In today’s fast-paced world books have to compete with movies, television, the internet, and social media for people’s attention. Understanding that readers are bombarded with numerous options for entertainment outside of literature, creative publishers like myself have to come up with new ways to grab readers and get their attention. My plan to make books more competitive: Give readers more content and enrich the overall reading experience.
DVDs and Blu-Rays sell because in addition to the movie readers get access to extra material like interviews, director commentary and concept art. TV series DVDs have extra material including pilots, episode scripts and other behind-the scenes material that dig deeper into the reasons why the show was made.
I want to turn books into DVDs with pages. More importantly, I want to make reading fun and get people excited about books.
At SJS DIRECT I make an effort to publish books featuring extra material like author commentaries writer interviews, and even concept art in addition to the story. I feel that storytelling is much more than front matter, story, and back matter consisting of other titles by an author. An enriching reading experience gives readers not only an entertaining story, but the story behind why the writer writes the story.
I feel bonus material makes a great story that much more exciting to the reader. Reading the author’s reasons for writing a story gives readers a deeper connection to the writer beyond the stories they write.
I also feel that the bonus material also is a great help to aspiring writers. It gives them insight into what inspired them and may give them ideas for their own stories.
Oftentimes, the only way to get this information about a story is at a book signing, convention or an interview.
So far, reception to the bonus material has been extremely positive. In All About Marilyn and The Temptation of John Haynes, readers love the author featurettes I placed in the back of the books after the story. More online readers were excited to read about the numerous Easter Eggs I revealed in blogs a couple of weeks ago.
For the upcoming All About Nikki teleplay book I’m planning a paperback with the content of a DVD box set. I’m hoping the extra material gets people excited about writing their own teleplays and making their own YouTube Videos.
Long-term I see the line between books and other media blurring. Readers want more content, and I’m eager to share more about my stories to get them reading.
DVDs and Blu-Rays sell because in addition to the movie readers get access to extra material like interviews, director commentary and concept art. TV series DVDs have extra material including pilots, episode scripts and other behind-the scenes material that dig deeper into the reasons why the show was made.
I want to turn books into DVDs with pages. More importantly, I want to make reading fun and get people excited about books.
At SJS DIRECT I make an effort to publish books featuring extra material like author commentaries writer interviews, and even concept art in addition to the story. I feel that storytelling is much more than front matter, story, and back matter consisting of other titles by an author. An enriching reading experience gives readers not only an entertaining story, but the story behind why the writer writes the story.
I feel bonus material makes a great story that much more exciting to the reader. Reading the author’s reasons for writing a story gives readers a deeper connection to the writer beyond the stories they write.
I also feel that the bonus material also is a great help to aspiring writers. It gives them insight into what inspired them and may give them ideas for their own stories.
Oftentimes, the only way to get this information about a story is at a book signing, convention or an interview.
So far, reception to the bonus material has been extremely positive. In All About Marilyn and The Temptation of John Haynes, readers love the author featurettes I placed in the back of the books after the story. More online readers were excited to read about the numerous Easter Eggs I revealed in blogs a couple of weeks ago.
For the upcoming All About Nikki teleplay book I’m planning a paperback with the content of a DVD box set. I’m hoping the extra material gets people excited about writing their own teleplays and making their own YouTube Videos.
Long-term I see the line between books and other media blurring. Readers want more content, and I’m eager to share more about my stories to get them reading.
Is this ever a winner blog, Shawn. I can't copy it fast enough and I will be using and using and using some more. I really hope there is some way you can get this info to authors, especially beginning ones, but to all of us. This needs to go all over because my reading is current and I've seen nothing else like it.
ReplyDeleteKeep up your great heart and helpfulness, along with your excellent writing and the sky should be the limit for you. I predict it will be. And it won't take forever:)