By: Mark Tungate
Every year at the beginning of December I sit down and have a long think about ghosts, or time travel, or talking animals. This is not because the previous 12 months have driven me slightly insane, but because four years ago – when my son was born – I made a pledge to write a short story for children every Christmas, and publish it online via Kindle Direct Publishing.
The most recent story, Savers, can be found on Amazon.com under my pen name, Kurt Magenta (which is actually an anagram of my name). I barely make any money out of these stories – in fact, I give the little I earn to charity – but I wanted my son to be able to read something of mine that was not about marketing.
My annual exercise once again demonstrates the power of digital to democratise creativity. Publishing used to be a very closed industry. Aspiring authors had to convince a whole series of gatekeepers – from literary agents to publishers and their sales teams – before their work had a hope of finding its way into bookstores. And once there, the book’s visibility on shelves depended on how much the publisher was willing to pay to get it a good slot. The publisher also decided on the marketing budget and PR support, which in turn led to reviews. Without these, the book would likely disappear.
In other words, if authors couldn’t get the backing of a publisher, they were essentially writing for themselves and a handful of friends.
That time is long gone. Kindle Direct Publishing and similar platforms have created a vibrant “indie” publishing business in which writers who’ve never even spoken to a traditional publisher have scores of fans and ecstatic reviews for their books, which are available as digital downloads. Some books can even be ordered in print form, one copy at a time. And while writing leads to wealth for only a handful of authors, some independent writers at least supplement their income with their fiction earnings.
That’s because a key advantage of being an indie writer is that you get to keep up to 70% of everything you earn. This is huge, I assure you. Kogan Page, the publisher of my books about branding, only pays me 10% of the amount they make from my work. This situation has led many respected authors to drop their publishers and opt for the indie approach.
Digital is changing the act of writing in other ways, too. For a start, a “book” can now contain fragments of film, or elements of a video game. Books can be published via social media: in 2014 the respected novelist David Mitchell (author of The Bone Clocks) published a short story called The Right Sort via Twitter; other writers have published far longer works.
More recently, the creator of the much-loved TV show Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, announced that his next project would be an app-based serialised story, with one chapter delivered every week to subscribers’ phone, tablet or PC. Due to be launched in April, the story will be called Belgravia. The app will also provide maps, pictures and other background. “Downton Appy” was the punning headline in The Guardian newspaper. For more details see julianfellowesbelgravia.com
Various forms of entertainment and information are often referred to as “content”. The word feels a little too cold for the rich imaginary world of a story. But the fact remains that our multiplatform world has changed our perception of what stories should be, and above all where they can be found.
(Mark Tungate is a British author based in Paris. He is also the Editorial Director of the Epica Awards, the only global creative awards judged by journalists.)
