The Next Big Thing in Children’s Storytelling

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The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing is a chain of linked blogs, which is going viral. It includes some interesting Australian contributors talking about their forthcoming projects, while answering the same interview questions. Their responses link back to those who invited them and go live on specific dates a week later. Then each uses their social media connections and tweet or Facebook the others’ work.

The Next Big Thing is an innovative way of drawing attention to new books and associated media.

1) What is the working title of your next book?

I’ve got 3 interactive apps being produced in 2013 with developers, Flying Books (Israel). The titles are:

Shape Explorers

A Rainbow Surprise

A Race Against Time

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

These are education apps for littlies ages 2 – 5 years. I heard via Karen Robertson (digital children’s author) that Flying Books were looking for writers, so I approached them.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Interactive education storytelling.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

There are far too many characters in these apps to choose from, ranging from a robot, to children, to a rocket!

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

These are education apps that use an interactive story to explain the concepts of colours, shapes, and reading time to children 2 – 5 years.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

The Publisher, or Developer, is Flying Books (Israel). www.flyingbooks.me

Description ‘Great Books for Great Kids!’

Download: http://bit.ly/flyingbooks
QR Scan: http://bit.ly/flyingbooks.qrcode
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FlyingBooksApp
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/flyingbooks/

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Writing for interaction in education apps has been a steep learning curve for me. I have had to learn to write for animation, songs, sound effects, and child involvement using interactive activities as well as hand movements such as dragging, dropping, sliding etc. Fortunately, the manuscripts for these apps were written as part of my May Gibbs Fellowship, where I was able to spend one month full-time in Adelaide dedicated to writing.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

There are many education apps in the market, however Flying Books are taking a new approach of using ‘Story’ to drive all their education apps. As a children’s storyteller, this is where I came in.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I am a futurist when it comes to storytelling and have already published an interactive multiplatform novel this year, Kiss Kill (Really Blue Books 2012). Writing apps is a natural progression to my career in the digital story world.

Amazon http://t.co/h3XUTe5t

publishing@reallybluebooks.com

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

As well as a great story to read, children can learn by singing along with songs, recording themselves reading, listening to reading, interacting with the story to drive the narrative and watching the reading come to life with animation and sound effects.

The wonderful children’s authors I’d like to promote include the following:

Aleesah Darlison
www.aleesahdarlison.com/

Hazel Edwards
www.hazeledwards.com/
http://www.hazeledwards.com/page/f2mthe_boy_within.html

Karen Robertson
http://treasurekai.com
www.digitalkidsauthor.com

Moya Simons
www.moyasimons.com/

Film 3.0 Making Multi-Platform Movies (Screen Australia and Story Labs)

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Film 3.0 Making Multi-Platform Movies Sydney 3-12-2012

Film Australia and Story Labs

Yesterday I attended a fantastic one-day event on creating multi-platform content, transmedia storytelling and cross-media productions. Speakers came from far and near and all had some fascinating information to share, so here is my effort to pass on their wisdom and insights.

1) Gary Hayes www.personalizemedia.com
Making Multi-platform Movies
Films must combine with mobile and social media using the internet, gaming, and social media platforms to create integrated storytelling. Although complex, expensive, and consuming many work hours the aim of multiplatform storytellers should be to be to use gaming and social media to draw audiences in to an extended fictitious story world with the aim of sharing with others (and hopefully go viral).

2) Lance Weiler www.lanceweiler.com
Igniting the Imaginations of Many
Story is the same, it’s the telling of the story that is changing, so that today’s stories are thrilling, emotionally charged and immersive. Stories today have VALUE. They can be seen as a utility (entertainment + purpose) in a world which can be viewed as an attention economy where audience time demands can influence return visits. Stories challenge the emotional landscape for the audience so that they CARE as well as have FUN (social and participatory). The aim is for a story to go Hyperlocal as well as Global.
Story = Social + Connected + Personalised + Pervasive

3) Brian Cain www.brincaincreativedirector.com
Story as Marketing, Promotion as Narrative
You must have a business model/goal as the foundation of your multi-platform storytelling. BUT, the story is more important than the technology and for the audience to engage, speak to their Ego.

4) Gunther Sonnenfeld www.headable.com
Audience Intelligence Storytelling
Data + Storytelling are the ultimate for creation.
Data are the What?
Stories are the Why?
Data + Story = Context
Context drives all business investment decisions. The audience are part of the context in that they build conversations with each other, thus becoming partners in the storytelling process.

5) Laurel Papworth www.laurelpapworth.com
Managing Movie Communities
You must leave a digital trail. To do this, stories must be embeddable, distributable, sharable, discoverable, forward-able, and findable.
In Australia today 26% of people are reading, creating and uploading content. Building online communities is crucial for a story teller for an audience in terms of finding, filtering and forwarding information. In this way you create and can identify Story Influencers who will create a riplle effect for your story.

6) Matt Costello www.matcostello.com
The Game in Movies
Creators must think of story challenges as story puzzles. Puzzles are the foundation of story.

