First off, let me thank Mihai. for hosting the third stop on my virtual book tour of The Textile Planet. The Textile Planet is a serialized novel published at BookViewCafe.com with one new episode going up every other Sunday. At the time of this writing four episodes have been made available (http://tinyurl.com/5lbtqv).
I feel I should talk about BookViewCafe (BVC) itself for a bit. It's a cooperative website run by twenty print published authors. We all have previously published novels, novellas, and short stories in the traditional book industry. BVC represents a way for each of us to try out Internet publishing models. The group includes such writers as Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda N. Mcintyre, and Sarah Zettel. Needless to say, I feel quite honored to be a member.
Most of the work offered through BVC consists of out-of-print books, as-yet-unpublished stories, or work that is experimental in nature and unavailable elsewhere. That's one of the draws of the site: you can't get this stuff anywhere else. Another draw is that so far all of the stories are free. There are plans to provide some of the work for sale in ebook format and/or actual hardcopy printing, but there will always be free fiction available. We update the website daily with new content right on the first page. It's been a very busy and exciting launch due to the great response we've received from the online community.
My own offering, The Textile Planet, is speculative fiction with 32 episodes in all. The story follows Marla Gershe, who runs into trouble on the Textile Planet and has to run to the end of the Galaxy to escape. What she discovers there promises to be the solution to all of mankind's problems, but only adds to Marla's. It's a dark tale of satire which will resonate with anyone who's ever had a bad day at work.
I'm hoping readers will try out the interactive content that goes with the episodes: links to back story, sound files, Youtube video, that sort of thing. Skipping the links won't hinder an understanding of the plot, but the added content is fun. There's a form for feedback too. Love that feedback, good or bad. I did a trial run with about 50 beta readers and received a great response from that effort. I'm confident about it now that it's out there in the wild world ready for service, but you never know. With a piece like mine that is experimental in nature, it's hard to know how it will come off. Who's going to be stopping by and what are they expecting? Will it seem surprising, or silly? Will they get it? Who knows?
I invite the Dark Wolf readers to stop by and see what they think. No charge. And send that feedback!
BookViewCafe.com: http://www.bookviewcafe.com/
2 comments:
That's interesing but it will take some time to read all the stuff.
I know what you mean, Michael :)
Post a Comment