Books that have a Transmedia Component

For the upcoming SCBWI Conference Sydney 2012 I will be speaking on a panel, ‘Going Digital’.

I have put together a preliminary list of published books with Transmedia Elements as follows:

1) MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI: HOUSE OF LEAVES House of Leaves (2000)
One of the pioneering cross-platform books from 2000. Portions of the manuscript were available on various sites around the Web, hyperlinked to one another. The author’s sister, the singer/songwriter Poe, recorded the album Haunted as an extension of the novel, featuring tracks like “House of Leaves”, “Exploration B” and “5&½ Minute Hallway.”

2) SEAN STEWART & JORDAN WEISMAN, CATHY’S BOOK: IF FOUND CALL (650) 266-8233 (2006).
October 2006, Running Press Kids, an imprint of Perseus Books, published the novel Cathy’s Book: If Found Call 650-266-8233, written by co-authors Jordan Weisman and Sean Stewart.

3) RICK RIORDAN, THE 39 CLUES: THE MAZE OF BONES (2008).
Scholastic’s The 39 Clues. Rick Riordan, the author of the first book in the series, created an outline for the overarching story over the course of the books to guide subsequent work-for-hire authors including Gordan Korman, Peter Lerangis, and Jude Watson.

4) J.C. HUTCHINS & JORDAN WEISMAN, PERSONAL EFFECTS: DARK ART (2009).

5) PATRICK CARMAN, SKELETON CREEK: RYAN’S JOURNAL (2009) [hereinafter SKELETON CREEK].
Patrick Carman’s work on the Skeleton Creek transmedia novel series represents another model for transmedia publishing being part book, part online video series.

6) ANTHONY E. ZUIKER & DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI, LEVEL 26: DARK ORIGINS (2009).

7) SPARROW HALL: TWO BLUE WOLVES and NIGHTWORK (2011) Paperback with Digital Download
Expanding the book experience by having the story unfold across multiple mediums, through various perspectives. The two short stories include music, video, art, live performance, and web-specific content developed by a cadre of artists from around the world.

8) AMANDA HARVARD: THE SURVIVORS – IMMERSEDITION (2011)
An interactive e-book that allows readers to dive deeper into the history and mythology of the story world. The book includes a soundtrack of thematic songs curated around the story.

9) JENI MAWTER: KISS KILL (Really Blue Books, 2012)
Young Adult novel told with multiple text-types and encourages audience interaction with author and character via blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Audience co-creation seen on iTunes, YouTube and digital artwork.

10) MAX GIOVAGNOLI: THE SECRET MESSAGE OF FALLING STARS (Anagramma, 2012)
Max Giovagnoli has recently published his novel “The Secret Message of Falling Stars” which is soft fantasy about parallel worlds, which uses complimentary iPad and iPhone apps to track characters through two alternate realities.

11) J.K. ROWLING: WONDERBOOK – BOOK OF SPELLS (2012)
J.K. Rowling’s ‘Book of Spells’ aims to bring a magical book to life on the PlayStation 3 via augmented reality.