EPUBBING with NICOLA FURLONG » Multimedia Storytelling

Booktrack Catching Up to Quillr

Nicola — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:32:14 +0000

Several years ago, my partners and I produced an online multimedia reading experience called a Quillr®. It combined text with sound and visual effects, including videos, music, sound effects and photographs.

At the time, many scoffed at and berated us for ruining ‘reading’.

We thought it was the coolest sensory experience reading had ever offered.

We still do.

And now, Booktrack is catching on by adding music to ebooks.

Welcome to the party, Booktrack.

Unnatural States Supernatural Thriller E-book Available at Kobobooks

Nicola — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:39:41 +0000

It’s taken a month or two but I’m really pleased to announce that my e-book version of Unnatural States is now available on Canada’s fab online bookseller, Kobobooks.

UnnaturalStates

You may read an excerpt and buy my paranormal thriller from Kobobooks for $2.99 at Unnatural States.

To read some reviews, check out the book trailer and find out more info, please visit Unnatural States.

You may always experience Unnatural States in a cool multi-media format at Unnatural States Quillr®.

Excellent Enhanced E-Book E2BU Webinar

Nicola — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:03:57 +0000

Recently, I was fortunate enough to listen to an excellent free webinar, offered by Enhanced E-Book University, on enhanced e-books.

Three interesting guests:

Jessica Goodman, Wiley and Sons, explained their “How to Cook Everything” app
Theodore Gray, Touch Press, on creating his wildly popular app, “The Elements, and
Rhys Cazenove, Enhanced Editions, about producing the very popular, “Death of Bunny Munro”.

The trio offered excellent information and advice.

UnnaturalStates: John & Harry Battling

It was so cool to learn that others are embracing the multimedia enhanced book platform. Though different from our UnnaturalStates Quillr® concept, they were all hip to offering stories and information in a whole new way.

Text alone storytelling and reading is just so five minutes ago!

Read more and see some video of the webinar here.

The Top Ten of 2009: The “Niki” Awards

Nicola — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:18:09 +0000

Happy New Year and best wishes for a healthy, prosperous and inventive 2010.

As the old year ends, I’ve established my own little awards, The Niki’s, to honour the best of 2009.

My categories are mostly related to creative endeavours, are arbitrarily chosen and listed in alphabetical order.

So, drum roll, please:

1-Top Technology of the Year: Podcasting

credit: Amazon.com

2-Top Book of the Year:
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

3-Top Cool Thing of the Year: the E-book

4-Top Food of the Year: my sister’s Microwavable Chocolate Fudge

Lounging Lions (credit E. Polinsky)

5-Top Photo of the Year: Lounging Lions

by Eddie Polinsky

6-Top Plant of the Year: My funky Spectabilis bamboo

Phyllostachys Spectabilis

7-Top Radio Play of the Year: The Barchester Chronicles by Anthony Trollope (BBC Radio)

8-Top Song of the Year:Battlefield by Glynne Turner

9-Top Television Show of the Year: The Closer (James Duff: executive producer/creator/writer)

10-Top Word of the Year: Quillr® (online multimedia storytelling platform)

So…what are your Top Ten of 2009?

Does the SI Tablet Mean the End of Publishing?

Nicola — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:09:53 +0000

With the crop of new e-readers available and the ever-growing list of ebooks available, there is a lot of rumbling and grumbling about the end of publishing as we know it.

UnnaturalStates: John & Harry Battling

As a keen believer in electronic publishing, especially in telling stories in a multimedia platform like our UnnaturalStates, I’m all for evolution in the publishing business.

Church Choir Mysteries: The Unsuitable Suitor

I’m also up for good old-fashioned printed books, with their lovely heft and smell.

And, most shockingly, I don’t see these two positions as being diametrically opposed.

Now, Michael Hyatt offers some excellent predictions on the end of publishing as we know it, as well as offering a video introducing an amazing new multimedia reading device by Time Inc. and Wonderfactory called the SI Tablet.

Check it out. Reading is evolving, whether you like it or not.

Oh, and of course, publishing isn’t ending anytime soon.

Book Business Magazine’s Virtual Conference- Lessons Learned

Nicola — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:26:42 +0000

Just spent part of the day at a digital publishing conference hosted by Book Business Magazine. It was excellent! The web interface worked perfectly, I met some interesting folks and I enjoyed the presentations.

In particular, I was interested in:

Jane Friedman, Open Road, who’s republishing classic authors in ebook form. Open Road plans to use multimedia to enhance the books, like offering extras on DVDs, but not as part of the overall reading experience as she believes it to be a distraction of the reading experience (I beg to differ)

Erik Qualman, Socialnomics, who spoke of following Dale Carnegie’s lead when marketing: listen, interact, react and then sell. He also suggested that the biggest mistake many marketers make is the socially unacceptable practice of jumping from listening straight to selling; reminding the audience to take the time to develop relationships before pitching products (found most of his ideas more suited to those with a larger presence than an indie like me)

Jesse McDougall, Catalyst Webworks, who offered great tips on social media marketing, especially suggesting integrating clickable “share” links on your website/blog to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, etc. (something I’ve got to figure out!) He echoed Qualman’s position that interacting and building a community are key to marketing success.

