as some of this year’s biggest themes.

• Numerous panels discuss-ed the emergence of a new media literacy. The NEA’s woe-is-the-future-of-the-world-sans-readers is old news. The point isn’t that kids aren’t reading as much as they used to; the point is that they’re interacting with stories in different and innovative ways. It’s our job to find a way to facilitate and measure that shift.

• Interactivity was a huge focus (obviously). Panelists emphasized users’ (and especially kids’) need to be engaged in a continuous loop with the site and with the story. Kids are rabid content creators (especially girls 8–14; a recent 4Kids! contest generated 50,000 by-mail submissions) and want to be involved in creation, but that doesn’t mean a user-generated free-for-all. Structured interactions are key, allowing kids the chance to play within the story lines.

• Gaming is no longer a niche market. In a conversation with two teen gamers led by Anastasia Goodstein of Ypulse, both emphasized how important a good storyline is to the games that they play. (One even went so far to say that his dream game would be a Stephen King novel. “I love his foreshadowing and twists,” he said.)

• Almost every panelist plugged at least three or four books (many of which they didn’t even write!) just to recommend them as reference and inspiration. Some touted titles included The Long Tail (Chris Anderson, Hyperion), The 4-Hour Workweek (Timothy Ferriss, Crown), and A Theory of Fun (Raph Koster, Paragylph).

• People love books. Vintage’s Ultimate Blogs by Sarah Boxer was inserted into a party favor bag at the Blogad’s Austin City Limits party, and while people trashed many of the other goodies, there were audible gasps when they discovered the book. (Whoa! A real book!)

• Though the festival has doubled in size year over year for the past few years, the number of publishers in attendance can still be count-ed on two hands. Penguin UK’s Jeremy Ettinghausen (see below); RH’s VP Digital, Matt Shatz; Hyperion’s Associate Publisher and Executive Director of Marketing, Jane Comins; and Little, Brown’s Manager of New Media Marketing, Scott diPerna, were there, but emissaries from HC and Penguin US were notably absent. Word is that if there’s no book to promote, there’s no point in going. diPerna, a four-year veteran (who paid his own way the first two years when his old house wouldn’t), said his current boss is very enthusiastic about the contacts he made and the ideas he brought back. He added, “I don’t see any book publishers who have really figured out how to use the Web. What makes some publishers better than others is that the good ones accept their ignorance and make an effort to learn. The bad ones live in denial that it matters.”

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We Tell Stories

One publisher well ahead of the curve is Penguin UK, whose We Tell Stories (wetellstories.co.uk) digital writing project launched March 18. Penguin invited six authors to create stories designed specifically for the Internet, based on classics. The first story in the series, “21 Steps,” is a mystery told in Google Maps by Charles Cumming and based on John Buchan’s The 39 Steps (www.wetellstories.co.uk/
stories/week1). Other authors include Moshin Hamid, Nicci French, and Kevin Brooks, reinventing classics such as Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, Dickens's Hard Times, and Zola's Thérèse Raquin. The main site includes links to the new stories, author bios, and summaries and links to buy the classics. In addition, there is a "seventh story" floating around online for readers to follow both online and off, with the chance to win the Penguin Complete Classics Library (valued at over £13,000) and other prizes.

The duo behind the venture—Jeremy Ettinghausen, Head of Digital Publishing at Penguin UK, and Dan Hon, cofounder of the ARG (alternate reality game) start-up Six to Start—appeared on an all-Brit panel, "Stories, Games & Your Brand" at SXSWi, along with Rachel Clarke of Bibrik Ltd. and IBM's Roo Reynolds. Though it shared a time slot with the Zuckerberg keynote (aka Lacygate), the panel was packed with people wanting to engage users and readers through storytelling.

Ettinghausen (who was also behind last year's “A Million Penguins” wikinovel, www.amillionpenguins.com, which racked up 85,000 uniques in five weeks) noted that the funding for these initiatives doesn't come from the marketing budget, but from an "innovations fund." "It's as much a proof of concept exercise as a marketing exercise," he said. "We want to see if there's an audience for these stories, and we hope to increase interest in our books and our authors."

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Read other articles from this issue (April 2008 ):

eLusive eStats, Version 2.0

Industry Ink Slingers (chart)

Search Gets Richer, Harder

Storytelling at SXSWi 2008

Bookview

©2008 Publishing Trends