Thread: What The Hell Is "New Media": A Glossary

The very term "New Media" invokes a lot of different definitions, and the various genres of writing it describes can be equally confused. There are new technologies, new ways to use them every day, and new terminology: all of it being harnessed for the purpose of writers reaching readers in newer, more useful ways and readers accessing literature in new, more effective ways.

This post will attempt to lay out some of the terms involved and explain what they mean to you, as reader, writer or publisher. It's an ongoing project that will expand in time. If you have specific questions about just what the hell is being talked about here, please send them to me or the moderator.

NEW MEDIA

The general gist here is sort of "ways people get their stories without using paper". It refers to both new technological "venues" such as the internet, eReaders, mp3 players, RSS feeds, iPads, SmartPhone "apps", videos and multi-media writing, game-based writing, and whatever new comes out while I'm writing this. The three main divisions we've started with are Online Lit, PodCast/Audio, and eBooks, but there are certainly more.

ONLINE LITERATURE

Variously called "weblit", "web fiction", "eSerials", "blognovels" and other terms, this genre refers to publishing creative writing online, to be read online. There is a large, growing community of readers who follow online fiction, and several directories and review sites that deal with it. Most web fiction takes the form of blog software, with chapters or episodes posted regularly, and frequently subscribed to with RSS feeds. But some very innovative delivery systems are seen: novels delivered as a series of "tweets" ("Twitterature"), novels written on FaceBook as comments back and forth between characters who have accounts, serial novels delivered each week by email (the original "webserials"), novels serialized as cheap SmashWord ebooks, a dazzling spectrum of potential. Some blog novels allow comments by readers, some allow reader comments to direct the plot. There are web novels that have been runing for five years or more.

eBOOKS

The eBook is the most triumphant innovation in writing, and comes in a bewildering specturm of formats and options. While many cite eReaders like the Kindle as the exciting news in eBooks, what drives writers' attention is the ease and low cost in creating and distributing eBooks--which are nothing more than computer files designed to be read on various types and brand of screens. If you place the MS-Word file of your novel online and allow people to download it and read it on their screen, you have published an eBook. The majority of eBooks are probably in pdf format, but that is changing rapidly as ePub books from killer sites like Smashwords and Kindle gain market.

PODCASTS

Not all new media writing has to be read: some can be listened to. This form of reaching audiences, often reminiscent of the old radio serials, involves creating an audio file, such as an mp3, with the novel episode or short story read aloud to be listened to "live" on a website or downloaded for listeing of an iPod (hence "Podcast"), SmartPhone, car stereo or other music player. This, obviously involves recording, vocal talent, and skills not all writers possess. But neither is it rocket science, and there are sites and publications that make it easier to create these sonic lit-bytes that have a huge audience, with some serial novels beign downloaded by millions of listeners.

AUDIO BOOKS

These are also audio files, but involve the reading of an entire book. There were audio books even in the days of walkmans and casette players, but innovations in mp3 technology have made them virtually free to manufacture and distribute and there are huge audiences for this type of literary experience. Podcasters generally collect a completed serial into an audio book to sell to fans.

RSS FEED

An acronym that comes up when discussing web fiction and any sort of online serial, this term refers to "feeds" of content. If you use a Yahoo or MSN desktop, view news sites, or cruise MySpace, you have seen feeds. Daily weather, stock market, Reuters news, celebrity gossip, scores for your teams...these are all feeds. And it's possible that your readers can have one on their desktop that lists your last five episodes and notifies them of each update. You can put an RSS reader on your website or FaceBook page to automatically serve up your new work to fans who have subscribed.

very exciting new addition, i look forward to seeing this section come to life!

Tell your friends.
Or, hell, even your enemies.

Why are pdf files so popular? To me they seem bloated, clumsy, inefficient, and hard to manage. If it's a cross-platform issue, why not stick with ascii or ansi txt files? I go back and forth between Windows and Linux with no problem, and I'm sure Apple machines can handle txt files as well. They are also easier for text-to-speech programmes to handle.

Because .pdfs have exactly the same dimensions and appearance cross-platform.

PDF's are popular because just about everyone who uses them has about the opposite view as yours.

They're actually pretty lightweight and easy to view across multiple platforms.

They appeal to those who care about design, typography, presentation and exact formatting -- because those things remain consistent regardless of the platform on which they're viewed.

You can include a "cover" with an image of some kind or include photos and illustrations -- all within a relativity small files sizes.

They're easy to create and difficult for others to edit or alter.

The Acrobat reader can provide a more book-like experience, where you can view pages side by side.

As far as I know, it's not possible to include a virus or trojan from within a PDF, but I be wrong about that.

They can be viewed through a web browser, using all the Acrobat reader viewing options.

I use them in one form or another almost daily and many of my projects include PDF componants. Those include forms, legal docs, marketing materials etc. etc.

