the writer asdigital immigrantcreative writing master class

patrick collingsOctober 2012

photo by stephen poff

snapshots along a digital journey

photo by jessica wilson

Thinking digital

An evolving landscape

Storytelling ina digital, commercial arena

From paper to pixel

photo by jyewenyi

Snapshot #1

Our digital

lives as a

river

photo by wakingphotolife

photo by Al_HikesAZ

Snapshot #2

The digital

landscape

photo by wakingphotolife

Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the

entire populations of North Korea, Australia, Chile…Israel,

Sweden, Greece,

In the time I take to discuss online video, 100+ hours of video will be uploaded to

YouTube

social video50%

social video95%

Today 2015

there is an app for everything

I’m here

I’m here

I’m here

I’m here

I’m here

I’m here

I’m here

I’m here

I’m here

I’m here

location is importantphoto by mattsantomarco

augmenting our reality

photo by Drinksmachine

the third screenis the first screen

Snapshot #3

...and now a

story from our

sponsor

photo by wakingphotolife

Snapshot #4

Brand stories

preferred over

ads

photo by wakingphotolife

25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content

Snapshot #5

Content curation over

creation

photo by wakingphotolife

“If you write a book you are an expert”- Dr Charles Martin

764,448

Snapshot #6

Collaborative

storytelling

photo by wakingphotolife

Snapshot #7

Consciousness

of belonging

photo by wakingphotolife

“all life is a performance” has been extended offstage

photo by chris willis

by dana ocker

the self is increasinglybecoming externally manufactured

rather than internally developed

“On Twitter or Facebook you’re trying to express something real about who you are. But because

you’re also creating something for others’ consumption, you find yourself imagining and playing to your audience more and more. So

those moments in which you’re supposed to be showing your true self become a performance.

Your psychology becomes a performance.”

- Sherry Turkle

Snapshot #8

Changing how

we read

photo by wakingphotolife

“The Web is good at creating short and snappy bits of information, but not so much

when it comes to long-form, edited, fact-and-spell-checked work”

- Nicholas Thompson

Snapshot #9

All the news

that’s fit to

sell

photo by wakingphotolife

“Ms Lang talks about Time Inc. not as a magazine publisher, but as a branded news

and entertainment company.”

- New York Times

“Many (magazines) are turning themselves from mere carriers of ads into marketing-

service companies, giving their advertisers a range of new ways to reach readers.”

- The Economist

Snapshot #10

Steve Jobs is

still defining

our lives

photo by wakingphotolife

30%

Snapshot #11

Publishers

getting to like

digital

photo by wakingphotolife

“Most of us publishers have seen big gains from electronic books this year. We’ve seen

some tailing off of the print sales, but for most companies, the growth of e-books has

been so great that there’s a lot of revenue coming from the side that sort of gravy for

us. So we’re all feeling pretty good”- Peter Ginna, Publisher and Editorial Director,

Bloomsbury Press

Agency PricingAgency Pricing Traditional WholesaleTraditional Wholesale

E-book price $12.99 Hardcover price $26

Return to publisher $9.09 Return to publisher $13

Less 25% of net sales to author

$2.27 15% author royalty $3.90

$6.82 $9.10

Less digital rights management

$0.90 Shipping, warehousing & production

$3.25

$5.92 $5.85

Less returns and inventory <$5.85

The Wall Street Journal wrote that publishers estimate that e-books could be as much as

40% of revenue by the end of 2012.

Snapshot #12

Claiming a new

territory often

accompanied by

bloodshed

photo by wakingphotolife

“The only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer

and the reader.”

- Russell Grandinetti, Amazon

Laurel Saville likes Amazon

Penguin’s Riverhead Books didn’t like Amazon liking Kiana Davenport

HarperCollins Publishers and a former senior executive fight over who owns digital copyright

“HarperCollins is trying to intimidate authors, overturn established law and grab rights that

were not in existence when the contracts were signed many years ago”

- Chris Davis, COO, Open Road

?

“It’s a balancing act, because bookstores are needed to generate excitement even though

the final transaction may be digital”- Lorraine Shanley

Market Partners International

Snapshot #13

Writer’s cramp

to get worse

photo by wakingphotolife

“The e-book age has accelerated the metabolism of book publishing”

- New York Times

1Need to satisfy impatient readers who have become used to downloading books at the touch of a mouse button.

2Need to hold onto readers being lured by other entertainment which is available non-stop and instantaneously.

3Strategic use of short stories, timed six to eight weeks before a major release, can entice new readers.

Best-selling author Lisa Scottoline has increased her output from one book a year to two books.

British thriller writer Lee Child is supplementing his hardcover books with short stories published only as e-

books.

John Grisham has added an additional series, Theodore Boone novels, to his annual output

Snapshot #14

Social media

as a book

companion

photo by wakingphotolife

“...the Internet has allowed readers to enjoy a more intimate relationship with their

favourite authors, whom they now expect to be accessible online via blogs, Q. and A.’s

on Twitter and updates on Facebook”- New York Times

In a feat that even the best-selling writers might envy, young-adult author John Green's latest novel is No. 1 on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com

even though he's still working on it from his

comfy La-Z-Boy in Indianapolis.

The Wall Street JournalJuly 2011

In only a few short years, the ability to use social networking as a literary megaphone has gone from an afterthought to the focus of most marketing and image shaping by publishers. "Everyone is now focused on it, because when it works, it can be a runaway train," says Tim Duggan, executive editor of Harper

“You can’t stop what’s coming.”