7) Brian Seth Hurst www.oppmanagement.com/wordpress1
Story-centred Participatory Audiences
“If you can create a great mythology, the story can go on forever.”
The canon of story is to provide opportunities for audience participation so that it is uniquely meaningful to them.
Story entry points for an audience include: multi-platforms, anchor platform, participation gateway, story and brand extension, and fan ownership.
Storytelling today involves: storyteller; business person; technologist; entrepreneur, marketer; game designer; social media manager and; brand manager.

8) Nathan Mayfield www.hoodlum.com.au
A Tale of Two Campaigns
Art and Technology are symbiotic. Multiplatform story extensions can be found at the interactive, personal, social and mobile levels.
As well as the story, storytellers must look at content, client, platforms and audience.
Creators must realise that everything they make is a Franchise.
Take note of the questions your audience are asking!

9) Ester Harding
Surfing the Multi-Platform Tsunami
Sought NSW DMI Funding (Digital Media Initiative)
Multiplatform storytelling and marketing are one and the same.

10) Mike Cowap and Alex Sangston
Money for Something
Investment Manager for Screen Australia
Screen Australia only funds film initiatives. It does NOT fund games.

May Gibbs Fellowship Adelaide 2012 Part 1

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I have been in the beautiful city of Adelaide for the first half of a one month literary fellowship. The members of the board of the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust have gone above and beyond to welcome and support me. Thank you!

I arrived in Adelaide somewhat shaken as the day before my departure an unknown man in the street had held a dog’s choker chain up to my face telling me he’d like to strangle me to death. This happened one block from my home and has left one legacy that I won’t walk the streets of Adelaide at night.

After living in a household of 6 -7 people, two dogs, and with ailing parents up the road, living alone has been a novelty. I’m not sure if it’s how I’d chose to live long term, but for this brief short moment I’m reveling in it. I can’t remember the last time I could do what I wanted, when I wanted, however I wanted, for such a sustained period of time.

On the first night here I made a Wish List and am delighted to have ticked all the boxes. In two short weeks this is what I’ve achieved:

1) Five days as Author-in-Residence at Scotch College.

2) Read 4 YA novels as part of my judging duties for the NSW Premier’s Literature Award.

3) Researched how to write children’s Apps.

4) Wrote and re-drafted two Apps. Working titles ‘The Rainbow Surprise’ and ‘Shape Explorers’.

5) Researched Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

6) Wrote the introduction for a longform non-fiction piece on NPD for an upper young adult audience.

7) Attended AVCON – Adelaide Anime and Video Games Conference.

8) Visited the museum to view The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize.

9) Wandered the Botanical Gardens.

10) Met the delightful author and librarian, Sascha Hutchinson, of Unley Library.

11) Given a brief driving tour of the city by Mary Wilson and her lovely husband.

12) Discussed children’s literature with Elizabeth Hutchins.

13) Had several discussions with the lovely and talented performer and May Gibbs organisor, Sally Chance.

14) Went for a brisk walk every day.

Needless to say, I’m delighted with the fellowship so far and eagerly await, Part 2 when I return in September!

SCBWI Conference Sydney 2012: “Going Digital”

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On Saturday 30 June 2012, SCBWI Sydney combined with the NSW Writer’s Centre for the Children’s and Young Adults Literature Conference. I was fortunate to be on a panel for ‘Going Digital’ with esteemed book creators Hazel Edwards, Pamela Rushby, and Lesley Vamos (Chair Chris Cheng) and am sharing my talk fyi.

I’d like to start my talk with two quotes from ‘The Story of a Transmedia Revolution’ by Peter Usagi:

“It might seem like a trivial thing, but imagine if you could remember the exact moment mankind learned to use fire as a tool, or how to farm, or how to surf the net on the world’s first web browser? Imagine if you could remember where you were, and what you were doing, when a major cultural revolution happened? News flash: it already has…”

“It isn’t often that you get the chance to be on the ground floor of history as it happens. Stop, and bookmark this moment in your life.”

http://www.modernmythology.net/2012/02/story-of-transmedia-revolution-part-1.html

Recently, I was in the supermarket when a small baby, about 6 mths, started to cry. In my day you’d pull out your car keys and jiggle them in front of the baby’s face. Today, that baby was glued to an iPhone screen.

Going digital isn’t a choice.

And the wonderful thing about storytelling in this digital age is that it includes hypertext, multimedia, immersive, interactive, non-linear narrative. In the past stories were produced and distributed by the cartels such as music labels, movie studios, television stations and publishing houses. Audiences consumed them through radio, cinema, TV and books.

Good stories were successful because they were shared. Today’s world audience of almost seven trillion people do not just want to consume content, they want to control and create content as well as share content. What we’re seeing is the emergence of a cross-pollinating, multi-media and self-sustaining world of storytelling.

In the past a vast chasm separated the author from the audience. Thanks to social media like Facebook, blogs, and twitter that chasm is not only shrinking, it’s disappearing altogether so that we’re seeing digital platforms with high levels of collaboration between content creators, and content consumers.