PDFs are quite the elegant solution, and there are many advantages to using them, which is why the PDF is the worldwide standard format for document delivery and sharing.

Exactly.
Also, they are navigable. You can't have a clickable table of contents in a txt file.

And they are smaller than a Word file.

I forgot about that -- navigable content. That's an especially useful feature.

and comics, tons of comics in PDF. and it's hell of a lot easier for me to read books on pdf than txt files.

But what do design, typography, presentation, and exact formatting have to do with writing?

Sorry, but I've missed something here. I send everything off in txt. If I send hard copy, which would be rare these days, it's printed straight from a txt file in Courier 12pt. No one has ever complained.

Publishers have people who tend to design, typography, and such. All they need from me are the words. The words are all I care about, and a good text editor like Vim or Notepad does everything that's needed.

New media in particular isn't often about external or traditional publishers, garza. Often the writing is secondary to the promotion and the delivery system. The writing is product to be promoted, and that entails more skills than text creation.

Originally Posted by garza

But what do design, typography, presentation, and exact formatting have to do with writing?

Literally, not much. You don't have to be concerned with it or know how to create PDF's or have anything to do with them if you don't want to. But we're talking about delivering a product to a reader. And a PDF is the simplest and one of the best ways of doing that electronically -- although there are other technologies. And so, if at some point you wanted to make something you've written available online, the PDF would be a very good way to do it. Of course, someone else could design and produce it for you.

If 'the writing is secondary to the promotion and the delivery system' then I'm frankly just as happy that my writing career is mostly behind me.

Don't misunderstand. I appreciate and applaud the technology that has made the written word available in a new way. In another post I mention Ginsberg.org. There is a treasure house, a library right on your desk or in your lap. And more and more new writing is published in both print and electronic form. But do not the publishers of the ebooks for sale have people who look after the electronic presentation of the work the same way they have people who prepare the printed version?

As a writer, do I really need to be involved in the presentation? I have a commodity for sale, my writing. I send it to a publisher. He sends money. Job done. Once he's paid me for the right to use what I write, then how he promotes and delivers it is his business.

There's little doubt that I'm an old dog who does not understand all the nuances of the the new tricks. I'm kind of like the crab that just cranked up ten feet away outside my window. It's an old one, and sugarcane in Belize is in trouble, so the old crab may soon be retired and not set off at dawn to work another day for much longer. That's it in my avatar, though I took that picture at sunset, not dawn, with some fill flash and a couple of reflectors.

But I really would like to understand epublishing better, though I doubt I'll ever be involved. I maintain websites for a couple of friends, but that's a hobby and not meant to make money.

And interestingly enough, I write the code for the pages with Notepad.

Actually, I think it's you who misunderstands this.
It's not about what editors accept. It's about getting people to buy and read.

Most people don't plot down to read a novel on their computer. They use "ereaders" or pocket phones or pads or such. Which require formatting.

In many of the cases people are reading novels that they can only get in one format, and maybe through one source--and the book has to be formatted to fit the iPhone or Kindle scheme.

Applying this "I'm a writer submitting to a magazine" outlook to apply to something like an online novel is totally pointless, like saying a comic book doesn't need all those pictures in there, just text.

Actually, hate to break it to you, but writing is ALWAYS secondary to the promotion and devlivery systems. You could have the greatest novel ever told in your desk drawer or painted on the wall of a restroom in a bar for dyslexics and it just doesn' matter what it says.

People read what they have access to. This is pretty basic.

Lin - Have patience with an old man. I'm trying to understand.

Promotion has, it is true, been important all along. But promotion of a bad product can only achieve so much. If Faulkner's work had not been of the quality it was, would publication and promotion of 'The Portable Faulkner' have restarted his career in the way it did? His books weren't selling, most were out of print. 'The Portable Faulkner' stirred the embers and Faulkner's works suddenly blazed up as central to the literature of the 20th century. But first came the writing. Then came the promotion.

Some of what I've written has appeared in electronic form along with the printed version, and I've shared a few extra dollars with my agent because of it. But I had nothing to do with the electronic presentation any more than I had to do with the printed magazine layout.

I suppose my question is, how much effort do I need to put into learning the art of electronic publication? The technology I understand. It's the use to which the technology is put that has me baffled.

Are we seeing the twilight of traditional publishing houses? In the future will all writers become their own publishers? Do young writers today, just starting out, need to learn more than writing and the basics of submitting that writing to a publisher, or do they need to study how to present their work directly to the public?

Personally I like the old system, but then I would. 'In its shade I have flourished' to paraphrase the Belizean national motto. Skilled editors and quality-minded publishers make possible the distribution of massive amounts of material to the people, and make possible writing as a vocation, whether in magazine articles and essays or blockbuster novels. And if we are truly seeing the twilight of the gods, then it's time for me personally to realise that my day has come and gone.