September 1, 2010 at 23:45Neil Stevenson launched a startup for a new book
The author of the novels Cryptonomicon and Avalanche , whose work has provided ideas for many startups (for example, for the game Second Life), now launches its own startup Subutai : it is a platform for publishing electronic books.
Here, the author can add additional materials to the text of the work: explanatory articles, glossary of terms, photographs, music and video. There are social features: readers can create their profiles, earn badges for activity on the site and communicate with each other. According to Stevenson, the system is best suited for science fiction: “I remember the first time I read Dune, and I started reading it from the glossary,” he says. “Any book with so many additional materials always fascinates me.” Mongoliad
e-book on the conquest of Europe by the Mongols was released on the new platform . The first part has already been published, and further parts of this "series" are promised to be released once a week. A subscription costs $ 5.99 for half a year or $ 9.99 for a year. "Mongoliad" writes a whole team of science fiction writers led by Stevenson. They say that the book will end, but then all sorts of sequels will appear, so the project will live for a long time. Now the App Store is considering the program for the iPad / iPhone, an Android application is in operation.
The idea of the project is to create a community around the literary work and provide a bunch of additional content so that the reader is not limited to “just text” from pirated libraries. It is impossible to fight the spread of pirated copies, but in the new system piracy is even profitable for the author, as it attracts new paid subscribers to the site.
In other words, in the new conditions, it is not enough for the author to simply write a book. He should think of the book as a project: how to create a community, for what features to take money, whom to recruit as employees. Perhaps this is the future of the publishing business. However, it is already difficult to call it "publishing."
Here, the author can add additional materials to the text of the work: explanatory articles, glossary of terms, photographs, music and video. There are social features: readers can create their profiles, earn badges for activity on the site and communicate with each other. According to Stevenson, the system is best suited for science fiction: “I remember the first time I read Dune, and I started reading it from the glossary,” he says. “Any book with so many additional materials always fascinates me.” Mongoliad
e-book on the conquest of Europe by the Mongols was released on the new platform . The first part has already been published, and further parts of this "series" are promised to be released once a week. A subscription costs $ 5.99 for half a year or $ 9.99 for a year. "Mongoliad" writes a whole team of science fiction writers led by Stevenson. They say that the book will end, but then all sorts of sequels will appear, so the project will live for a long time. Now the App Store is considering the program for the iPad / iPhone, an Android application is in operation.
The idea of the project is to create a community around the literary work and provide a bunch of additional content so that the reader is not limited to “just text” from pirated libraries. It is impossible to fight the spread of pirated copies, but in the new system piracy is even profitable for the author, as it attracts new paid subscribers to the site.
In other words, in the new conditions, it is not enough for the author to simply write a book. He should think of the book as a project: how to create a community, for what features to take money, whom to recruit as employees. Perhaps this is the future of the publishing business. However, it is already difficult to call it "publishing."