The lines between writer, publisher and bookseller or retailer, are blurring. Apple’s latest iBooks Author will explode storytelling in the digital revolution.

What is Transmedia Storytelling?

Telling a single, highly fragmented story across multiple platforms. These are often digital as seen with social media.
Transmedia storytelling includes audience participation, decision-making and collaboration. It involves play and performance as well.

As a transmedia storyteller for Kiss Kill my brief has broadened considerably so that now I must also be involved in:
– Audience creation with the goal of building a fan base. The world created is a character world, Mat’s world.
– Online engagement (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Blog) @Mawter, @KissKillDigital, www.jenimawter.com,
– Brand building as ‘Jeni Mawter: Digital Storyteller”
– Connecting fictional characters with my brand – Mat blogs daily at
http://www.whyidon’tgetgirls.com/
– Deepening my audience’s emotional engagement (blog followers, co-creators, spaces to comment, Like, re-Pin etc)
– Providing many entry points into the story through multiple texts. Prose is combined with scripts, songs, notes, poems, comics, essays, texting, photos, etc.
– Inspiring community creation
Scene How Do You Define a Man? filmed by young film maker and actors from Australian Theatre for Young People http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scrdqYyXMF0&feature=colike
Song created for lyrics ‘Thought I Knew You’ and recorded as Gonna Show You
gonna show you 5:27 Adam Fitzgerald Adam Fitzgerald’s Album
– Leveraging a community of creators around the brand such as musicians, actors and friends (YouTube, iTunes, young adult reviewers) despite a zero budget.
Example: Book Probe (Reviews) “This is awesome Jeni. I really like how the character comes through and you get a real feel for his predicament.” 2/4/12
– ongoing commitment to a story in evolution
– educating traditional story-tellers into new ways of telling
– educating the educators about the changing face of story
– upgrading technological skills and knowledge on a daily basis
– staying at the forefront of transmedia developments
– trying to belong to some sort of story-telling community but not knowing where I belong
– marketing, marketing, marketing
– moving into a world traditionally involving big entertainment creators such as television (BBC Sherlock series, Nike promotion); gaming (Perplex City) or theatre (Clockwork Monkey)
– exploring new income generating systems such as Kickstarter, Indigogo and Pozible (Australia) instead of Advances and Royalties
– Writing as auteur, rather than author
– Writing non-linear narrative
– Finding or forging new pathways for digital reviewing, selling, publicity, competitions etc
– Joining organisations such as WEGO which focuses on Health and Technology
– Supporting youth mental health

Books that have a Transmedia Component

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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.

Many Stories Matter: A Cautionary Tale about the “telling of the single story”

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The Danger of the Single Story, by Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie

Today I listened to Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, caution others about the dangers of telling a single story. For Chimamanda Adichie, the danger of telling single story about a place called ‘Africa’ is that the single story becomes the definitive story for all the people of Africa. The danger is that different versions of the single story are told over and over again, so that the single story creates a stereotype of all Africans. This stereotype, whilst not untrue, is also not complete.

Chimamanda Adichie cautions that the single story is given greater power than any other story and by telling only this story, many voices with different stories are silenced. She feels that the single story of Africa comes from Western Literature, which whilst well-meaning, is also patronising and misguiding. What is needed is for Westerners to reject the single story and embrace the concept that many stories matter.

Writer Survival Tips for the 21st Century

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It is becoming increasingly apparent that Author Survival in the new age of digital book publishing requires the development of new skill sets. No longer is it enough to have written a fantastic book and to put it in the hands of a publishing company.

Authors must not only be pro-active in all facets of the book, from writing to promotion to sales, they now must build an authority brand that is both visible and credible. Writer survival depends on knowledge, adaptability, flexibility, and a futuristic vision.

Self-Publishers Online Conference 8 – 10 May 2012

The SPOC 2012 conference was developed by Susan Daffron and James Byrd, owners of Logical Expressions, Inc, and is well worth a visit. Knowledge acquired will give you choices, even if you have no intention to self-publish. A few key Author survival tips are summarised as follows:

1) Writers must now be closer to their buyers and look at readers as customers, not just consumers. As such they will need to engage with their consumers via social networking, Review systems, forums, blogs etc.

2) Books are created to entertain, inform and to educate. Know exactly what your readers seek (expectations, habits), where they can be found, what makes financial sense for them, what value/benefits they get from your book, etc.

3) Build your Authority. For example, on writing, publishing, issues. Readers want to know/like/trust you. Realise that there is a non-monetary currency based on reputation. Compile lists of reviews, testimonials, endorsements.

4) Embrace new technologies.

5) Recognise that the digital world has created a ‘Long Tail’ for books.

6) Build your author brand in terms of both visibility and credibility. This will create multiple streams of income via royalties, consulting, speaking, coaching, plus teaching fees.

7) Learn effective book promotion strategies used for web sites, media releases, Amazon, search engine optimisation, virtual tours, email marketing, Facebook Fan Pages etc.

8) Look at multiple platforms but focus on specific ones that will work for you and for your target audience. Things to consider are Tweet Chats, YouTube, podcasts etc.