Mobile Strategy Insights

Do you have a mobile strategy? There are some interesting numbers on mobile & social content consumption from The Business Insider. 

You can see the rest of the slide deck THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL, by Henry Bloget, CEO & EIC, Business Insider here.
For more information visit intelligence.businessinsider.com

Pictoplasma Takes Manhattan

If you haven't been to a PICTOPLASMA event, go! The Pictoplasma NYC Conference happens February 8 & 9, 2013 and promises to be the premier event for innovative character design & animation. The line up this year includes Gemma Correll, Ryan Quincy, Buff Monster, Julia Pott, Steven Guarnaccia and more.

There are also animation screenings and a Pictoplasma Group Show at CAPPELLINI SoHo that accompany the conference.


Register to see the CHARACTER GODS here.

Lovely Kind of Transmedia Mashup: Poetry by Leigh Stein & Drawing by Jorge Colombo

Found this link on the New Yorker site. Painter Jorge Columbo & poet Leigh Stein collaborate and make something new & lovely. A new kind of book trailer that can stand alone and be enjoyed, much like a music video. SO SMART, I love it! You can enjoy this as it is, or dive deeper if you want to & buy the book or a painting. This is a great way to use transmedia storytelling techniques to further engage your audience and increase your community without hitting them over the head with BUY my BOOK messaging.

Watch the DISPATCH FROM THE FUTURE video here.
See Leigh Stein's book DISPATCH FROM THE FUTURE, published by Melville House.
Vist Jorge Colombo's blog here, chock full of his finger paintings using the iPad app Brushes.

Here are 2 New Yorker articles about Jorge Colombo painting his new Yorker covers using apps.
Jorge Colombo's iPad Finger Paintings, by Mina Kaneko & Francoise Mouly
New Yorker Cover Art painted With An iPhone, by Stephanie Clifford, 2009

Transmedia Resource Kit

The transmedia multi platform convergent resource kit (say that 5 times fast) is an amazing site designed & developed by Dr. Siobhan O'Flynn & Anthea Foyer, if you haven't seen it, go take a look.
Make sure you see the social media case study devoted to THE HUNGER GAMES. Wow.

TMC Hunger Games Case Study from TMC Resource Kit

Love this: "Tweak (and tweak] Constantly!"

Children's Ebook Trends

So, are you contemplating making ebooks for kids? Maybe you're thinking about converting a title from your backlist? It's probably a good time to start. The ereading habits of digital natives are fueling the digital book revolution.

Digital Book World is hosting a free webinar January 29th aptly named The ABC's of Kids & Ebooks: Understanding the E-Reading Habits of Children Aged 2-13. You can buy the book too, if you need more data.
The study, written & researched by PLAYSCIENCE sees the ebook trend as showing "no signs of slowing down."

"If children are the future then ebooks are the future of the publishing industry" the report says.
- Jeremy Greenfield, More Than half U.S. Kids Reading Ebooks, New Report Shows

The Kids & Family Reading Report, a biannual study from Scholastic & the Harrison Group, reports:

•  72 % of parents are interested in having their child read ebook
• Print books are seen by kids a setter fro sharing with friends and reading at bedtime
• kids say they are more likely to finish a book they choose themselves
• The percent of children who have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010 (25% vs. 46%)
• Half of children 9-17 said they would read more books for fun if given access to ebooks- a 50% increase
• Half of parents (49%) feel their kids don't read enough for fun ( an increase in dissatisfaction)
• 1 in 4 boys who has read an ebook says he is now reading more books for fun
• 80% of kids who read ebooks still read books for fun in print
• 58% of kids 9-17 say they will always want to read books on paper (a decline from 66%) even if ebooks are available

You can read the report highlights from the Kids, Families and eBooks report here.

Change is Good

Hello there if you are reading this! Happy new year & all that. This blog has gone through many incarnations. It first started as an assignment for a NYU class called CREATING AUTHOR PLATFORMS given by the lovely Yen Cheong (BOOK PUBLICITY BLOG).

Next it was a place where I collected notes around what transmedia is and is not (transmediakids.com). That debate continues. My takeaway after reading & meeting folks at conferences is this: transmedia aka multi platform storytelling is a way to tell your story (the grand narrative as Jeff Gomez calls it) using many platforms (books, ebooks, games, apps etc).

I never promoted my content more than having it link to my beloved twitter account. Oh HOW I LOVE THEE TWITTER.
Okay. Enough.

Well now it's taken another form as THESTORYBOXPILOTS.com.
As I build my tiny ULTRA LEAN STARTUP, I need a place to let off steam and be silly. Hopefully connect with other authors and illustrators experimenting and sharing lessons learned.

I want to help others as I help myself by writing about my digital journey. Stuff I wish my editors could tell me. DOH! Did I just say that in public?
LOL. That's not a personal dig, just a reflection of the rate of growth & change in our industry.

But the biggest reason I changed my BLOG VIBE is because I want to tell an authentic story. Get the conversations going between authors, illustrators and publishers. Get off the one way street. Co-create, share our creativity and make something better & bigger than our individual selves & platforms.

So, WELCOME to my MONSTER TRANSMEDIA BLOG VIBE!

Enjoy! Come say hello on twitter @cynthiajabar, I've got someone you should meet.