What Will Fiction Look Like?

[haikujaguar]

I really liked cmintz's post on how writers will make a living in the future, so here's a variation:

It's the future. Novels are a paper-centric format; it's time for the Internet to spawn forms of fiction that people would be willing to consume online. What will fiction look like?

Comments

[nihilistic_kid]

Little television programs, multi-authored immersive hypertexts, and flash fiction.

[haikujaguar]

I'm curious about the multi-authored immersive hypertexts. Are there examples of these online? How do you see them working?

[nihilistic_kid]

They'll be a variation on roleplaying MUDS, PBEM RPGS, and the like, though with lots of NPCs controlled by a central author. It may also not be clear where the story ends or begins, such as those games Sean Stewart has done for movies and whatnot.

[haikujaguar]

Ah... hmm, interesting. So would people pay to read the results, or to participate, you think?

Wow, the money I could have made in college if people had been willing to pay to roleplay on centrally-authored/run mucks... *laugh*

[autopope]

You missed an important item out of that requirement; the format needs to be one that has an associated business model whereby authors can earn a living. If it's got a viable business model, we can expect the same model of craft production to ensure that petit bourgeois entrepreneurs (to steel nihilistic_kid's terminology) deliver halfway-decent quality work. If there's no business model it'll end up the stamping ground of hobbyists and narcissistic wannabes, which is almost invariably inimical to quality.

On that basis, I nominate ...

The Dickensian serial.

(Delivered as text or HTML via email, rather than as printed folios via street-corner hawkers, on a subscription basis, possibly via a microbilling arrangement.)

It's a different mode to how most of us write, but it seems to be working for Diane Duane and Lawrence Watt-Evans right now, as they mail out chapters of works-in-progress to their readers. And it meshes fine with the reading needs of, say, commuters. For added bonus yucks: a 5000 word chapter takes about an hour to read. I can see

[haikujaguar]

I like the serial... it has a track record as you mention.

I've also thought about whether fictional character journaling would take off (sythyry would be an LJ example of that), or if that would become too difficult for people to keep track of.

My own experiments in "pay to choose how the story advances, but read for free" serials has been a modest success--at least, it's generated a lot more money than I anticipated (that would be godkin). Sort of like a modern Choose-Your-Own-Adventure.

I wonder, though, about multimedia experiences, though, and what the possibilities are for those.

[cmintz]

I agree. The long-running story is a natural for the web and can be enhanced by maps, illustrations, and additional material like character lists and glossaries at far less cost than required to produce them-especially at high quality-in paper.

[haikujaguar]

*thinks* Didn't Tad Williams's Shadowmarch start out that way? I seem to remember it having an extensive gallery.

Choose Your Own Adventure

[lindajdunn]

I predict some will follow the model of Choose Your Own Adventure books.

[cussedness]

At this particular point in my life, I'm an ebook author. Some of what I've learned in conversations with others in the industry and fans, is that a lot of people prefer shorter to longer because of eye strain from reading on a screen (this problem may soon be fixed as Sony has come out with a reader that is easy on the eyes). On the other hand, there are a large number of people who buy from the indie ebook companies like Renebooks, who do so because of the price differential. It's possible to get several ebooks for the price of one massmarket title. Another thing is that to make money in ebooks, you really have to have something new out every three to four months, unlike in print books that come out from the majors.

I think that some of this would apply to other types of electronically produced fiction.

[haikujaguar]

Agreed about people mostly saying that reading online causes eyestrain.

On the other hand, I remember talking with an older gentleman with poor eyesight at a convention who loved e-books because he could control the font size. He would set it to something large enough to read easily without strain. In fact, he didn't buy my chapbook at the time because it wasn't an e-book!

He was so happy: electronic publication had given him back the pleasure of reading. One of the nicest stories I've heard. I can't help but wonder if he's the only one...!

[cussedness]

Ebooks have been a boon to the partially-sighted community. Many of them require using an over-sized magnifying instrument in order to read print texts.

With ebooks, like you have just pointed out, the magnification is easier to achieve and they enjoy them.

[cmintz]

Having just referred someone to the online version of the fine print that came his his cell phone, I don't think so.

[matt_ruff]

Novels are a paper-centric format

Most home computers these days have excellent quality paper output. Add a cheap and easy-to-use binding function and the novel could have a whole new lease on life.

[autopope]

Most domestic printers are optimized for (a) letter (or A4) screeds, or (b) photographic repro. They don't do duplex, and if you mention "imposition" to most printer driver developers they'll look at you blankly.

Binding's even worse. I've looked at perfect binding machines for home use (for publishing something myself) and it's not funny.

The gap between dumping out a raw bunch of pages and producing a reasonable quality book-as-cultural-artefact -- even to the level of an ARC -- is quite wide, and the machines that bridge it are not remotely domestic toys yet.