Best of all: the conference presentations are available online for free for the next 3 months at Digital Content Day @ Your Desk. Check it out.

Quillr® Welcomes Vook to Multimedia Storytelling

Nicola — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:53:44 +0000

A few weeks ago, I high-fived the digi-novel concept, which tells stories by combining book, movie and website.

Well, our multimedia storytelling plot continues to thicken with the new Vook, a video-enhanced read, which the NY Times nicknamed a hybrid book. Publishers Simon & Schuster are teaming up with the creators of Vook.com to produce four vooks (two fiction and two non-fiction); all will be available online and as an Apple iPhone application.

We at Team Quillr® applaud Vook and Simon & Schuster for diving into multimedia storytelling. Since it’s similar to something we tackled over a year ago with our mashup of text, video, music, sound effects and photographs (see unnaturalstates.com), we know how much thought, work, money and heart goes into creating something like this.

It amazes me that their detractors (yeah, they exist) just don’t get it. Like some didn’t get our Quillr® concept.

It’s dead simple, folks.

It’s NOT a book.

It’s something different: a new multimedia storytelling platform that enhances one’s reading experience.

Sure, the video production values could be stronger, sure the interface could be smoother, sure yadda sure yadda sure yadda.

That’s not the freakin’ point. That techie stuff will evolve and improve, just like any new concept.

The freakin’ point is that some people have a different vision of storytelling and they’re willing to put themselves in the line of fire to bring it to life.

So…if you’re not interested in experiencing a Quillr® or a Vook, step aside. There’s a whole new generation that’s going to devour this innovative wave of storytelling and it’s just the beginning.

Once again, welcome Vook. Bring it on!

Coffee Time Romance Drinks Up UnnaturalStates

Nicola — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:54:55 +0000

A reviewer at Coffee Time Romance recently gave our Quillr a three cup (good read) review. Calling our multimedia platform an interesting idea, she also said that the music is wonderfully done, and really builds on the suspense and emotion of the characters and that the plot is very well done with the many twists and turns it takes to hold the reader captive to the story.

It’s great that she enjoyed the story and considers our experiment in multimedia publishing to be interesting, but the best news is that she loved and commented on the music. It’s about time! Our composer, Glynne Turner, created some amazing original songs, including Sinners Who Weep and Unnatural State. The songs, plus her carefully crafted music and sound effect atmospheres, add hugely to the overall UnnaturalStates.com experience.

Click here to watch our music video, starrring John the Apostle, singing Unnatural State: Unnatural State video

You may read the entire Coffee Time Romance review here coffee time romance review unnaturalstates.

CSI Creator On Multimedia Storytelling Bandwagon

Nicola — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:41:14 +0000

We’re not alone in thinking “books” can be more, much more, in this digital age.

Our QUILLR® concept merges text, video, music, photos and sound effects, letting the reader experience the story.

Now Anthony Zuiker, the creator of the CSI TV franchise, is getting in on the multimedia storytelling action by combining book, movie and website in a “digi-novel” format, described here
Digi-movie concept.

As Zuiker says, The future of business in terms of entertainment will have to be the convergence of different mediums. So we did that – publishing, movies and a website.

I’m looking forward to following his brave new effort.

In the meantime, why not give our own multimedia event a shot?
UnnaturalStates.com

John & Harry Battling

MyShelf.com Loves UnnaturalStates

Nicola — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:53:56 +0000

It’s been a roller coaster few days. After receiving a negative review about our QUILLR®, UnnaturalStates, I was pretty down but kept repeating something my sister often quotes from Maeterlinck,

At every crossway on the road that leads to the future, each PROGRESSIVE SPIRIT is OPPOSED by a thousand men appointed to guard the past.

Then, something terrific: we received a fab review on MyShelf.com. Here’s an excerpt:

Nicola Furlong has stepped full-bodied into the twenty-first century with the release of Unnatural States, a multimedia internet venture based on her novel Thy Will Be Done. This is a very bold concept for an author.

Internet renderings have been around for awhile that combine stills and live action. But these are, for the most part, independent film shorts—I used to review them and other independent films for an indie film site. But Nicola Furlong's concept is quite unique. Not only are there stills and live action, but she has blocks of text like an eBook AND she also has a lot of music, written specifically for her novel...

...In Unnatural States, Nicola Furlong presents the story in short blocks of text that are often broken up with photographs of key characters. On some pages, a video widget appears, and you can click and watch a short scene between the actors. Music often plays on each page as you read, and sometimes songs are highlighted in special video segments. There are two full-length song segments, from John's upcoming concert...

... Quillr™, which is what Furlong is calling this blend of media, is touted for letting readers experience novels instead of just reading them or watching them as movies. I did enjoy the whole experience...

To read the full review, please visit: MyShelf Review of UnnaturalStates.

And to heck with those thousand men!